Senate slugfest: Rokita jab against Messer launches battle over who is the worst speller

Rep. Luke Messer's campaign started off his official run for a U.S. Senate seat last week by spelling a town within his district wrong.

The campaign invited people to "Morrisontown" instead of "Morristown" for an official Senate kickoff on a web page linked in an email to supporters. The flyer wasn't posted directly on Messer's Facebook or Twitter, but it wasn't long before Rep. Todd Rokita's campaign pointed out the "embarrassing" blunder.

Rokita's team, though, has had its spelling gaffe — involving the candidate's own name.

At the Republican National Convention last summer, Rokita was among those vying for the GOP's Indiana gubernatorial candidacy after former Gov. Mike Pence joined President Donald Trump's ticket.

Rokita's team misspelled his own name on a flyer they slipped beneath the hotel room doors of delegates charged with deciding who would be the Republican candidate.

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Still, Rokita's campaign released an email comparing Messer's mistake to when Evan Bayh last year gave the wrong the address for his small Indianapolis condo, heightening criticism that he had abandoned Indiana for Washington, where has a stately home.

"Luke Messer is doing his best to demonstrate his absentee Senate candidate credentials by inviting people to a town that doesn’t exist — Morrisontown — for his big Senate kickoff!" Rokita's spokesman said in a statement. "Making matters worse, Morristown is in Shelby County in Luke Messer’s district."

Rokita's campaign has consistently criticized Messer's choice to move his family from Indiana to a Washington, D.C., suburb in 2012, on the advice of his predecessor, Mike Pence.

Messer has said he has always been transparent with his constituents about the decision, but Rokita's campaign still uses the fact in its attempt to paint Messer as out-of-touch.

Rokita's camp also dismissed its own spelling error.

"A typo on a campaign flyer from a year ago isn’t newsworthy," said Rokita spokesman Tim Edson.

Messer's campaign declined to comment for this story.

Rokita has yet to officially announce a run for Senate, but Messer and Rokita for weeks have engaged in heated digs at each other as the vie to become the Republican candidate to take on Democrat Sen. Joe Donnelly in 2018.

Call IndyStar reporter Kaitlin Lange at (317) 432-9270. Follow her on Twitter: @kaitlin_lange.