Why Dick Lugar lost
May 10, 2012
Instant analysis of Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar's crushing defeat at the hands of state Treasurer Richard Mourdock in Tuesday's Republican primary cast it as yet another example of a tea party-aligned GOPer ousting a prominent face of the party establishment.
And that instant analysis would be wrong. Lugar lost - and lost badly - for a number of reasons, the vast majority of which had nothing to do with the relative tea party-ness of his opponent.
At its heart, Lugar's defeat was attributable to the fact that he broke the political golden rule: Never lose touch with the people who elected you.
"A strong majority of GOP primary voters felt that Lugar had served too long and was too old and should retire," said Christine Matthews, a Republican pollster who conducted several bipartisan surveys in the state. "Three-fourths of voters supporting Mourdock said their reasons centered around Lugar's longevity, age, and lack of residency."
Matthews added that less than one in five voters in her last poll were supporting Mourdock for what she described as "tea party talking points" including Lugar's vote to confirm Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court or his support for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailout.

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Posted by Ken at 4:50 AM