By Tom Curry, msnbc.com National Affairs Writer NBC News has declared Richard Mourdock as the projected winner in the Indiana Senate primary. Mourdock defeated Republican foreign policy elder statesman Sen. Richard Lugar.
Lugar, 80, lost to state treasurer Mourdock, who was backed by conservatives ranging from the National Rifle Association to local Tea Party activists to the Washington-based fiscal conservative group the Club for Growth.
Looking toward the November election, National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said two weeks ago that it will probably make it more of a contest if Sen. Lugar is not the nominee, but Im confident well hold the seat.
The Democratic candidate in November will be Rep. Joe Donnelly. Although both Democratic and Republican strategists see Donnelly as having a better chance to beat Mourdock than he would have had against Lugar, it remains to be seen whether Donnelly can raise enough money to make it a truly competitive race given that Democratic donors must also fund much more competitive Senate contests in Ohio, Montana, Missouri, Wisconsin, Virginia and New Mexico.
Lugar, along with Utahs Orrin Hatch, is the longest serving Republican in the Senate. But like GOP senators Lisa Murkowski in Alaska, Bob Bennett in Utah, and Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania in 2010, Lugar found himself challenged by those in his party who decided he was not conservative enough on federal spending.
And Republican insiders in Washington said Lugar seemed to underestimate the seriousness of the challenge that Mourdock posed.
Mourdock criticized Lugar for voting for Obamas two Supreme Court nominees and for his vote to end a filibuster on the Democratic-sponsored DREAM Act which many conservatives see as merely a form of amnesty for illegal immigrants.
But if one looked at Lugars voting record, he usually sided with solid conservatives. For example he voted against the 1994 crime bill which included the original Violence Against Women Act and he voted no again two weeks ago on re-authorizing money for programs under VAWA.
Mourdocks attacks on Lugar didnt always give voters the complete story. For example Mourdock assailed Lugar for supporting an increase in the gasoline tax but didnt mention that Lugar favored offsetting that increase with a cut in payroll tax so that taxpayers would see no net tax increase.
Mourdocks campaign ads tarred Lugar with his friendship with President Barack Obama. In 2005 Obama accompanied Lugar on a trip to Russia, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan to inspect weapons sites.
Obama told a Council on Foreign Relations gathering in Washington after they returned that If anybody has ever accompanied Sen. Lugar on a (foreign) trip, you know that he is a rock star wherever he goes, but Lugars foreign policy focus wasnt the asset at home that it was in Washington, D.C.
For his foes, 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.