INDIANAPOLIS — In this era of gerrymandered congressional and Indiana General Assembly districts that have resulted in supermajority Republican rule, it’s easy to forget how competitive our races for governor have been.
Hoosiers have voted four times in open seat races for governor in the past 28 years. After Democratic Lt. Gov. Frank O’Bannon upset Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith in 1996, come-from-behind campaigns by Mitch Daniels in 2004 and Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb in 2016 helped forge a 20-year GOP dynasty.
All were close races and in three of them, the eventual winner came from behind. In that fourth race in 2012, U.S. Rep. Mike Pence barely held on to defeat a surging Democrat John Gregg after comments on rape and abortion in the adjacent U.S. Senate race…