'Tea party' hero may upset GOP veteran

INDIANAPOLIS — INDIANAPOLIS For roughly two decades, Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock toiled in the trenches of the state Republican Party, losing more races than he won. But along the way he made a name for himself among GOP loyalists, tirelessly working the fundraising circuit and building a strong network of ground-level support.

Now Mourdock, a 60-year-old geologist, is on the brink of handing the "tea party" its biggest victory of the 2012 elections: Sen. Richard Lugar's seat.

Mourdock "is the real deal. He didn't arrive in 2012 and try to develop a platform that would attract conservative voters to him. He attracts conservative voters to him because he's a conservative," said Mike Fichter, president of Indiana Right to Life, who cut his teeth in politics working on Mourdock's first unsuccessful run for Congress in 1988 and has repaid the favor by endorsing him over Lugar, a six-term senator.

It was unthinkable just month ago that anyone could topple Lugar, let alone a little-known state treasurer. But like the marathon runner he is, Mourdock has steadily chipped away at Lugar's base with a successful campaign questioning the senator's residency and conservative credentials.

With the primary election on Tuesday, Mourdock appears to have evened the odds in what began as a David vs. Goliath battle. Recent polls show momentum on Mourdock's side, and that has emboldened conservatives eager to shake up Washington.

"If we win here, we are going to win the election," said Josh Eboch, campaign manager for the tea-party umbrella group FreedomWorks, as he rallied Mourdock supporters in a heavily Republican Indianapolis suburb on a recent afternoon.

At first blush, Mourdock seems an unlikely dragon slayer. A two-term state treasurer, he lacks the dashing presence of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and the fiery rhetoric of tea-party standard-bearers like Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh and Florida Rep. Allen West. Before his 2006 election as state treasurer, an office that carries little name recognition, Mourdock's only political experience consisted of two terms as a commissioner in the southern Indiana county that includes Evansville.

But the anti-incumbent sentiment that fueled the tea party's growth in 2010 and an unexpected court fight that thrust Mourdock into the national spotlight may change all that in Indiana, home to one of the nation's most organized tea-party movements.

Mourdock, a former coal-mining executive who enjoys tinkering with motorcycles and building race cars, has built a reputation as a GOP loyalist since that first run for Congress in 1988. He's a regular at party events ranging from large annual Lincoln Day dinners that are the staple of fundraising to picnics with as few as two people. He's so accustomed to delivering speeches about Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan that he seldom needs notes.

"The first time we had him speak there was very, very little applause, and it was a speech about Abraham Lincoln, and we wondered: 'Did it bomb or what?' And then we realized that everyone was so reverent and spellbound that when it was over, it took a while for it to sink in," said Morgan County Republican Party Chairman Marty Weaver.

That helps illustrate the differences between Mourdock and Lugar, whom many county leaders say has ignored their fundraising dinners for years.

But while Mourdock's loyalty has kept him on the party's A-list, it was his role as the keeper of Indiana's bottom line that pushed him to the forefront.

In 2009, Mourdock launched what some saw as a quixotic bid to block the federal bailout of Chrysler, saying it violated bankruptcy law by giving unsecured creditors more than secured creditors, including some Indiana employee pension funds. He lost when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to rule on his objections, but won national recognition from conservatives looking for someone willing to challenge the status quo.

"I would just be another guy from Indianapolis coming to events like this, if it hadn't been for Chrysler," Mourdock told the party faithful during the Morgan County dinner. "Chrysler defined me as the guy from Indianapolis who will take a stand, the guy who will fight for something."

Yet his opposition to the Chrysler bailout is also his biggest weakness with voters who question the $2.8million tab for legal fees in the case, as well as the threat the challenge posed to the auto industry, a backbone of Indiana's manufacturing-dependent economy.

"The guy was trying to take our jobs away," said Richie Boruff, president of the United Autoworkers Local 685 representing Chrysler workers in Kokomo, Ind. He's asking members to vote for Lugar, whether they're Republican or Democrat.

Even so, there's a sense that Mourdock is on the brink of something big. Even some longtime Lugar supporters are signaling it's time for a change.

"I think sometimes if you're in office too long, you think you become bigger than the office and you no longer represent Indiana. And in that regard, maybe Dick Lugar is an anachronism," said Lawrence County Republican Party Chairman Sam Bond, who first volunteered for Lugar as a student in 1976. Bond said he still respects the senator, but believes Lugar has become engulfed by a system that shuns change.

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Perry's Debate Performance in Florida Leads to Herman Cain Upset (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Rick Perry blew his opportunity to become the Republican nominee for president after his performance in the Florida Republican presidential debate on Thursday. Herman Cain benefited most from Perry's awkward performance in the televised debate before the Florida straw poll.

Cain destroyed Perry, capturing 37.1 percent of the votes to Perry's 15.4 percent and Mitt Romney's 14 percent, according to Yahoo! News. The Republicans attending the debate and the straw poll expressed the need for Republicans to separate themselves from the Democrats, who insist on spending the country into bankruptcy.

The unprecedented margin of victory is the perfect statement from the Florida Republicans. Perry has no chance of getting elected and Romney needs to adopt a more conservative approach. Cain's unpolished political skills do not overshadow his passion and his out of the box ideas.

Cain won this straw poll for several reasons. First is Cain's business sense. Cain is not looking to solve the problems with government intervention. His ideas are to unleash business from government regulations and drastically eliminate government waste.

Cain also made points with his 999 plan. The plan deviates from the flat tax or fair tax ideas being floated for a national sales tax. The plan does institute a 9 percent national sales tax, but it also lowers the tax rate for individuals to a 9 percent flat tax as well.

Instead of being bogged down in name calling and attacking his fellow Republicans, Cain has chosen the campaign to push his views of an American economy that allows businesses large and small to flourish and Americans who are willing to work.

Cain has struggled to attain national attention and this weekend's straw poll shows the discontent among Republicans. Why is he suddenly the flavor of the month in Florida? Perry is a stiff and an unappetizing prospect in a national election against the charisma of Barrack Obama and Romney is too moderate in tea party voter's minds.

The time is perfect for Herman Cain to make huge strides in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Cain will need to enhance his presentation of his 999 plan and he will also need to adjust some key foreign policy issues to get the mainstream votes needed but his energy and desire make him a potential player in 2012.

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Herman Cain Wins the GOP Florida Straw Poll in a Huge Upset (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Traditionally the winner of the Florida Republican straw poll has gone on to win the Republican nomination for president. One can imagine the consternation of political pundits when the winner of the 2011 Florida straw poll was Herman Cain.

Herman Cain, the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza, the only black in the race, had thus far occupied a curious spot in the Republican field. He was respected, his speeches were electrifying, his ideas intriguing. But like Steve Forbes in 1996, Cain, a man without prior political experience, was not thought to be capable of winning. One does not aspire to be president of the United States as an entry-level political job.

That may have changed Saturday. Cain won the Florida straw poll decisively, at 37 percent. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, up until now the presumed front runner, was in a distant second place with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney just behind.

How was it that Cain, whom many see as the most interesting man in the race, came to win? The Washington Examiner suggests it was the speech Cain made before the Florida delegates that sealed the deal for him. Partly it was the principle that one gets votes only when one asks for them. Partly is that Cain, with his deep, booming voice and his cadence of a natural born orator, moved the crowd as none of the other candidates could.

Partly, Cain was a beneficiary of Perry's abysmal performance at the Fox News/Google debate. Many of the delegates had been planning on voting for Perry. But the debate performance had sown the seeds of doubt among the Florida delegates. So a new conservative alternative to Romney had to be found. It must have been to the consternation of Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, both former office holders, that the man they choose was a former corporate CEO with no previous political experience.

Another person who must be taken aback is actor Morgan Freeman, who opined the previous day that the tea party was racist in its opposition to President Obama. How can he reconcile that with Cain's victory?

Cain still has long odds. But he has won for himself new respect, with access to media and, perhaps, money. He has turned his campaign to "can't win" into "has a shot." If he can take advantage of the opportunity, he could make history next year.

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GOP looks for upset in race for Calif. House seat (AP)

By MICHAEL R. BLOOD, AP Political Writer Michael R. Blood, Ap Political Writer – Sun Jul 10, 2:28 pm ET

TORRANCE, Calif. – Coastal California is Democratic turf, where the party often rolls up landslide victories for its candidates. In 2008, President Barack Obama scored a 31-point win in the 36th Congressional District, which runs from the famous Venice boardwalk through the beaches south of Los Angeles International Airport.

But this is a different year.

In a season of turbulent politics, a little-noticed runoff election Tuesday for the House seat vacated by former Democratic Rep. Jane Harman has become unusually competitive.

Supporters for the Democratic candidate, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, are jittery, while Republicans see a potential upset in the making for businessman Craig Huey, who owns marketing and advertising companies and has largely bankrolled his campaign with at least $795,000 in personal funds.

"This is the West Coast's `Scott Brown moment,'" the conservative California Republican Assembly wrote to supporters in an email Friday, referring to the Republican senator's upset in Massachusetts last year. Brown won a special election for the Senate seat long held by Democratic Party icon Edward M. Kennedy.

In May, Democrats picked off a New York congressional seat in a heavily Republican district after capitalizing on fears over a Republican plan to roll back Medicare and Social Security benefits, making the GOP eager to turn the tables in California, a reliably Democratic state in national elections.

GOP activists say a Huey upset could be a harbinger for U.S. national elections next year, but it may have little meaning for 2012 in California because legislative and congressional districts are being redrawn by an independent commission.

Despite a commanding 18-point registration edge for Democrats in the district, tallies of mail-in ballots suggest a potentially tight finish. Hahn remains the favorite, but the likelihood of a paltry turnout in a mid-summer special election means a small number of votes could swing the result.

In a state with double-digit unemployment, a housing crisis and government budget problems "voters are cranky and don't feel good about what's going on," said veteran Democratic consultant Bill Carrick.

"The potential for surprises in elections — not just in this election, but in the next year or so — are pretty high," Carrick added.

One unknown is the role of independent voters, who account for 22 percent of the district's electorate. Statewide, voters who decline to state a party preference typically side slightly more with Democrats than Republicans, but also tend to be unpredictable and more fiscally conservative than typical Democrats.

Huey was able to mobilize the district's conservative and tea party voters during the May primary, where he scored a narrow — and somewhat surprising — victory over Democratic Secretary of State Debra Bowen, the third-place finisher. Many had expected Hahn and Bowen to finish 1-2 in the first congressional election under California's new top-two primary system. If no candidate clears 50 percent of the vote to win outright in the primary, the contest is decided in a runoff between the top two finishers.

Tuesday's election provides a stark choice: Hahn, 59, is a labor-backed liberal eager to see the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and growth in the alternative-energy industry; the conservative Huey, 61, has attacked Obama's leadership while promising to help his party slash spending, taxes and debt in Washington.

Underscoring the stakes, the California Republican Assembly is busing in volunteers from as far away as the San Francisco Bay area and San Diego to knock on doors for Huey. Hahn's campaign, which has been piling up debt, pleaded Friday for supporters to send at least $11 to help pay for volunteers to knock on doors.

Organizing for America, the group that provides the Democratic Party's foot-soldiers, is appealing to supporters to make thousands of phone calls.

Retiree Ann Dupuy is a loyal Democrat who has watched a forest of Huey lawn signs sprout in her Redondo Beach neighborhood. She said her son, visiting from Texas, is so alarmed that Hahn might lose that he plans to volunteer for her campaign while he's in California.

Does Dupuy see much enthusiasm for Hahn?

"No," she answered.

With the election scheduled for a July day "it's hard to get people stoked up," she said.

The district's voting history and registration give some perspective to Huey's challenge.

Harman held the seat for eight terms before resigning earlier this year to run a Washington think tank, and in 2008 was re-elected in a 37-point win. Democrats hold a registration edge of 45 percent to 27 percent over Republicans.

Both campaigns have pooled more than $1 million for the race, although Huey's money has come mostly as loans from his own pocket.

Huey has focused his campaign on the economy, but less visible has been his courtship of social conservatives and the church community.

An opponent of abortion rights and gay marriage, Huey has been endorsed by the Government is Not God political committee, which supports candidates "who stand firmly against the unbiblical welfare state." The group supports some of the most conservative members of Congress, and last year backed Nevada Republican Sharron Angle in her bid to oust Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Huey is active in social networking — one Twitter account, which mixes Bible quotes and political commentary, is intended to "help Evangelical Christians vote their values."

He calls Obama's health care overhaul "one of the most irresponsible pieces of legislation in modern history" and has railed against "career politicians," an obvious reference to Hahn.

Hahn is the scion of a political family that counts a Los Angeles mayor and legendary Los Angeles County supervisor in its ranks. She has won a string of high-profile Democratic endorsements, including from former President Bill Clinton.

Her videos have sought to link Huey to Sarah Palin and refer to his agenda as "extremist."

Both sides agree on one thing: The outcome will be decided by turnout — which campaign does a better job of identifying supporters and getting them to the polls.

That might not be easy, given the sour mood of many voters.

Anne Backes of Torrance, a civil engineer and registered Republican, said she expected to vote Tuesday but is undecided.

In recent years "every election I've voted in, I feel like it's the lesser of two evils," said Backes, 49, standing outside a local library. "I'm disappointed in general in the whole system.

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