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Presidential campaigns target Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – The 2016 Presidential campaign is coming to Indiana.

Even John Kasich is planning to compete here. The campaign for the Republican Governor of Ohio hired a local political consulting firm, Hathaway Strategies, to help organize its Indiana effort.

Kasich thinks he can do well here.

“A lot of folks, myself included, compare him to Mitch Daniels,” said Pete Seat of Hathaway Strategies, “and it’s a message that resonates in this state for people that long for that type of leadership.”

Meantime, the Donald Trump campaign plans to reveal its Indiana team later this week. Former state GOP Chairman Rex Early helped put it together.

Early’s credentials include service as the state chairman for Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Supporters of Democrat Bernie Sanders rallied at the Statehouse over the weekend. Sanders already has an Indianapolis headquarters as well as regional offices in place.

Hillary Clinton is following suit. Office space in a strip mall on north Keystone was still being cleaned up Monday. It will serve as her Indiana headquarters with a grand opening planned for Tuesday.

So far none of the candidates has announced plans to make campaign stops here, but on May third Indiana is the only primary in the country.

“So there will be, I think, plenty of candidate appearances,” said political analyst John Ketzenberger on Indiana Week in Review, “but they’ll all come at the end.”

And finally, Republican Ted Cruz still has no ground game in Indiana but he has set up social media sites that are Indiana specific.