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Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., has cruised to re-election in each of his subsequent elections since 1977, but this time he finds himself in the crosshairs of the National Rifle Association, Club for Growth and FreedomWorks among others.
All three have come out swinging on behalf of his opponent Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock ahead of the May 8 primary. Early voting for the primary begins today.
The incumbent has been an institution in Indiana politics going back to the 1960s when he was Mayor of Indianapolis.
Lugar’s moderate reputation and close relationships with President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden earned him the post of honorary co-chair of their 2009 inauguration, and all of Mourdock’s backers haven’t forgotten an Oct. 2008 MSNBC article labeling Lugar “Obama’s Favorite Republican.”
Lugar has a 77 percent lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union.
The NRA’s Victory Fund has released an ad attacking Lugar for the taking a liberal track on gun rights, calling him the only Republican candidate from Indiana who earned an “F” rating from the NRA.
“But over his 36 years in Washington, Dick Lugar HAS changed…away from our shared values. He claimed to be a strong supporter of our rights when he first came to Washington. Now, he votes for gun bans (Senate Vote 375, 11/17/1993, Senate Vote 24, 03/02/2004). He’s voted for a hunting ban (Vote 87, 4/12/1994),” the NRA says. “And he’s voted against strengthening your right to defend yourself when you’re traveling away from home. (Vote 237, 7/22/2009). He also voted to confirm both of Barack Obama’s anti-gun nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court. (Vote 262, 8/6/2009 and Vote 229, 8/5/2010).”
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This is in addition to the more than $250,000 in airtime that Club for Growth has spent in the past two weeks. It spent $160,000 against the Senator last year. And FreedomWorks has spent $100,000 challenging Lugar.
Lugar fought back a challenge in February when the Indiana Election Commission determined that he didn’t need to live in Indiana to appear on the ballot. Nontheless, an election commission in Indianapolis ruled that he was ineligible to vote in his former home precinct because he sold his home in 1977 to move to McLean, Va., just outside of Washington.
The Senator reimbursed the U.S. Treasury last month to the tune of $14,700 last month for hotel stays in Indiana footed by his Senate office.
A Howey/DePauw Battleground poll shows Lugar with a 42-35 percent lead over Mourdock among all voters, but the two are tied at 38 percent apiece among all voters.
“This poll shows what we have been saying all along – Richard Mourdock’s outside groups have used their money to run a negative campaign against Dick Lugar. The group that conducted this poll notes in the Howey Report that this poll was taken as outside money poured in to attack Dick Lugar. Also the Lugar campaign has gained ground in the 10 days since the poll was taken,” Lugar campaign spokesman Andy Fisher said in a statement.
“As the poll says – most people don’t know who Richard Mourdock is. As we find in our daily calls to Hoosier primary voters – which we have made more than a million — once they know Richard Mourdock, they won’t choose Richard Mourdock.”
Other issues in the race include Lugar’s support for the bailout, taxes and Obama’s justices.
The Tea Party groups are hoping that Lugar will join fellow 36-year incumbent Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in forced retirement, just like former Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, was ousted by his successor Sen. Mike Lee in 2010.
