The May primary race most exciting for many Hoosier Democrats is in the Republican Party.
Richard Mourdock’s challenge to six-term incumbent Sen. Richard Lugar presents the best Democratic opportunity in three decades to knock the veteran senator out of office.
Twelve years ago, Lugar easily defeated Democrat David Johnson, one of the most intelligent candidates the Democrats have fielded for the office. Lugar received 67 percent of the vote – similar to his showing in the two previous elections.
The last time Lugar was up for re-election, 2006, Democrats fielded no candidate – lest more Republicans go to the polls just to make sure Lugar won.
Republican State Treasurer Richard Mourdock is a far-right, tea party favorite. Considering candidates closer to the center are much more likely to pick up independent and some Democratic votes, a Mourdock victory in the GOP primary would give Democrat Joe Donnelly a much better chance of capturing the office. In addition, both Lugar and Mourdock will have to spend a lot of money in their primary campaigns, probably reducing the amount either would have available for the general election.
So Democrats are criticizing Lugar whenever the opportunity arises. For example, consider this news release Democratic State Chairman Dan Parker issued a week ago:
“Joe Donnelly lives in Granger, Indiana, in a home where he painted his own kitchen cabinets. I’ve been there. It’s a great home, and it’s where Joe and his wife Jill raised their two kids.
“Richard Lugar sold his Indianapolis home in 1977 and moved to McLean, Virginia. That means he’s lived inside the Beltway for more than 30 years.”
Daniels, again?
Republicans are increasingly wondering what would happen if none of the four remaining presidential candidates wins enough delegates to gain the nomination before the GOP convention and whether someone else might be nominated.
“The uncertainty and volatility of the Republican contest has led to detailed talk of either a ‘brokered’ convention, or simply a ‘contested’ one, in which the GOP nominee isn’t even close to being settled by the time Republicans convene in Tampa in August,” writers Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Martin wrote on Politico.com. “The last time the GOP race was unsettled at convention time was in 1976.
“There are growing calls for an alternative to Mitt Romney as the Republican standard-bearer,” they wrote, “with the names of Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie again being seen as the most likely saviors.”
Yes, though Daniels never entered the race, if party leaders came calling, how could he turn them down?