Nominees are in for Indiana's top democratic positions

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - Democrats got down to business Saturday afternoon as they named nominees for a few top positions in the state.

Those positions included lieutenant governor, attorney general, and state superintendent of public instruction.

Vi Simpson, State Senator Minority Leader, was nominated and accepted her position to run alongside John Gregg as his lieutenant governor.

"The ticket is very high energy and, so I know we'll be working very, very hard all over the state," Simpson said.

For attorney general, Indianapolis attorney, Kay Fleming, was nominated. This is her first time running for public office.

For state superintendent of public instruction, Indianapolis teacher, Glenda Ritz, clinched this nomination. This was the only state democratic  high-ranking position that had competition. Melissa Ann Hicks, of Fort Wayne, put in her bid for the top state education spot. Experts say democrats blocked her bid after they found she voted republican during the 2011 primaries and explored running for council as a republican.

"The republicans have nominated themselves the very extreme extremists' ticket, and we offer them a moderate, middle of the road, mainstream kind of government," Simpson said.

She said voters are getting away from claiming parties and becoming more independent voters because of politics and partisan agendas. These voters, she said, are the ones the will impact the November election.

"I think people are independent voters now, much more so than in the past. People need to look at the individuals," she said.

Democratic candidates will be campaigning for this year's general election, which will take place November 6th.