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."

[tennmountainman]

Hoosier, job well done. You will remember this boric vote the rest of your life. Thanks Hoosier.

[rogue yam]

Great job Indiana! Let’s take back the Republican party. It’s a lot easier than starting a new one.

Hear! Hear!

I've taken to saying this on all of the threads where defeatists congregate (which is just about all of them these days).

I just watched a clip where Snakehead Carville was on tv warning Democrats that they didn't appreciate how tough this election was going to be for them. I agree. I see a conservative/tea party tsunami building and I genuinely believe that we are going to sweep the 'Rats away in November.

[JoeDonnellymakesmepuke]

That should tell you a lot about Donnelly. He is Pelosi and Obamacare.

Bingo. He's also unbelievably stupid. If Mourdock doesn't whip Donnelly in the fall I'll have to leave Indiana.

[StAnDeliver]

"If only we had taken our marching orders from Rove et al"

I don't see American Crossroads, er, Rove douchebagging Mourdock (which is not to say he didn't do that in Delaware and Nevada).

FreedomWorks is all in on Mourdock and isn't going to take any sh!t from Rove on a Senate candidate who is reserved yet likable & trustworthy; and most importantly, who is already perceived as the likely winner in the fall.

[rogue yam]

The Republic dies either way.

Here's an idea: why don't you go find some other country to be a sobbing, gutless defeatist in.

France, maybe?

[rogue yam]

Defeats Lugur? More like scalped Lugar.

Skinned 'im. One skins RINOs.

[ducttape45]

Thank God, now we just gotta hope he doesn’t pull a Murkowski on us.

[rogue yam]

Not allowed by law in IN.

Lugar is done.

[muawiyah]

Did you notice how about 150,000 of Mourock's Conservative voters slipped over into the Romney column?

What's that about?

[Blood of Tyrants]

It would be just like Lugar to pull a Murkowski and run as an independent, splitting the GOP vote and letting a Rat in.

[nutmeg]

WOO HOO!!! Good riddance Lugar...

[RummyChick]

Did it look kind of like Evan Bayh's condo home?

http://www.capitolandwashington.com/articles/state-politics/white-accuses-bayh-of-voter-fraud

[muawiyah]

Indiana has a sore loser law that doesn’t allow you to run in a party’s primary and then as an independent.

[ducttape45]

YES!!!!! Thank you.

[House Atreides]

“If u Texans can get Cruz in the runoff, I think he will win.”
*************************************************************
Go Texas!! Indiana has shown the way. I think that Cruz will definitely get Dewhurst into a runoff—and, at the rate Cruz is rising in the polls, has an outside shot at actually winning in the May 28th primary without requiring a run-off.

Actually, a runoff might be best for Cruz as it would serve to increase his name recognition.

[muawiyah]

That law is pretty much my template for defining a RINO ~ nothing in there about ideology ~ all of it's about process and standing.

Tough running this Fall with a RINO At the top of the ticket though.

[muawiyah]

Libertarians, all of them, are by definition RINOS ~ their allegiance is to their own Libertarian party ~ and that includes Ron Paul, that Johnson character, and others down the line running in all sorts of Republican primaries.

We need to fix this problem and keep folks who are IN other parties OUT of the primaries, whether as voters or candidates.

Even those who worked for Democrat campaigns, or contributed to Democrat candidates should be flat out banned.

[SoDak]

Awesome.

[hinckley buzzard]

Sounds like conservatives will be "Back Home Again in Indiana" this November. Thank god.

[muawiyah]

There’s no Conservative tsunami even in the Republican party. Romney got more votes than Mourdock.