Article brought to you by: Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
Six-term Senator Richard Lugar defeated in Indiana primary; releases VERY bitter statement
By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
May 9th, 2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
May 9th, 2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
Eighty-year-old Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, who was first elected to the Senate in 1976, has been defeated in the Indiana primary by state Treasurer Richard Mourdock. Conservatives ranging from the National Rifle Association to local Tea Party activists threw their support behind Mourdock. While Lugar conceded his defeat gracefully, he released an angry statement in regards to Mourdock.
"In effect, what he has promised in this campaign is reflexive votes for a rejectionist orthodoxy and rigid opposition to the actions and proposals of the other party. His answer to the inevitable roadblocks he will encounter in Congress is merely to campaign for more Republicans who embrace the same partisan outlook. He has pledged his support to groups whose prime mission is to cleanse the Republican party of those who stray from orthodoxy as they see it," he concluded.
Lugar, along with Utah's Orrin Hatch, is the longest serving Republican in the Senate. However, Lugar found himself in the same boat with other conservatives, such as GOP senators Lisa Murkowski in Alaska, Bob Bennett in Utah, and Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania in 2010, found opposition by other conservatives who decided he was not conservative enough on federal spending.
Lugar's opponent Mourdock scored a landslide victory, winning more than 60 percent of the vote with almost all precincts reporting.
Mourdock's victory was met with opposition from Democrats and the Left. Guy Cecil, the executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee denounced Mourdock as "a right-wing Tea Party ideologue who questioned the constitutionality of Medicare and Social Security, says there should be more partisanship and less compromise in Washington, and actually compared himself to Rosa Parks."
During the campaign, Mourdock assailed Lugar for his friendship with President Barack Obama. In 2005 Obama accompanied Lugar on a trip to Russia, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan to inspect weapons sites.
In addition, the fact that Lugar did not maintain an Indiana residence came to symbolize his disconnection from the state he had represented in the Senate since Jimmy Carter was president. Democrats mocked him in February for telling Indiana reporters that he was unsure what address was on his Indiana driver's license.
Mourdock praised his beaten foe in his victory speech, but laid out a vision for the rest of the campaign and for governing that was at odds with Lugar's history of working across the aisle.
"Hoosier Republicans want to see the Republicans inside the United States Senate take a more conservative tack, and we're looking forward to helping do that," Mourdock told cheering supporters.
© 2012, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.