Richard Mourdock, challenging six-term incumbent Sen. Richard Lugar in Indiana’s GOP primary, is running a statewide ad hitting his opponent on earmarks:
Richard Mourdock: Every Year, Congress finds new ways to spend our money… and Sadly, Senator Lugar went along with it: voting for the Bridge to Nowhere, a rainforest in Iowa, even a teapot museum. When Senator Lugar recently had the chance to stop wasteful earmarks, he voted no. We’re fifteen trillion in debt and it has to stop. I’m Richard Mourdock and I approve this message because Dick Lugar won’t vote to end wasteful spending and earmarks. I will.
For what it’s worth, a survey by Lugar’s SuperPAC contends Lugar would be favored win reelection easily against the Democrat, Joe Donnelly, while Mourdock would begin a general-election battle in a virtual tie.
A common refrain from conservatives at CPAC was, “no matter how the presidential race turns out, we have to work to ensure that president will face a more conservative Senate in January 2013.” Replacing Lugar with Mourdock would be a big step in that direction.
One other reason to keep any eye on Indiana: “An internal poll for U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly’s Democratic Senate campaign showed that Obama trailed probable (er, possible) Republican nominee Mitt Romney by just 4 percent.”
Lugar obviously has a great deal of name recognition and accumulated good will from 30+ years in the Senate without a serious re-election challenge, but Mourdock is a pretty strong candidate in his own right. Running for re-election as state treasurer in 2010 he was the state's highest vote-getter, and was the only Republican to carry Marion County (Indianapolis). And he has some notoriety as the guy who sued to stop Obama's auto bailouts from ripping off Indiana state pension funds along with other bond holders.
Teapot museum! Really? Lugar bashes the Tea Party and then votes for a teapot museum. How IRONIC, sad and utterly unbelievable. Pleeease, Indiana, retire this hypocritical RINO.
Lugar obviously has a great deal of name recognition and accumulated good will from 30+ years in the Senate without a serious re-election challenge, but Mourdock is a pretty strong candidate in his own right. Running for re-election as state treasurer in 2010 he was the state's highest vote-getter, and was the only Republican to carry Marion County (Indianapolis). And he has some notoriety as the guy who sued to stop Obama's auto bailouts from ripping off Indiana state pension funds along with other bond holders.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseTeapot museum! Really? Lugar bashes the Tea Party and then votes for a teapot museum. How IRONIC, sad and utterly unbelievable. Pleeease, Indiana, retire this hypocritical RINO.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'd be wary of any "internal polls" which don't disclose their crosstabs and methodology.
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