Thread: Poll: Sen. Lugar trails Tea Party challenger in Indiana primary

Poll: Sen. Lugar trails Tea Party challenger in Indiana primary
Brad Knickerbocker | The Christian Science Monitor | May 06, 2012


The six-term Republican from Indiana – Eagle Scout, Rhodes scholar, US Navy veteran, former mayor of Indianapolis – also seems to represent the values all Hoosiers are proud of. He’s conservative without making a fetish of it, willing to work with Democrats when necessary, successfully tackling some of the toughest issues – especially reductions in the world’s arsenal of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

But my, how things have changed, and Senator Lugar now finds himself in the political fight of his life.

Lugar has handily won every election since he ousted incumbent Democrat Vance Hartke in 1976. Last time around, Democrats didn’t even challenge his reelection (which he won with 87 percent of the vote).

What’s happened in the intervening years? The tea party movement. And like other Republicans tarred with the brush of perceived moderation, Lugar – an energetic 80 year-old – could find himself involuntarily retired this Tuesday when Indiana holds it primary election.

Lugar’s GOP primary opponent is state treasurer Richard Mourdock.

Mr. Mourdock has racked up important conservative group endorsements, including the Club for Growth, Americans for Legal Immigration, the Family Research Council, Gun Owners of America, Indiana Right to Life, FreedomWorks, Citizens United, and the Tea Party Express. Tea party heroes Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, and Herman Cain are backing him, as well as many Republican State Central Committee members and GOP County Chairs.

Mourdock’s assault on Lugar is two-pronged: That the incumbent is not conservative enough at a time when the tea party movement has pushed Republicans to the right. And that Lugar has long since become out of touch with his home state, captured by the dazzle of Washington and issues many Hoosiers don’t connect with (like working things out with Russia on strategic weaponry).

“Hoosiers want more than a globe-trotting Senator, they want a Senator who routinely holds town hall meetings not to talk but to listen,” Mourdock said in announcing his Senate candidacy 15 months ago. “They want a Senator who will walk the parade routes, visit the county fairs and festivals, and who will eat pork tenderloin and an ear of corn. They told me over and over again that they want a Senator who comes back home.”

It was an effective political image – especially when it came out that Lugar hadn’t maintained an Indiana residence for years.

After saying nice things about both candidates, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has endorsed Lugar, as has the GOP’s 2008 presidential candidate Sen. John McCain and Wall Street Journal columnist and former Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan.

“The Senate needs grown-ups,” Ms. Noonan wrote the other day in defending Lugar’s moderate record. “Right now, and more than ever, we need mature folk involved in our governance, people for whom not everything is new. People who know how to do things, who began studying a complicated issue 25 years ago and have kept up, who know it backward and forward. People who know the ways of the chamber backward and forward, and who know how to talk across the aisle.”


Is that a strong enough argument for Lugar? Recent poll numbers have brought good news for Mourdock.

The Howey/DePauw Indiana Battleground Poll of likely voters in Tuesday’s primary released Friday puts Lugar 10 points behind, trailing Mourdock 38 percent to 48 percent.

In a piece headlined “It’s starting to look over for Dick Lugar,” Salon’s Steve Kornacki predicts that the “real significance of a Lugar loss would extend far beyond November.”

“How will watching yet another prominent Republican with a solidly conservative record lose in a primary affect the mindset of average Republican member of Congress?” Kornacki writes. “Chances are, it will make him or her even more resistant to taking any action, big or small, that might possibly be construed as ideologically disloyal.”

As is often the case, turnout Tuesday will be key – especially since independents can vote as well as registered Republicans.


http://www.alaskadispatch.com/articl...ndiana-primary

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http://www.alipac.us/f9/poll-sen-lug...9/#post1278173

Mourdock endorsed by the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC

Christopher Conner
April 20, 2012

Indianapolis, IN (April 20, 2012) – Indiana State Treasurer, U.S. Senate Candidate in Republican Primary on May 8th, received the endorsement of the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC), America's largest grassroots organization for the promotion of immigration enforcement and border security advocacy, over six-term incumbent Senator Dick Lugar.

"I appreciate the support of the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC and the thousands of Americans nationwide who believe as I do that we need to work to prevent illegal immigrants from using taxpayer-funded services. As a U.S. Senator, I will fight to secure our borders and ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent only on those legally allowed to live in the United States.

"Unfortunately, Senator Dick Lugar believes that illegal immigrants should have the same rights as citizens and law-abiding legal residents. Lugar has a long record of fighting for amnesty for illegal immigrants and is a primary sponsor of the DREAM Act, which would fast-track amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants nationwide. I staunchly oppose the DREAM Act and any other legislation that would provide amnesty for illegal immigrants. I believe that we must act immediately to secure our borders and enforce the law," stated Treasurer Mourdock.

ALIPAC President William Gheen said, "Indiana voters have a clear choice between Richard Mourdock, who will fight to protect American jobs, taxpayer resources and lives from illegal immigration, and Richard Lugar, who has fought to support the interests of illegal immigrants over American citizens. Polls show us that Americans reject Richard Lugar's amnesty legislation three-to-one and we need to remind GOP voters about Lugar's amnesty plans before they vote. We need Indiana voters to vote against amnesty for illegal aliens by voting for Mourdock and against Lugar."

Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock is an outspoken critic of the debt ceiling vote, a strong advocate of serious fiscal reform starting with spending cuts, a champion of the Second Amendment and a voice for conservative values.

To date, Mourdock has received endorsements from the National Rifle Association, the Club for Growth, Indiana Right to Life, Steve Forbes, Citizens United Political Victory Fund, talk show host Mark Levin, Gun Owners of America, FreedomWorks, Tea Party Express, Concerned Women PAC, Eagle Forum, Morton Blackwell and Red State's Erick Erickson.

http://www.alipac.us/content/mourdoc...ation-pac-473/

Lugar also advocates for more gun control and is a sponsor of the Law of the Seas Treaty, a piece of crap that would scuttle our sovereignty and Constitution. This is what the idiot Knickerbocker calls a "brush of perceived moderation". Knickerbocker also thinks cooperating with the Russians to scuttle our nuclear superiority edge sounds peachy, as does Sen Lugar. This is on top of Lugar's extensive credentials as detailed by William regarding illegal immigration.

Lugar is exactly the kind of politician that created the need for the Tea Party movement. Roll over, compromise, to hell with what is best for the people or the country, to hell with what poll after poll says his constituents want. The more Lugars that get weeded out of Washington the better.

Dick Lugar plea for Dems, independents



Dick Lugar is pictured. | AP Photo

'I’m appealing to all of the people of Indiana — I emphasize all,' Lugar says. | AP Photo
By MACKENZIE WEINGER | 5/8/12 9:35 AM EDT

Six-term Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) pleaded with independents and Democrats to come out and vote for him as he faces a tough primary challenge Tuesday.

Lugar told CNN’s “Starting Point” on Tuesday that he believes he will emerge as the winner after polls close, but he pushed for voters outside his party to cast ballots on his behalf in the Republican primary.


“I believe in fact we’re going to win the campaign. As a matter of fact, we’ve invited everybody in the state of Indiana who is a registered voter to vote for me today,” he said.

Lugar said later in the interview he wanted to “emphasize” he was inviting every single voter in Indiana to support his candidacy, no matter their party.

“Those of us who are Republicans have to make certain that we enlarge our party, that we have persons who may have been independent in the past who are going to be independent Republicans or independents generally who are going to favor our party. Because our party, at least in Indiana, is only about 35 percent of the electorate. In order for anybody to get majority, they’re going to have a lot of other people,” he said.

“So I’m appealing to all of the people of Indiana — I emphasize all — to ask for a Republican ballot today and to vote for me,” Lugar added.

Lugar is up against state treasurer Richard Mourdock, a tea party favorite. The 80-year-old senator, however, said he would not consider a third party bid if he loses to his challenger.

“We cannot have a third party race in Indiana unlike Alaska or various other situations,” he said. “This is it. Today is the day. And I’ve emphasized that and I’m very hopeful that people will respond.”

And the senator said he believes he will win the primary today and the general election this fall.

“I believe we’re going to be successful today and in the general election,” Lugar told CNN. “All of the polling that I’ve seen indicates that in a general election I would win — if not by landslide, by a very large amount. This leads me to believe that a majority of Hoosiers are for me now, and it’s a question of getting those folks to the polls and turnout today.”
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Dick Lugar plea for Dems, independents - Mackenzie Weinger - POLITICO.com

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Tricky Dickie Lugar Goes DOWN!

Just heard the call on Fox...

1 More RINO out of the way; many more out there to go

GOOD JOB PATRIOTS; GOOD JOB TEA PARTY; WAY TO RALLY THE TROOPS ALIPAC

SO glad that it is over for lugar!!!!! Whooohoooo!!!!!

Let keep up the good work, lots more to go!!!