Tea Party Upstart Mourdock Defeats Longtime Indiana Sen. Lugar

LATimes ^ | May 08, 2012

[Steelfish]

Tea Party Upstart Mourdock Defeats Longtime Indiana Sen. Lugar

By Kim Geiger May 8, 2012 Richard Mourdock has defeated longtime Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana in the Republican primary, according to an Associated Press projection, ending the career of one of the Senate’s most pragmatic politicians and casting a cloud over GOP efforts to win control of the chamber.

Mourdock, state treasurer in Indiana, campaigned as a conservative alternative to Lugar. He became a darling of the tea party movement after he began a legal challenge to the terms of the Obama administration’s bailout of Chrysler.

Mourdock was endorsed by Sarah Palin and Rep. Michele Bachmann, and Lugar had the backing of the party establishment, including Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Mourdock will face Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly, a three-term congressman from the South Bend area, this fall. The matchup is the preferred outcome for Democrats, who view Lugar’s ouster as an opportunity to pick up a longtime Republican seat.

"Richard Mourdock is this year's Ken Buck," said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Executive Director Guy Cecil. Buck was a tea-party-backed Republican who upset the establishment favorite in the GOP primary in Colorado in 2010, only to lose in November. "Tonight's results make the Indiana Senate race a toss-up."

[nutmeg]

Mourdock will face Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly, a three-term congressman from the South Bend area, this fall. The matchup is the preferred outcome for Democrats, who view Lugar’s ouster as an opportunity to pick up a longtime Republican seat.

Congratulations on finally getting rid of Dick Lugar tonight!

Do you have any idea how Mourdock will do vs. Donnelly in the November election? Supposedly the democRATs are "salivating" over the chance to run against Mourdock...

[VRWC For Truth]

Mittens is a beaten dead horse. He can’t out Liberal Soetoro. Mittens needs the mushy middle and the ‘Rat base to vote for him. Not gonna happen. The GOPe is gasping for air.

[rogue yam]

Mittens is a beaten dead horse. He can’t out Liberal Soetoro. Mittens needs the mushy middle and the ‘Rat base to vote for him. Not gonna happen. The GOPe is gasping for air.

I'm sure that sounds even more tragically poetic in the original French.

[caww]

Congradulations’ digger....Indiana is leading the way for sure! Toast to you!

[Ronin]

What? Wait a minute! This is impossible! I heard that the Tea Party is a spent force! The MSM said so!

(snicker)

I wonder if Lugar is now going to run as an Independent ala Murk that cow fom Alaska.

[TMA62]

See my post 21

[muawiyah]

I would have banned Perry, Bachmann, Romney, Paul, Johnson, etc. from the primaries and had only Caine, Santorum and Gingrich ~ lifelong Republican Conservatives.

You let these RINOS into the party they think they got a right to take over the place. They have to be blocked from the top slots

[caww]

Sen. John Kerry called the loss:

....... “a tragedy for the Senate” ....and a “blow to the institution.”

Music to my ears! Cry dem blues, Johnny!

Was music to me as well...Loved it!

[muawiyah]

They are making noise about spending a lot of money ~ but that remains to be seen. I think folks should take some time to analyze the downticket results to see WHO WON and by WHAT first.

The judicial races may be instructive.

[muawiyah]

http://grassrootsidgop.wordpress.com/list-of-states-with-open-and-closed-primaries/ ~ Indiana is listed as OPEN PRIMARY which means Democrats could have crossed over in large numbers to make sure Romney got in.

[muawiyah]

That's been a real shame in this. The TEAParty crowd have this bias against traditional and social Conservatives.

Time for them to purge their leadership of false leaders perhaps? Maybe OVERDUE!

[Resettozero]

Yeah. It even sounds real good with a country accent. Try it!

[magna carta]

I’m so happy that New World Order Trash is out...how many more left?

[Lancey Howard]

Prop 8 was also an amendment to the CA constitution and a single gay federal district court judge overruled it.

I know... And the fag governor Schwarzenegger and his fag administration and Kalifornia's Democrat fag legislature shrugged, failed to appeal (or even give a damn), and that was the end of that. Kalifonia voters apparently also shrugged and went back to sleep. Or meditated, whatever.

That is not likely to happen in North Carolina. If a single Democrat fag judge "overrules" the amendment it WILL be appealed.
And appealed and appealed, again and again.

[af_vet_rr]

Now watch the Republican elites run away from Mourdock. In fact I fully expect them to campaign for his Democrat opponent. Just like they did in 2010.

They'll come damn close to doing so. You already had people like John Cornyn trying to scare Conservatives by claiming that it would be difficult to hold that seat if Lugar was defeated in the primary. It's going to get dirty, but I'm glad to see Lugar gone. Now we just need to do this a lot more, and not just in 2012, but in 2014 and 2016, because a lot of folks not up for election are feeling too dadgum comfortable in their RINO ways.

[KansasGirl]

[Indiana has a sore loser law. Stick a fork in Lugar, he’s done.]

yep, Joe Miller tweeted about the sore loser law earlier. Lugar cannot pull a Murkowski.

[ilgipper]

This is a tremendous win, and yet another sign that the electorate is wide awake. The tea party is certainly alive.

My only argument in this coverage is that Mourdock is no upstart. He is already a statewide elected official. He’ll be a huge asset in Washington because he has the bedrock conservative principles. Beyond that, he is no newbie.

[hoosiermama]

Mourdock will do well. Good over all ticket with Pence for Governor, Mourdock Senator and Todd Young for Congress from out district. In 2010 my county elected one hundred per cent Republicans....Thirty years ago couldn't even get a person to run on the Republican ticket....Then there was Clinton. So many people were so disgusted by his behavior they left the Rats. We have a large Lutheran community who found they could run and win by switching parties. And so even our good D sheriff was defeated.

Donnelly is from the area where Obama was fraudulently put on the ballot. Lots of problems IIRC he was even gerrymandered out of a district. weak....weakest from a weak area.

[ExSoldier]

Good riddance! Should have happened 18 years ago.

Yup. Lugar is a RINO and IIRC a gun grabber, too. Is the replacement pro-gun?

[newzjunkey]

"Richard Mourdock is this year's Ken Buck..."

Let's see... Mourdock is the state treasurer so he's already won statewide before and Ken Buck was a county D.A. running statewide.

Yeah those are exactly the same. /s

I understand why Daniels supported Lugar since working for Lugar gave him his start in Indiana politics. It's a loyalty thing. One of the Senate's octogenarians, Lugar could've stepped aside gracefully. Maybe having defeated the incumbent a the primary helps Mourdock with momentum in ways become heir apparent does not.