INDIANAPOLIS -  

Democrat John Gregg said he isn't out of the race for governor, and he's defending the campaign commercials that some people have derided as corny.

When Gregg began running his first commercial with several hometown friends, including Hobo, many viewers thought it was a one-time shot that would be followed by more traditional ads.

But Gregg is now on his fourth commercial, and they've been basically in the same format.

And he's not giving any hint about when, or if, it will change.

Republican Mike Pence has been running ads that could also be described as down-home, but he presents them in a completely earnest way, while relentlessly hitting his talking points.

One  Pence commercial says, "It's a vision to put more Hoosiers to work than ever before by holding the line on spending, cutting taxes and getting our schools working for all of our kids."

But Gregg's ads are completely different.

They feature people from his own hometown, Sandborn, who often don't appear to be listening while Gregg talks about them with a twinkle in his eye, while also addressing campaign issues.

Gregg narrates one commercial, "Brian's our preacher at the Christian Church, always working, checking on folks, planning his sermon, doing youth ministry, practicing with the Praise Band. He gets paid next to nothing. And then there's Mike Pence. Mike makes $174,000 a year, but missed 86 percent of his committee votes."

Despite polls showing him way down to Pence, Gregg said there's plenty of time left and predicts the race could look much different by the end of this month, when the campaign will still have a little more than a month to go.

He won't say if he'll ever move beyond the Sandborn commercials, and he insists they give his campaign a unique way of telling a very real story.

"I think you'll, you'll just have to wait and see. But I'm very pleased with them," Gregg said.

When RTV6  Reporter Norman Cox asked Gregg if viewers would get to meet everyone in Sandborn, Gregg’s running mate, Vi Simpson, said, "I think we have already."

But Gregg insisted, "We haven't met everybody quite yet."