Primed for a fight, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum swapped heated accusations about health care, earmarks and federal bailouts Wednesday night in the 20th and possibly final debate of the roller-coaster race for the Republican presidential nomination.State Treasurer Richard Mourdock doubts his opposition to the auto industry bailout will hurt his U.S. Senate candidacy in Allen County, where General Motors Co. employs 3,800 people.
Mourdock pointed out Thursday that he received more votes than any other candidate in Indiana in the November election. And he was the top vote-getter in Allen County, a supporter noted.
Mourdock said his disdain for the federal government’s $80 billion in aid for GM and Chrysler was a matter of principle.
“The government more and more is picking and choosing winners and losers,” he complained at a news conference in Allen County Republican Party Headquarters in downtown Fort Wayne.
Mourdock this week announced he will challenge U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., in the 2012 GOP primary election. As he did earlier, Mourdock on Thursday said Lugar’s positions on immigration, nuclear weapons reduction and federal funding for state projects mirrored those of President Obama and Democrats.
“There is something poisonous about the Potomac atmosphere, and I think by being there so long, Mr. Lugar is representing the values of Washington, D.C., more than he is representing Hoosier values,” Mourdock said.
Lugar has said he will seek a seventh six-year term in the Senate.
Asked for a response to Murdock’s remarks, Lugar senior adviser Mark Helmke said his boss “opposed all of Obama’s initiatives on spending, health care and fiscal regulations.” He recalled that the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was first negotiated by President Ronald Reagan, a popular Republican.
“While Mourdock is disparaging the senator, Lugar is working on the real issues that affect Hoosiers, such as the price of gas from America’s dependence on Middle Eastern oil,” Helmke said. “This dependence is at the root of our financial problems and budget deficit.”
Mourdock noted that he has been endorsed by 68 of the state’s 92 Republican county chairmen. The rest, including Allen County GOP Chairman Steve Shine, will remain neutral in the primary, Mourdock said.
County Recorder John McGauley introduced Mourdock as “somebody I want to be like. This is somebody with a purity of heart and a purity of intention.”
McGauley had earlier told a reporter, “I’m not here because I’m anti-Lugar; I’m here because I’m pro-Mourdock.”
Mourdock disputed inferences that he is a tea party candidate, calling his campaign “a Republican rebellion of sorts.”
The Journal Gazette asked him about speculation that his campaign will make an issue of Lugar’s age – 78 currently – and that the Lugar campaign will make an issue of Mourdock’s lack of military experience.
The second-term treasurer said he is “stunned” that “anyone would question my love for country” and called it a “desperate” ploy that he had never seen in six elections.
He also said, “I’m not going to make Mr. Lugar’s age an issue at all.”
Helmke later said: “Lugar volunteered for the Navy while a Rhodes scholar. Mourdock apparently had reasons not to enlist during Vietnam when he came of age in Ohio.”
