Campaign ads hit airwaves

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - "Campaign Season" is open and Dr. Tom Hayhurst is the first to get an ad on the air. Hayhurst will face Marlin Stutzman in November. Each hopes to take over Mark Souder's 3rd district seat in Washington.

Now that Hayhurst ads have hit the air, the experts are weighing in and the first thing they disagree on is the meaning of the early release date.

Democratic political analyst, Kevin Knuth, told NewsChannel 15 he thinks the ad was released before Labor Day because of Hayhurst’s financial support.

“Going up early usually means your planning on staying up for the whole campaign, he said. “So that's a good sign that Tom has the money coming in that he can go up and stay on the air.”

Republican analysts disagree whole-heartily.

“I think it's an acknowledgment on Dr. Hayhurst's part that he's way behind, “said John McGauley. “He's got to start doing some things pretty shortly to get people to even listen to him.”

Dr. Hayhurst, a former Fort Wayne city councilman, ran for the congressional seat in 2006 against Mark Souder and even though he's a democrat, political experts say his commercial blatantly leans right.

“I think an ad like this helps him because it shows he's against a lot of the things the conservatives are against as well,” said Knuth.

Again, McGauley disagrees.  He said Hayhurst's reputation on council was very liberal and this ad shows he's trying to change his reputation and voters’ minds.

“He’s running from his own party and he has to do that around here,” McGauley said. “Stutzman's leading some of these polls 2-1 and we haven't had a democrat in this seat in 35 years.”

While Marlin Stutzman has yet to launch any sort of commercial campaign, McGauley predicts a long and dirty campaign season.

“I think this campaign could get nasty. I think Stutzman's people are expecting it to get nasty,” he said. “I think they're getting ready for that because, again, it goes back to Hayhurst having to redefine himself.”