Six-term Senate veteran Lugar defeated in Indiana GOP primary

[jimmy olsen]

A sad day

http://nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/08/11604125-six-term-senate-veteran-lugar-defeated-in-indiana-primary?lite

Six-term Senate veteran Lugar defeated in Indiana primary
By Tom Curry, msnbc.com National Affairs Writer

Updated at 8:20pm ET Republican foreign policy elder statesman Sen. Richard Lugar, 80, first elected to the Senate in 1976, was defeated in the Indiana primary Tuesday by state Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who was backed by conservatives ranging from the National Rifle Association to local Tea Party activists to the Washington-based fiscal conservative group the Club for Growth.

Mourdock appeared to be headed for a landslide victory.

With more than 55 percent of the precincts reporting, Mourdock was winning 60 percent of the vote.

Looking toward the November election, National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said two weeks ago that "it will probably make it more of a contest if Sen. Lugar is not the nominee, but I'm confident we'll hold the seat."

In a statement Tuesday night once the outcome was clear, Cornyn said Mourdock "has the NRSC's full support and we are committed to helping elect him as Indiana's next U.S. Senator in November," while Lugar told his supporters "I hope that Richard Mourdock prevails in November so he can contribute to that Republican majority in the Senate."

Within minutes of Mourdock's victory, leading Senate conservative Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina -- who'd stayed neutral in the primary -- sent a message to supporters of his Senate Conservatives Fund, urging them to donate money to Mourdock.

"A year ago political pundits said Richard Mourdock couldn't win this race. They said he couldn't build the support needed to overcome the establishment machine. They were wrong," DeMint said.

Now, DeMint said, "he needs our support now more than ever. Mourdock is virtually defenseless after spending everything he had to win the primary election. The Democrats are going to come at him very hard in the next few weeks and work to brand him as an extremist. We need to act quickly to replenish Mourdock's war chest so he can get the truth out about his record and vision for the future of this country."

As DeMint noted, Democrats quickly issued statements alleging that Mourdock is "extreme."

Guy Cecil, the executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said Mourdock was "a right wing Tea Party ideologue who questioned the constitutionality of Medicare and Social Security, says there should be more partisanship and less compromise in Washington, and actually compared himself to Rosa Parks."

The Democratic candidate in November will be Rep. Joe Donnelly. Although both Democratic and Republican strategists see Donnelly as having a better chance to beat Mourdock than he would have had against Lugar, it remains to be seen whether Donnelly can raise enough money to make it a truly competitive race – given that Democratic donors must also fund much more competitive Senate contests in Ohio, Montana, Missouri, Wisconsin, Virginia and New Mexico.

Related: First Thoughts: Five reasons Lugar likely loses

Lugar, 80, along with Utah's Orrin Hatch, is the longest serving Republican in the Senate. But like GOP senators Lisa Murkowski in Alaska, Bob Bennett in Utah, and Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania in 2010, Lugar found himself challenged by those in his party who decided he was not conservative enough on federal spending.

And Republican insiders in Washington said Lugar seemed to underestimate the seriousness of the challenge that Mourdock posed.

Mourdock criticized Lugar for voting for Obama's two Supreme Court nominees and for his vote to end a filibuster on the Democratic-sponsored DREAM Act which many conservatives see as merely a form of amnesty for illegal immigrants.

But if one looked at Lugar's voting record, he usually sided with solid conservatives. For example he voted against the 1994 crime bill which included the original Violence Against Women Act and he voted "no" again two weeks ago on re-authorizing money for programs under VAWA.

Mourdock's attacks on Lugar didn't always give voters the complete story. For example Mourdock assailed Lugar for supporting an increase in the gasoline tax but didn't mention that Lugar favored offsetting that increase with a cut in payroll tax so that taxpayers would see no net tax increase.

Mourdock's campaign ads tarred Lugar with his friendship with President Barack Obama. In 2005 Obama accompanied Lugar on a trip to Russia, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan to inspect weapons sites.

Obama told a Council on Foreign Relations gathering in Washington after they returned that "If anybody has ever accompanied Sen. Lugar on a (foreign) trip, you know that he is a rock star wherever he goes," but Lugar's foreign policy focus wasn't the asset at home that it was in Washington, D.C.

For his foes, the fact that Lugar did not maintain an Indiana residence came to symbolize his disconnection from the state he had represented in the Senate since Jimmy Carter was president. Democrats mocked him in February for telling Indiana reporters that he was unsure what address was on his Indiana driver's license.

[Caliga]

Alarming.

[mongers]

Al arming ?

[DGuller]

And the purge of non-insane (I won't misuse the term "moderate") Republicans continues.  I guess a large number of Republican voters really do want our governance to hit rock bottom.

[Valmy]

And the purge of non-insane (I won't misuse the term "moderate") Republicans continues.  I guess a large number of Republican voters really do want our governance to hit rock bottom.

They are going to show you that government is not the solution, it is the problem...by any means necessary.

[KRonn]

I think also, sadly, that a lot of moderate/centrist Dems have gone down to, the blue dogs. So the Congress increasingly becomes divided between hard liners on either side.

[CountDeMoney]

I think also, sadly, that a lot of moderate/centrist Dems have gone down to, the blue dogs. So the Congress increasingly becomes divided between hard liners on either side.

You can thank redistricting by both sides for that.

But in Lugar's case, it's good to see the Teabaggers so cannibalize their own party moderates for the sake of ideological party purity, they sacrifice themselves for the general election.

[DGuller]

Lugar is not a moderate, he's just not insane.  Let's not set the bar for moderation to be so low that merely not rejecting compromise out of hand earns you the designation.

[CountDeMoney]

Lugar is not a moderate, he's just not insane.  Let's not set the bar for moderation to be so low that merely not rejecting compromise out of hand earns you the designation.

I said "party moderate", not "moderate".  He's still a conservative, just a moderate one.

[Neil]

The guy was 80.  His time was done.  Actually, it's interesting watching the new generation of Teabag conservatives destroy the children of the Reagan revolution, who in turn destroyed the respectable Nixon Republicans.

[alfred russel]

The guy was 80.  His time was done.  Actually, it's interesting watching the new generation of Teabag conservatives destroy the children of the Reagan revolution, who in turn destroyed the respectable Nixon Republicans.

I heard on some news channel that he was considered by Nixon to be his favorite mayor: apparently this guy could be considered a Nixon Republican. Which kind of backs up what you are saying: too old.

[grumbler]

I'd say the fact that Luger had to be brought out of retirement to provide a non-Tea-Party candidate kinda tells you how far gone the Republican party is in Indiana.

[CountDeMoney]

I'd say the fact that Luger had to be brought out of retirement to provide a non-Tea-Party candidate kinda tells you how far gone the Republican party is in Indiana.

I was watching this guy's interview just a few minutes ago on MSNBS with Chris Todd;  he specifically said that he has been more frustrated with fellow Republicans than he has been with Democrats.

Stay Psycho, Tea Party!

[CountDeMoney]

I'd say the fact that Luger had to be brought out of retirement to provide a non-Tea-Party candidate kinda tells you how far gone the Republican party is in Indiana.

I was watching this guy's interview just a few minutes ago on MSNBS with Chris Todd;  he specifically said that he has been more frustrated with fellow Republicans than he has been with Democrats.

Stay Psycho, Tea Party!

He also said that the only bipartisanship he believes in is when Democrats agree with his point of view.   That's just super.

[derspiess]