INDIANAPOLIS | "Mitch TV" is back for a second season, and it might soon be coming to a television screen near you.
The re-election campaign of Gov. Mitch Daniels has booked weekend air time throughout June on a half-dozen Indiana stations to broadcast five half-hour episodes that offer a reality-TV style glimpse at his first term. The first episode, which debuts Saturday night, shows the Republican getting teary-eyed more than once on election night 2004
Daniels sniffles and hugs his daughter after receiving a congratulatory call from his former boss, U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind. Later, the governor-elect needs a moment to compose himself while sharing a letter he received from a laid-off factory worker he met on the campaign trail.
"We did this for her and for all the other people like her," Daniels tells a room of campaign supporters backstage just before his 2004 acceptance speech.
The ensuing episodes include scenes from an 11-county road trip Daniels set off on shortly after taking office in 2005. In one scene, he introduces himself to a surprised couple at an East Chicago diner.
"You're the governor of this state?" the male diner ask incredulously. "Seriously?" the female patron adds in a stunned tone.
Perhaps the unfamiliarity can be explained by the simple fact that the first 12-episode season of "Mitch TV" (then dubbed RV-1 after Daniels' campaign vehicle) didn't air in Northwest Indiana. Booking time on Chicago television isn't cheap.
But Daniels campaign consultant Mark Lubbers, who teamed with Rick Thompson to shoot the unscripted series, said the campaign is eager to reach region viewers this season.
"We are looking at ways to get a cable buy there," Lubbers said. "We're pretty hell-bent this time on figuring out a way to get onto television in Northwest Indiana."
The campaign is looking into buying time on WSBT-TV, the South Bend CBS affiliate, which region Comcast subscribers can watch on Channel 22. Lubbers said the campaign so far is spending about $200,000 to book Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon time slots on stations in Evansville, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Louisville, South Bend and Terre Haute.
