Mourdock Would Lose To Donnelly

The Indiana Republican senatorial primary is a referendum on Dick Lugar. Many Hoosiers are displeased with the senior senator's drift to the left and would like to retire him but those of us who remember the Christine O'Donnell disaster have a great reluctance to put much faith in Richard Mourdock. Mourdock's people will object; "he not a witch"! Maybe not but his skill set is closer to O'Donnell's than they care to let on. Sure he's serving his second term as Treasurer of Indiana and won two statewide elections. Yes but winning a down ballot election with Governor Mitch Daniels at the top of the ticket means that once you've secured the nomination all you have to do is manage not to wet on yourself in public to coast into office. He took on the Obama administration and fought for the bondholder rights in the Chrysler bankruptcy case. Yes, and as Treasurer he is responsible for having those damn bonds in the state pension fund to begin with and in spite of his best efforts the fund still lost $30 million on his investment.

Shouldn't we back the Tea Party candidate? Mourdock doesn't call himself a Tea Party candidate unless it suits his purposes. He prefers to be called the coalition candidate. Here his campaign manager, Jim Holden ruffs up Rebel Pundit when he tries to pin Mourdock down on his affiliation with the Tea Party. But he has the support of Tea Party Express and Freedom Works. Does he have their money? No, just the endorsements.

If Richard Mourdock isn't Christine O'Donnell Congressman Joe Donnelly, who will be the Democratic candidate, is not Chris Coons. Coons was some sort of a county executive but Donnelly has served three terms in Congress. He's a Notre Dame graduate, and a lawyer who quit law and started his own company, Marking Solutions. He has run for the Senate before, in 1988. He is probably running for the Senate just to stay in elective office. He won a tough race by a few thousand votes over a real Tea Party candidate, Jackie Walorski, who I would rather see running against Lugar than Mourdock. After the 2010 elections the Republicans fixed Donnelly's district so well that the next Democrat Blue Dog pretender who wins that seat will have to be to the right of Andrew Jackson. Joe Donnelly will give Lugar plenty of competition but he would roll over Mourdock like a Humvee.

In four years Senator Dan Coats will probably retire again. Indiana has a good Tea Party candidate in Congressman Marlin Stutzman from Indiana's third district. He ran against Coats and four other opponents in the 2010 primary and will have the ability to force Coats' retirement. Jackie Walorski will probably have been elected to Congress twice by then should she decide to run. To sum it up: Yes I would like to see Lugar gone but he is the bird-in-the-hand candidate while Mourdock is a dead duck.