John Gregg is on the attack again calling Republican Mike Pence “out of touch” and the Pence campaign is now fighting back.

There is still no direct response from Mike Pence, who is employing a frontrunner strategy.  His campaign is using a surrogate to trade charges with John Gregg.

Gregg went to Fort Wayne to continue his effort to link Mike Pence to Indiana Mandate, a book published in 1992 by a think tank that Pence led at the time.  This time Gregg tied an essay in the book to Pence votes in Congress against a hike in the minimum wage.  “He wants to repeal it and couldn’t vote for that,” said Gregg, “yet he’s for working men and women but can’t be for a minimum wage.”

“And that’s just dishonest,” said Peter Rusthoven, one of the authors of Indiana Mandate, who says Gregg is wrong to put other people’s words in Pence’s mouth.

A Gregg campaign website called the Pence Plan is also out of bounds according to Rusthoven.  “It’s borderline, if not actually deceptive, too,” he said, “making it look like this is something Pence stands for.”

Meantime, Gregg, who can’t afford to match the TV commercials that are the centerpiece of the Pence campaign, is trying to lure the Republican into a war of words.  “He spent the whole 12 years in Congress on doing nothing but social issues,” said Gregg, “and now he’s got lockjaw on it.”  John Gregg, on the other hand, does not.

Meantime, the Pence campaign says John Gregg also went out of bounds with a Twitter account called the Pence Plan that uses a Pence photo.
It complained to Twitter and the account was first suspended and then changed so that it is now clear there is no connection to the Pence campaign.