INDIANAPOLIS — Tea party groups overwhelmingly endorsed state treasurer Richard Mourdock on Saturday for next year's Indiana Senate race, casting all but one vote for the tea party favorite who's seeking to deny Republican Sen. Richard Lugar a seventh term.
Members of 55 tea party groups gathered in Greenfield, east of Indianapolis, for the 2 1/2-hour convention and a straw vote in which board members of Hoosiers for a Conservative Senate cast 96 of their 97 votes for Mourdock.
A single vote went to Lugar, who was invited but did not attend the meeting.
Hoosiers for a Conservative Senate co-chair Monica Boyer said the roughly 300 tea party activists who attended the meeting left feeling unified and motivated to work hard to help Mourdock defeat Lugar in next May's GOP primary.
Although Lugar's campaign has about $3.5 million on hand for his re-election bid, Boyer said tea party supporters have the advantage of grass-roots operations ready to work across the state to rally Republican voters for Mourdock in the coming months.
"He may have the money, but we've got the volunteers and we've got the votes, so we're really excited about that," she said.
If Mourdock defeats Lugar in the May 8 primary to claim the GOP nomination, he could face U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly, who is the only announced Democratic candidate for the Senate seat that Lugar first won in 1976.
Libertarian Andrew Horning has also joined next year's Senate race.
WISH-TV reported that Mourdock took the stage minutes before the straw vote, bringing the delegates to their feet for an ovation when he said that it's time for the nation's tax laws to be rewritten.
"We must change the tax code," he told the gathering. "We must get the boot of government off the necks of small businesses."
Hoosiers for a Conservative Senate and other tea party groups have criticized Lugar for his support for the DREAM Act, which would help some illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children obtain citizenship, and his votes in favor of President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominations.
Co-chair Greg Fettig said tea party supporters also think Lugar has spent far too much time in the Senate and that during that time he's drifted to the left on the political spectrum.
"The nation has a problem with not only a budget deficit, a severe one, but also a massive debt problem. He's been there for 36 years, but he hasn't done much to combat that, so it's time for somebody else," Fettig said.
He said there was laughter at Saturday's gathering when, as the votes cast in the secret ballot were counted, one of them went to Lugar.
Lugar's political director David Willkie recently told The Journal Gazette that neither Lugar nor any member of his staff or campaign would attend the tea party gathering, because the purpose of the coalition is to defeat Lugar.
Fettig said he expects other tea party groups in the state to endorse Mourdock in the coming weeks and work to rally support among Republican voters for him.
"We told the crowd, ‘This isn't the end — it's the beginning. Everybody go out and buy a new pair of shoes because we are going to pound the turf and go door to door, make phone calls and everything else,'" he said. "On May 8, we have no doubt our candidate will be the victor."
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