Daniels, who started running television ads early, is well-funded and said he has not contributed any of his fortune. He and the aides who have joined him for three laps of the state's 92 counties distribute green and white "My Man Mitch" T-shirts. On long drives, he sits at his laptop and composes an epistle for his Web site.
Kernan, 58, a former Notre Dame baseball catcher, is an accidental governor who became a reluctant candidate. He won three elections for mayor of South Bend -- the last one with 82 percent of the vote -- and was twice elected lieutenant governor as the understudy to Gov. Frank L. O'Bannon.
He surprised Indiana's political community in 2002 by announcing his retirement from politics rather than race for the top job this year. Kernan told his friend John Roos, "I just want to have a beer in my back yard on a Tuesday night. I've got a great job. I've enjoyed it, but I want to go back to South Bend."
Then, in September 2003, O'Bannon had a stroke and died. Kernan took over. Praised for pulling the state together, he decided to run. Roos said Kernan simply concluded he could make a difference. "Joe's very competitive," said Roos, a University of Notre Dame political science professor, "and when he does something, he does it well."
Kernan appeared more at ease than Daniels when the two met for a debate last week. He introduced himself as if for the first time, mentioning his seven sisters, his stint in the Navy -- but not his captivity -- and his South Bend success. He tried to preempt Daniels by citing "changes that matter."
Daniels, playing the outsider, was more pointed. Reciting a list of grim statistics about Indiana's lost jobs, growing welfare rolls and budget troubles, he asked, "If this is a good record, what would a bad one look like?"
The challenger said Kernan might be new to his job, but bears some responsibility for four terms of Democratic leadership. "Thousands of Hoosiers have been hit hard," Daniels charged, "and it was this administration that hit 'em."
Kernan, with a wry smile, painted Daniels as "my friend from Washington." He said a highway from Indianapolis to Evansville, the state's largest and third-largest cities, might exist if only Daniels had sent a little money Indiana's way.
But Daniels replayed his role as "the Blade" and said over Kernan's objection that the highway should be a toll road. Because that's where money comes from. Whether drivers like it or not. "We do not," Daniels said, "have the money to do it otherwise."
