The Tea Party and the 2012 Indiana elections

This, and another article from the 2012 Indiana elections, on how Indiana's new Senator, Joe Donnelle, ran on a platform in 2012 that was Tea Party Light, were both originally published on Examiner.com that year, and are reprinted on "Politically Incorrect Leftist" because they have stood the teat of time:  they are both still highly relevant to today's politics--GF

Indiana is traditionally a very conservative state with a penchant not only for electing Republicans, but also a state where Democrats tend to be Blue Dogs and Republicans outright reactionaries.  But Indiana can also surprise on that.  In 2008, while incumbent Republican Governor Mitch Daniels and Senate hopeful Dan Coats beat their Democratic opponents by nearly two-to-one margins, Obama narrowly carried the state by 30,000 votes. Governor Daniels, a fiscal conservative who enthusiastically signed into law bills that established Indiana as a right-to-work state and cut unemployment benefits, and said that unions were no longer needed, also called for a Republican “truce” on divisive social issues—even as he signed into law the defunding of Planned Parenthood in Indiana (however, a federal district court issued a preliminary injunction against defunding).  Richard Lugar, a long-established moderate Republican who’d served as Indiana Senator since 1976 and earned the respect of Democrats as well as Republicans, lost to Tea Party-backed insurgent challenger (and state Treasurer) Richard Mourdock in May’s primary by a 61%-39% margin—but Lugar isn’t campaigning for Mourdock, and Mourdock’s Tea Party support could make him Indiana’s Sharon Angle or Christine O’Donnell in the tight Senatorial race with Democrat Joe Donnelly.  Angle and O’Donnell, Tea Party-backed Senatorial challengers who handily defeated more moderate Republicans in the Nevada and Delaware primaries in 2010, respectively, went on to major defeats in the general election. 

 

Now, with Mourdock and Donnelly running neck-to-neck, with latest polls showing them in a statistical tie, a Donnelly win would help ensure Democratic control of the Senate.  Whereas Lugar was nearly invincible each time he ran, Mourdock clearly is not; and his hardball campaign against Lugar in the primary has alienated a lot of moderate Republicans and conservative to moderate Democrats who would’ve gladly supported the six-term Senator.  That handily-received Tea Party endorsement that was an asset to Mourdock in the primary could well turn out to be a serious liability in the general election.  That, and non-support from Lugar Republicans. 

 

Joe Donnelly certainly hopes so, and is vigorously trying to appeal to disaffected Lugar supporters as well as portray Mourdock as a Tea Party extremist.  Mourdock, for his part, is now trying to tack to the center, portraying himself as a typical Indiana conservative rather than a Tea Party fanatic, and trying to make what political hay he can by vaguely referencing Lugar’s stated wish after the primary that he hoped for a Republican majority in the Senate (which a Mourdock victory could enable).  But Lugar’s office recently slammed as unauthorized a mailing from an outside group that claimed Lugar support for Mourdock, and Lugar himself has refused to campaign for Mourdock.

 

Another Republican candidate with strong Tea Party ties is Mike Pence, a six-term Congressman running for Governor against Democrat John Gregg.  Only this race isn’t even close—at least not yet.  Pence has a two-digit lead over Gregg in statewide polls, has far outdone him in fund-raising, and has been further aided by an initially lackadaisical campaign on Gregg’s part, along with his inability to rally Democrats and reach out to women and independents.  But Gregg has been aggressively trying to change that lately, pointedly reaching out to disaffected Lugar supporters, attacking Pence’s ultraconservative record as Congressman, and his fixation on divisive social issues such as being staunchly anti-abortion, supporting a cutoff of all federal funding for Planned Parenthood for any purpose, defining marriage as only between a man and a woman, and a family as consisting of a married man and woman only couple as heads of household (single-parent households would thus not count as families, nor would households where heads of household were not married, or of the same gender).   Pence also wants to put into Indiana law a stipulation that no other state has—that each piece of proposed legislation be subject to an impact study on how it would affect such “traditional” families as defined above.

 

Gregg has also been actively pointing to Pence’s unabashed Tea Party support and participation—regularly speaking at Tea Party rallies, and being the first member of the Republican Congressional leadership to join Michele Bachmann’s Tea Party Congressional caucus.  To counter this, Pence, like Mourdock, has been trying to tack to the center—emphasizing on the campaign trail job creation, economic development, and restructuring education to give more emphasis to vocational training rather than college prep.  But Gregg and the Democrats charge that this soft-pedaling of social issues that Pence engages in now could all change in January 2013 should Pence become Governor, and have the power to force his prior widely-publicized far-right social agenda, which Gregg calls “social engineering.” Pence is also widely considered as planning to use his Indiana gubernatorial victory, should it come, as a springboard from which to launch himself as a future Republican candidate for President. 

 

Both Gregg and Donnelly are conservative Democrats.  Donnelly, a Congressman from Indiana’s northwestern Second District, is a member of the House Blue Dog caucus, while Gregg, former Speaker of the Indiana House from 1996-2002 who describes himself as a “gun-totin’, Bible-quotin’ Southern Indiana Democrat,” was Honorary Chair of the Hillary Clinton for President Indiana Campaign in 2008.  And while Donnelly supported aspects of Obama’s program such as the bailout and Obamacare, he’s also dissented from other aspects of it:  he supports building the Keystone XL pipeline, and opposes cap-and-trade legislation. 

 

While Gregg chose liberal present Indiana House Minority Leader Vi Simpson as his running mate for Lieutenant Governor and actively worked with liberal Democrats and Republicans as Speaker of the Indiana House, he implores prospective voters to “Look beyond the party label” in this conservative state that last elected a Democratic Governor in 2000.  Donnelly calls for tax cuts for small businesses to create jobs and supports a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, conservative measures criticized by this writer in his Examiner.com article, “Democratic Senatorial candidate Joe Donnelly’s jobs program is Tea Party Light,” reposted on "Politically Incorrect Leftist."

 

As for Indiana grassroots Tea Party activists, they are enthusiastically working for both Pence and Mourdock.  A news story from Indianapolis TV station WTHR, “Mourdock finding support among Tea Party,”  http://www.wthr.com/story/19608135/mourdock-finding-support-among-tea-party, quotes Indiana Tea Party activist Greg Fettig as saying that while Mourdock never said he was a Tea Party candidate, “The Tea Party claimed him.”  Fettig said this as he delivered a bundle of pro-Mourdock signs to a fellow Tea Partier for placing, 25,000 planed for strategic placement in Central Indiana alone.  WTHR political analyst Robin Winston says of the Indiana Tea Party and Mourdock, “He was bought and paid for by them and supported by them.”  Dr. Theo wrote enthusiastically in the conservative Dakota Voice of a 2010 “Get Out the Vote” rally in Plainfield, Indiana, where both Richard Mourdock and Mike Pence spoke, that was sponsored and organized by the Indianapolis Tea Party.  (Plainfield is a small town to the west of Indianapolis; the link to the story is http://www.dakotavoice.com/2010/10/pence-and-murdoch-at-indianapolis-tea-party/)

 

Of course, Pence always had Tea Party support in Indiana because of his open affiliation with the Party at the national level.  The Tea Party at Perrysburg blog gushed on January 18, 2012 that Pence had already raised $5 million for his campaign. (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/9/tea-party-wins-in-indiana/) But William Teach admonished Pence in the June 17, 2010 Right Wing News for trying to tie the Tea Party movement to a moral agenda that was heavy on social issues such as support for “traditional” marriage and against abortion instead of focusing exclusively on political issues such as limited government, “loyalty to the U.S. Constitution” and individual liberty. (http://www.rightwingnews.com/republicans/mike-pence-states-tea-party-should-also-focus-on-morality/) Of course, sentiment such as Teach’s is not shared by many Tea Partiers, who are enthusiastic supporters of draconian social legislation such as Pence endorses.  Further, Kentucky Senator and Tea Party supporter Rand Paul avidly praised both the Tea Party and Murodck’s primary victory over Lugar in the conservative Washington Times of May 9, 2012. (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/may/9/tea-party-wins-in-indiana/)

 

However, in mid-October a Tea Party group in northeastern Indiana was forced by the property owner to move a billboard comparing Obama to Osama Bin Laden from its original spot near the Allen Co. line (Indiana’s second-largest city, Ft. Wayne, is located in Allen Co.). (http://www.courier-journal.com/viewart/20121015/NEWS0203/310150113/Indiana-tea-party-group-forced-move-anti-Obama-sign)  In September, John Gregg got into trouble for calling Mike Pence a “Teabagger,” a term many Tea Party members consider a slur. (http://blogs.wishtv.com/2012/09/10/did-john-gregg-direct-a-slur-at-mike-pence/)  And in early October an outside group supporting Gregg, Believe in Indiana, posted ads in Indianapolis and Ft. Wayne that show Pence speaking at a 2011 Tea Party rally in Washington, D.C. and tying him to Mourdock as “Tea Party and extreme.” (http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/politics/new-ad-attacks-mike-pence)   Tensions and tempers are running high this election season in Indiana.

 

As is seen from the above, the Mourdock-Donnelly and Gregg-Pence races, and the role of the Tea Party in each, are generating a lot of media attention, far more than usual in Indiana elections.  And this attention is not just confined to Indiana media.  Nationally-read newspapers such as the Louisville Courier-Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and Slate have all run stories on these races and the significance of Tea Party involvement, and the defeat of Richard Lugar by Richard Mourdock was a national story as well. Mike Pence and his political career and predilections have long been items of national interest, and have generated further commentary in such Internet outlets as the Daily Kos, Politico and Talking Points Memo.  Indiana newsman Brian Howey published a piece on the vicissitudes of John Gregg’s campaign that was reprinted widely. (Linked at http://www.nwitimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/brian-howey/brian-howey-the-curious-campaign-of-john-gregg/article_bd0c126f-2010-5982-9e79-f774baa6cd8d.html)   From these extensive media sources both nationally and in Indiana this writer has drawn much of the material from which this story has been composed—and the links that carry these items of reference,  while far too numerous to list, show up readily on Internet search. 

 

Indiana is normally a sleepy place for news, even local news, so it’s really unusual for such media attention to be drawn to anything Hoosier outside of the Indianapolis Colts.  However, these are unusual elections, and considerably more than usual rides on the outcomes.

 

Riding especially on the outcome of the Mourdock-Donnelly race are control of the Senate and the political future of the Tea Party, both intertwined.  The Tea Party’s had a history of winning handily with its candidates in the Republican primaries, only to lose by large margins in the general elections, and turn what should’ve been easy victories for Republicans for Senatorial seats into resounding defeats and major victories for Democrats.  It happened three times in 2010, with Sharon Angle in Nevada, Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, and Ken Buck in Colorado.  It could happen again twice in 2012:  had Lugar won the Republican primary, he would’ve been close to invincible in November; and had Todd Akin not won the Missouri primary against the  Republican establishment candidate, that seat, too, would’ve probably gone to the GOP.  As it is, Akin, who notoriously bawled that women never get pregnant in cases of “legitimate rape,” is in a tight race with Democratic former underdog Claire McCaskill; and Akin’s candidacy has been essentially disavowed by the Missouri Republican Party because of that remark.  While political handicapper Charlie Cook gave the Republicans a 60%-70% chance to gain control of the Senate in 2011, he now gives a 60% chance to the Democrats to stay in control.  (The information for the above comes from Dana Milbank’s October 19, 2012 column in the Washington Post, “The Tea Party is helping Democrats,” which has been syndicated widely; link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-the-tea-party-is-helping-democrats/2012/10/19/815e07e0-1a08-11e2-aa6f-3b636fecb829_story.html)   Tea, anyone?