Club for Growth backs Mourdock in Senate race

A major endorsement in the race for an Indiana U.S. Senate seat has revived the insurgent campaign of Indiana treasurer Richard Mourdock and put long-time incumbent Sen. Richard Lugar on alert heading into a May Republican primary.

The conservative Club for Growth endorsed Mourdock Tuesday morning, bringing the promise of massive spending for the heavily outgunned Mourdock. Lugar's campaign, meanwhile, was dismissive of the endorsement, arguing that the 35-year senator will have no trouble covering his right flank in the Republican primary.

Club president Chris Chocola, a former congressman from northern Indiana, said Lugar's vote against a permanent ban on federal earmarks pushed them to get in the Indiana race. The group spent more than $160,000 to air attack ads against Lugar during last year's debt-ceiling debate.

"It is always about a relative difference when you get involved in a race and we're focused on a better alternative," Chocola said. "We think Mourdock is a better alternative than Sen. Lugar. We believe the culture of the Senate must change."

Chocola said he had great respect for Lugar but doesn't believe he can hold the conservative line. He said Lugar's recent decision to vote against a permanent ban on earmarks was the final straw for the group.

"Unfortunately it appears he's not going to be a part of the solution, he's going to choose to be a part of the problem," Chocola said.

The club raised $6 million for candidates it supported in 2010 and spent heavily in races for Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, and in the bid to put their former president, Pat Toomey, in the U.S. Senate. The group has not said how much it plans to spend in Indiana this election.

The group is supporting conservative and tea-party-backed candidates for open Senate seats in Wisconsin and Arizona and fighting incumbent Democrats in other states such as Ohio. But Indiana is the only state where the group is supporting a challenge against an incumbent Republican senator.

Lugar has outraised Mourdock and had $4 million left in the bank at the end of last year, compared with Mourdock's $362,000. While the endorsement is certain to help Mourdock close that gap in the final months of the race, the Lugar campaign was dismissive of the endorsement.

"This is not new news. I thought the endorsement came when they spent $160,000 on TV ads last July," said Lugar political director David Willkie.

Lugar scored some help from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce earlier this month, when it included the veteran senator in a $10 million ad campaign for his support for the massive Keystone XL oilsands pipeline from Canada.

"Senator Lugar has clearly lost his way on issues like our raising the debt limit, wasteful earmark spending and massive bailouts of private companies at taxpayer expense. We appreciate the Club for Growth's help in reminding Republican voters that Senator Lugar has become part of the problem in Washington and should be retired," Mourdock said in a statement.

The endorsement builds on other conservative support for Mourdock. Former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, flat-tax proponent Steve Forbes, the Tea Party Express and the conservative group FreedomWorks are also backing him.

Chocola said the Club for Growth would soon help bundle campaign donations for Mourdock and would consider more advertising in the race.

The endorsement, officially from the club's political action committee, opens an easier path for Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly to vie for the seat. Donnelly's campaign reveled in the escalation of Republican in-fighting while taking a swipe at the club for opposing the 2009 automakers bailout, which floated carmakers in Indiana towns like Kokomo.

"We think we have a good environment for Democratic candidates to run in," said Indiana Democratic Party spokesman Ben Ray of the 2012 elections landscape in Indiana.