Reshuffled Indiana governor's race starts anew post-Pence

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Indiana's reshuffled campaign for governor has a new look since Republican leaders have replaced Gov. Mike Pence on the November ballot with his move to the national stage as Donald Trump's running mate.

Republican Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb must quickly ramp up a campaign and has little more than 100 days to introduce himself to most voters around the state after his selection Tuesday as the new GOP nominee. Democrat John Gregg might need to refocus a campaign that was shaping up as a referendum on Pence.

The next big decision will be Holcomb's selection of a lieutenant governor running mate, which is set to be formally approved by the Republican state committee on Monday. Gregg's running mate is state Rep. Christina Hale of Indianapolis.

Here are short profiles of Gregg and Holcomb and the campaign ahead:

___

DEMOCRAT JOHN GREGG

Gregg, 61, is making his second run for governor after losing by about 3 percentage points to Pence four years ago.

Gregg was first elected as a state representative from a rural southwestern Indiana district in 1986 after working as a coal company lobbyist and starting a private law practice in Vincennes. Gregg held the top House position of speaker from 1997 through 2002, a time when Democrats controlled the House and governor's office and Republicans dominated the state Senate.

Republicans have criticized Gregg's tenure as speaker for draining a $2 billion state surplus, which was attacked at the time as unnecessary. A deal emerged that included Republican-backed tax cuts and increased spending Democrats sought for schools and road improvements.

Gregg was known as a social conservative in the Legislature, supporting a state law banning gay marriage. He now makes support of civil rights protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity a prominent part of his campaign following last year's national backlash over the state's religious objections law signed by Pence.

Gregg's campaign reported about $5.8 million in available cash as of June 30. Gregg has collected large sums from labor unions, who've been angered in recent years by the Republican-backed right-to-work law and the contentious repeal of Indiana's law for setting wages on public construction projects.

Gregg says the campaign issues remain the same and that he's focused on "cleaning up the mess that's been made" by the "Pence-Holcomb administration."

Since not seeking re-election in 2002, Gregg was interim president of Vincennes University in 2003-2004 and is a partner with the Indianapolis-based law firm Bingham Greenebaum Doll.

Gregg and his wife, Lisa, live in the Knox County town of Sandborn. He has two adult sons from a previous marriage.

___

REPUBLICAN ERIC HOLCOMB

Holcomb, 48, has never won elected office before and became the state's lieutenant governor in March, when he was picked by Pence for the positon after Pence's 2012 running mate, Sue Ellspermann, resigned from office.

Holcomb is an experienced political operative who served as 2008 campaign manager and top aide to former GOP Gov. Mitch Daniels, who made him the state Republican Party chairman in 2011. He left that position in mid-2013 to become U.S. Sen. Dan Coats' state chief of staff.

Holcomb spent 10 months running for this year's Republican U.S. Senate nomination but had little fundraising success before Pence tapped him for the Statehouse position.

Holcomb has embraced Pence's policies, saying they've led to job growth and a record state budget surplus in contrast to when Democrats last held the governor's office 12 years ago.

"We cannot allow our state to slip and drift and go backwards to those days of debt and delayed payments to schools or unfunding important and critical infrastructure projects," he said.

Holcomb kept to Pence's stance on whether the state should expand LGBT civil rights protections, saying "we have a balance right now of protecting our religious liberties while making sure that we're not discriminating."

Pence's re-election campaign has about $7 million in cash, but some elections experts question whether that money can be transferred to Holcomb under federal rules that apply to Pence now that he's a federal candidate. The Republican Governors Association, which has donated more than $2 million to Pence, has pledged its support to Holcomb.

Holcomb and his wife, Janet, live on the northwest side of Indianapolis.