INDIANAPOLIS – Attorney General Curtis Hill’s challenger for the Republican nomination is kicking off his campaign by all but ignoring the incumbent.

Zionsville attorney John Westercamp officially launched a run for attorney general with stops in Indy, Elkhart, Fort Wayne and Evansville. He never mentioned Hill in his announcement speech, and brushed aside most questions about Hill, noting the attorney general hasn’t officially confirmed he’s running for a second term. And his only comment on the groping allegations which have shadowed Hill was to say when asked by reporters that the “distractions” aren’t good for the office.

Instead, Westercamp focused on staking his claim as a conservative small-government warrior — territory similar to that which Hill has sought to occupy. He says he’d work with legislators on ways to repeal regulations. And he says he’d stand against abortion and what he says is a misreading of federal law to enshrine it as a constitutional right.

Westercamp declares American liberty is under threat not from foreign powers, but from “courts that care less about the rule of law and more about acting as a superlegislative body, or the left’s ambition to legislate radical socialist policies.”

Westercamp says he’d make it a priority to cut down on robocalls by negotiating with telecommunications companies to control them. Hill joined Federal Trade Commission officials on Tuesday to announce lawsuits against robocallers — Westercamp says private sector solutions are better than government regulation.

Three legislative staffers and Munster Representative Mara Candelaria-Reardon have sued Hill over an incident last year in which he’s accused of groping them at a downtown bar. Hill faces a Supreme Court disciplinary hearing over the charges in October. If the charges are upheld, the potential punishments range from a private reprimand to the loss of his law license.

Republican convention delegates will choose the nominee next summer. An incumbent state officeholder hasn’t faced a convention contest since state school superintendent Suellen Reed beat back a challenge in 1996.