With no clear cut favorite in the field of candidates, the race to be South Dakota's next governor is wide open. Five men have announced they want to run for state's highest position.

The men running for governor come from a variety of backgrounds, but they all have the same goal: helping to improve the quality of life for every South Dakotan.

Lieutenant Governor Dennis Daugaard has worked under Governor Mike Rounds for seven years and now he wants the state's top job.

"It's not a time when we want to have someone learn on the job and I think I can be a sound governor," Daugaard said.

The two leaders of the Senate also say they have the experience it takes. Senate Minority Leader Scott Heidepriem is the only Democrat to announce a run for governor.

"True we have challenges, and I can think of a dozen ways that I think we need to change the bureaucracy in Pierre to make it more responsive to people," Heidepriem said.

Dave Knudson has spent the past three years as the Senate Majority Leader.

"I'm very comfortable that I know what the job involves. I spent two times as Governor Janklow's Chief of Staff in 1995 and 1999 for the legislative sessions those two years, and I feel like that really gave me the understanding of the mechanics of the office and what a governor has to do," Knudson said.

Ken Knuppe, a rancher from Buffalo Gap, and the past president of the South Dakota Stockgrowers says his inexperience in politics is his best asset. Knuppe says South Dakota's founding fathers wanted regular citizens to lead the state.

"They wanted ordinary people to be able to run for an elected office. They didn't want the aristocrats to control everything, or people who had a lot of money, or families that had been in politics for a long time," Knuppe said.

Scott Munsterman wrote a book on being South Dakota's governor. The former mayor of Brookings penned a 155-page book on how to change the state before he decided to jump into the race.

"Doing the same thing over and over again does not produce the results we need and so we have to implement new strategies. That's going to be very important for the next governor to understand that, and be willing to do that," Munsterman said.

You can hear more from the candidates in Thursday's Eye On KELOLAND at 10 where we ask them how they would fix the state's multi-million dollar budget deficit.