Posted on 03/28/2011 2:47:22 PM PDT by Qbert
Republican Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock expects to report raising around $125,000 during the first month of his Senate campaign and is promising to roll out support in the coming weeks from deep-pocketed donors who were previously backing Dick Lugar.
Mourdock previewed his first quarter fundraising numbers and coming additions to his campaign finance team in an interview with POLITICO Monday.
He framed the $125,000 he'll report next month as a respectable figure that will allow his start-up campaign to meet its initial operational goals, while signaling that he'll soon reveal a list of notable endorsements from major Hoosier donors.
"What I need to do is to keep our heads above water raising money, keep the thing going at this base level until Feb. 20 of next year," he said, referring to the candidate filing deadline. "That's when the real campaign begins."
Mourdock, who unveiled the backing of three-quarters of state county chairs when he announced his candidacy on Feb. 22, said additional endorsements from state committeemen would soon be on the way.
"People who annually give to the state party $50,000 a year have called me to say, 'I want to help you, I want to be on your finance committee.' And these are people who wrote Sen. Lugar a check as recently as January," he said, declining to provide names.
During the 30-minute interview, Mourdock reiterated his case against the six-term Lugar, portraying him as a senator who has been estranged from party regulars for years in order to pursue a focus on foreign policy issues.
Mourdock is betting that his candidacy will build enough credibility and momentum in the off-year to attract the support from Washington-based conservative groups that are itching to send a message to the 79-year-old Lugar, who has irked them by his support for President Obama's Supreme Court nominees and nuclear arms policy.
But he seemed to leave open the possibility that his presence alone could force Lugar to ponder retirement.
"I don't think any Hoosier, and this includes myself, wants to see the last image of Sen. Lugar's career being a concession speech in a microphone. We really do have great respect for him. But I hear it 500 times a day, people come up and say, 'Thank you for running', and two words, 'It's time.,'" he said.
Conservative groups have been working behind the scenes to try to avoid a multi-candidate field opposing Lugar, and therefore diminishing the chances of knocking off the incumbent.
State Sen. Mike Delph recently told POLITICO there is "no change from my position statement in December," continuing to keep the option of running for Senate on the table.
While Mourdock said he had no idea what Delph would choose to do, he signaled he may have the option of running for Congress if 15-term Rep. Dan Burton retires,
"There's a lot of other things that I think he's got some balls in the air on. There's a lot of talk that Congressman Burton won't run for reelection. He lives in that district. I note that when he's out attending Lincoln Day dinners it's usually in those counties, in that district," Mourdock said, referring to Delph.
Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly is also considering the contest and Mourdock was candid when explaining why the congressman is now exploring the venture more seriously.
"He's not doing it because he thinks he might be running against Dick Lugar. He's doing it because he thinks he can be running against me. Am I concerned about that? Not at all, because his voting record largely mirrors that of Brad Ellsworth, who got crushed by Dan Coats," he said.
Lugar has needed to go for some time.
Lugar has two choices, retire with dignity or have his ass handed to him in the primary.
All these weak reed repubs will follow the Murkowski playbook, i.e. go 3rd party, if their polling shows they can’t win their GOP primaries.
I won’t be supporting Lugar and I hope that no one I know will, either.
In Indiana, a loser in the primary election may not run as a candidate in the general election.
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