Behind the Ad: Things are getting ugly in the Indiana GOP Senate primary

By Richard K. Barry

Who: Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.).

Where: Indiana.

What's going on: Dick Lugar has begun airing a new ad in what is becoming a very ugly primary battle with Indiana state treasurer Richard Mourdock, going so far as to call his challenger a liar.

As The Huffington Post writes:

When they resort to negative ads, it is often a sign that front-running campaigns -- like Lugar's at the moment -- are worried. Indeed, a pair of polls released Monday by Democratic and Republican opponents of Lugar both found Mourdock has climbed to within 6 percentage points of Lugar, even though the incumbent senator remains broadly popular.

Part of Lugar's problem lately has been the pounding he's taken from both sides over the fact that he lives in Virginia, not Indiana. A local election commission ruled last week that he is not eligible to vote in his former hometown, although state officials have declared that he is eligible to run.

The ad is built around Lugar's contention that Mourdock is intentionally misrepresenting Lugar's position on Obamacare. Oh, heavens no. Not that.

At root, this is a battle between an establishment conservative, Lugar, and a Tea Party-backed insurgent, Mourdock, who has been endorsed by the Club for Growth, FreedomWorks, Citizens United, and the Tea Party Express.

With the primary two months away and things getting close, it may be hard to call this one, but I'm willing to bet the Democrats would rather run against the Tea Party guy than the one who has been around forever. 

From the movement that brought you Sharron Angle and Christine O'Donnell.

Here's the ad:


(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)