Mourdock, Donnelly to meet in final Senate debate
The Republican and Democratic candidates stuck mostly to their talking points in their first debate last week and scored no knockout punches.
The Republican and Democratic candidates stuck mostly to their talking points in their first debate last week and scored no knockout punches.
Republican senators have flocked to Indiana in the past month as it became clear the state's once-safe Republican seat could be snatched up by Democrat Joe Donnelly.
Since Richard Mourdock unseated Richard Lugar in May's Republican primary, Mourdock and Democratic Senate candidate Joe Donnelly have battled to win over Lugar supporters.
Spending in Indiana's tight U.S. Senate race topped $20 million this week, with new spending from the conservative Club for Growth, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's super PAC, and national Democrats and Republicans.
A club spokesman said the TV ad will show the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate is "just another liberal" who supported Washington spending.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Pence reported raising $2.9 million to Democrat John Gregg's $1 million, and Senate candidate Richard Mourdock raised $3 million to Democrat Joe Donnelly's $1.5 million. The amounts account for money raised in July, August and September.
Republican Richard Mourdock and Democrat Joe Donnelly faced off Monday for the first time in a debate that saw them repeating many of the hard-edged charges that have marked their contentious campaign to be Indiana's next U.S. senator, but they landed few blows.
Indiana's Senate battle is one of about a half-dozen tight races across the county that will decide whether Democrats or Republicans control the Senate.
The Indiana Senate battle has quickly become the most expensive the state has seen. Spending by the campaigns has topped about $10 million, and outside groups also are pouring in cash.
Indiana has quickly become a major battleground in the race for control of the U.S. Senate, with national Republicans and Democrats forking over more cash this week to tea party favorite Richard Mourdock and Democrat Joe Donnelly.
Suddenly gone is the strident rhetoric in which Mourdock proclaimed that bipartisanship meant Democrats coming over to Republicans' thinking and that winning meant he would "inflict my opinion on someone else."
Democrats eyeing a rare opportunity to pick up a U.S. Senate in a traditionally red state are buying television time in Indiana for the second consecutive week as they fight to maintain control of the chamber.
John Gregg and Mike Pence will square off in three debates, starting Oct. 10. Candidates for U.S. Senate will debate on Oct. 15 and Oct. 23.
On Monday at an Indianapolis fundraiser, GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan exhorted Republicans to “please, please, send us Richard Mourdock!” Other prominent party members are lining up behind Mourdock, too.
Senate Republicans will jump into Indiana's pitched Senate battle this week, responding to a Democratic ad-buy with one of their own as they seek control of the Senate in November.
A party official said Friday the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is financing a new ad for Rep. Joe Donnelly that will run statewide.
Central Indiana residents will have a front-row seat on the close race for U.S. Senate, as Democrat Joe Donnelly and Republican Richard Mourdock drill into each other’s partisan strongholds to pick up crucial votes.
Colleagues considered six-term Sen. Richard Lugar a visionary who looked beyond U.S. exuberance over the end of the Cold War and saw the dangers and opportunities in the collapse of a nuclear-armed Soviet Union.
Conceding defeat for the first time in nearly four decades, U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar pledged to support the tea party-backed rival who had just ousted him. But hours later, the Indiana Republican issued a statement chastising primary winner Richard Mourdock.
U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar was ousted Tuesday by tea party-backed challenger Richard Mourdock in Indiana's Republican primary, abruptly ending the nearly four-decade career of a popular politician who built a reputation as a diplomat but whose critics argued had ceded too much ideological ground to represent a conservative state.