How a Dedicated Group of Tea Party Activists Toppled Richard Lugar
By Sean Sullivan
May 9 2012, 7:56 AM ET
Richard Mourdock (left) and Richard Lugar at an April debate in
Indianapolis. / Associated Press
The Tea Party, an unsteady movement that was beginning to resemble a wayward ship in 2012, found its north star in Indiana on Tuesday night.
State Treasurer Richard Mourdock defeated six-term Sen. Richard Lugar in the Republican primary, a victory owing to the incumbent's inept campaign, the outside groups that lashed him on the air, and a story about his out-of-state residency that would not go away. But well before those issues got a foothold, a grassroots-driven, local movement to unseat Lugar was well under way.
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Mourdock's competence as a candidate helped his cause. He hasn't yet committed the kind of gaffes we saw from O'Donnell, Sharron Angle, or Miller in 2010. Notably, he doesn't refer to himself as a Tea Party candidate, either. But that doesn't bother activists. "I don't want him to be painted in a corner," Boyer said. "I think that's what happened in the other states" like Nevada, where Angle ran.
More: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/05/how-a-dedicated-group-of-tea-party-activists-toppled-richard-lugar/256914/
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