Interesting piece by Eric Bradner, stating that the selection of Tim Berry by Gov. Pence to run the state GOP is calculated to block any plans Richard Mourdock might have to run for state Auditor. Berry is currently the auditor and term limited from continuing in the position. By selecting Berry as head of the state party now, Pence gets to appoint someone to be auditor for the remainder of the term. In all likelihood, that person will then win the primary for the 2014 election. Richard Mourdock is finishing up his eighth year as treasurer and is also term limited.
Bradner suggests that Gov. Pence wants to keep Mourdock off the ticket because of his implosion during the 2012 senate race; after knocking off shoo-in Richard Lugar as a darling of the Tea Party, Mourdock made the thelogically plausible but politically suicidal assertion that children of rape were God’s will. In addition to making the GOP look bad, this had the effect of allowing Joe Donnelly to win a Senate seat that would have been secure, but for Treasurer Mourdock.
The notion that the appoint of Berry by Gov. Pence was for the purpose of blocking Richard Mourdock is pure speculation backed by no evidence whatsoever. And it makes little sense as Pence’s major supporters were also Mourdock supporters. They come from the same wing of the party. This is nothing more than wishful thinking on the part of Bradner.
I kind of doubt that it’s just wishful thinking. Eric is a solid reporter. My guess is that someone familiar with the Pence administration gave him this rationale.
Bradner didn’t even suggest he had a source for his speculation, much less someone inside the Pence administration. The position of state GOP chairman is too important to appoint someone simply for the purpose of trying to block someone else from running for statewide office, for a position that really isn’t even high profile.
I think it’s a two bird, one stone situation. Berry is probably a fine choice for GOP chair. But, if Mourdock intended to run for Auditor, this a good way of discouraging those plans.
If Club for Growth wants Mourdock to run for something, they’ll run him regardless who is in charge of the Indiana GOP.
It is complete nonsense that Lugar would have easily won another term! Democrats would have pounded him endlessly about his residencey, his 30 years of commiting voter fraud, and possibly even his corruption as Mayor in Indy! Lugar deserved to lose the primary and has only himself to blame for his loss!
Lots of us Democrats liked Senator Lugar and voted for him. This was mostly because of his expertise in foreign affairs, not his votes on domestic issues. Most of us Democrats who did vote for him recognize the importance of foreign policy to this nation, and are not willing to throw it under the bus because of false and vindictive accusations about things that are not related to that. Along with Albert J. Beveridge, he was one of the greatest senators Indiana ever had, and just like Beveridge, he was thrown out by his own narrow minded party over silly irrelevant issues. Oh, the irony.
Democrats didn’t even field a candidate against Lugar in the last election.
And none of the “issues” you mention are actual issues, nor do they matter to anyone save the lunatic fringe who is dragging the Republican Party to irrelevancy and election loss after election lost.
Dan Coats moved back to Indiana 5 minutes before the last election and still won. Somehow residency doesn’t matter when a guy lives in South Carolina for a decade after running away from a potential election loss, but it does matter for Lugar after he has represented Indiana and this country for 30 years.
The Tea Party crowd should look at themselves in the mirror and be ashamed at how they treated an honorable man.
Your exclamation points notwithstanding, I disagree. Sen. Lugar’s mortal sin was working a little bit with Obama. The general election electorate wouldn’t have cared much about any of the stuff that lost him the primary.
The difference is that Dan Coats as much as I dislike him did not falsify his address on his voter registration for 3 plus decades! And Coats didn’t lie about the fact he had lived in South Carolina Big Difference! As for honorable read Dick Cady’s Deadline Indianapolis as well as the Indianapolis Star’s archivies from Lugar’s time as mayor you will find he has always been a corrupt piece of trash! Lugar admits he sold his house at 3200 Highwoods Court in 1977 that and then he stubbornly for months refused to change his address on his voter registration even though by that time he had been caught! As for voters voting against him in the GOP Primary for working with Obama so what! The voters have every right to vote against a politician in a primary or otherwise for whatever reason they wish! If any of you tried to do half the voter fraud Lugar did you would all be doing hard time! But fortunately for Lugar he was a US Senator and the laws do not apply to him!
And fortunately for the Democrats, Murdock was an extremist and Donnelly was elected. A lose-win.
None of those issues mattered until the Republican primary turned into a loyalty test more than a test of competency for the far, far, far right.
The far, far, far right would rather have someone who gambled and lost with state funds on Chrysler than someone with a clue about how to be a Senator.
Fortunately for everyone, Mourdock couldn’t stop talking in that last debate and made clear his incompetence to the entire world. Indiana voters then sent someone competent to Washington DC to replace the competent individual who held the office before. Indiana and the United States would have been the poorer with Richard Mourdock representing the state of Indiana in the Senate.
So you don’t think voter fraud is a legitimate issue? What world do you live in pal? Have you even bothered to research Lugar to see how corrupt he is? Having silly views isn’t a crime you know! Good thing for you!
Voter fraud is a legitimate issue, ask Charlie White. If Richard Lugar was guilty of voter fraud, he would not have been allowed to run, no?
I live in a world that realizes to get anything done, you have to compromise. You don’t get your way all the time. My world is not “my way or the highway” on every single issue known to man. That’s the world that some in the Republican Party live in, and they are running the party – one I was in until recently – into irrelevance.
You are correct that you can vote for whomever you want for whatever reason. I am also free to think you are doing Indiana and America a great disservice by inventing reasons to send people who are not qualified to represent Indiana in the Senate.
Fortunately for all of us, there are more Hoosiers who agree with me and, given the choice between Richard Mourdock and Joe Donnelly, made the right choice.
Huzzah.
Sorry, I meant to say “issues” in quotes. As in, those were not issues. Those were excuses and poor ones at that.
If you voted for Mourdock, you should question your decision-making and values.
When ideology trumps competency, you know you are in trouble.