EAST CHICAGO | Jill Long Thompson looks right at home rallying a raucous crowd of region steelworkers.

The former congresswoman from northeast Indiana earned her initial political stripes on the Valparaiso City Council two decades ago, and now she's after the governor's office.

Long Thompson, 55, is locked in a bitter primary battle with fellow Democrat Jim Schellinger, an Indianapolis architect making his first run at public office. But at the United Steelworkers Local 1010 hall last week in East Chicago, Long Thompson spoke as though she was already matched up against Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels.

"Under this administration, there are too many families that are facing an uncertain future, and there are too many communities that are hurting," Long Thompson told the crowd. "I think it's time to privatize Mitch."

She was preaching to the choir. The steelworkers have helped form the backbone of Long Thompson's cash-strapped campaign, lending their statewide endorsement and contributing nearly a tenth of the $1.1 million that the Argos Democrat has raised.

The mere mention of the Republican governor's private leasing of the Indiana Toll Road roils the union's rank and file. Meanwhile, they point to Long Thompson's opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement while in Congress as a foundation for trust.

Both Democrats have courted the labor vote by vowing to immediately restore the state employee collective bargaining rights Daniels rescinded immediately upon taking office in 2005.

Long Thompson, who served in Congress from 1989 to 1995, also touts her background as a federal undersecretary for rural development during the Clinton administration. She has sought to draw attention to Indiana's slumping economy with proposals to cap the gasoline sales tax and boost incentives for employers who locate in counties with high unemployment.

Recent polls put Schellinger and Thompson in a dead heat and show either Democrat running about even with Daniels in November. But Tom New, who ran the Democrats' last successful gubernatorial campaign in 2000, said the polls reflect the incumbent governor's vulnerability on the economy, not strength by the challengers.

"That's not because of anything they're doing," said New, campaign manager for the late Gov. Frank O'Bannon. "That's just because people are not feeling secure right now."

The Democrats, meanwhile, have created worries for each other that could spill into the general election.

Schellinger's campaign resurrected the 1992 House Banks scandal. Long Thompson acknowledged overdrawing her congressional checking account more than a dozen times for a total of about $1,700, but she was cleared of wrongdoing in the embarrassing ordeal.

Long Thompson's own negative salvo -- an attempt to link her architect opponent to rising property taxes -- triggered blow back when it was discovered that Schellinger's firm didn't design the taxpayer-funded schools pictured in the television ad.

And while Schellinger seeks to paint Long Thompson as a career politician, her supporters say her resume is a positive.

"Jill is somebody who has actually governed at every level in this state," said state Rep. Mara Candelaria Reardon, D-Munster. "That's what we need -- somebody who's got experience."