The Indiana Democratic Party lavished praise on Senator Richard Lugar who was defeated Tuesday night in the Republican primary by State Treasurer Richard Mourdock.

"Like all Hoosiers, we owe Senator Lugar a debt of gratitude for his long and storied career," said Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker.

But the fact is Parker and the Democratic Party saw Lugar's demise coming and were rooting for it...and trying to steer Lugar-friendly, Indianapolis Democrats
away from the moderate Republican Senator.

About 50,000 Indy-area Democrats were sent mailers specifically asking them to support Democratic primaries candidates including Congressman Joe Donnelly running in the un-contested party senate nomination race.

Why the mailers? Lugar was mayor of Indianapolis in the early 70's and has always enjoyed cross-party support. And the fact was the Indiana Democratic Party knew early on Lugar was more popular with Democrats than Republicans.

The state Democratic Party shared with Fox News internal polling data from January showing only 28% of Hoosier Republicans thought Lugar deserved to be re-elected. 39 percent state Democrats polled thought Lugar should get another term. (Lugar did best among Independent voters. Forty-one percent favored another six-years for Lugar.) (read more)

"This is another exhilarating opportunity," Richard Lugar told reporters as the six-term Republican senator hunted votes Monday afternoon at the Wesley Manor retirement community in Frankfort, Ind.

Lugar does not dispute poll number that show him trailing in Tuesday's Republican primary to state treasurer Richard Mourdock.

For many Hoosiers, Lugar has been their senator for most, if not all, of their lives. But Lugar faces the very real possibility of defeat. 

Later Monday afternoon, Mourdock held a brief campaign stop at a church in West Lafayette.

"Mr. Lugar is my opponent," said  Mourdock, "not my enemy."

Mourdock is confident victory is within his campaign's grasp.

"I think people are going to be surprised how many counties we win," he said.

The late-breaking front-runner also described a primary effort in which 3,000 volunteers will spend primary day camped at 1,300 key Republican precincts, trying to pick up last-minute votes as people enter those polling places.

"The winds of change are blowing," said Mourdock.

The Club for Growth political action committee has made what it calls a "substantial" TV ad buy in Indiana.

"If you live in Indiana, you will see this ad," says Club For Growth PAC spokesman Barney Keller.

The ad will run on both broadcast and cable outlets in the Hoosier State. 

Keller would not disclose the amount of the buy from the political arm of fiscally conservative advocacy group.

The Howry Politics blog puts the number at $1.8 million.
The ad asks Hoosiers to call Lugar's Senate offices about his record which includes votes for increased taxes on gasoline and social security and against spending cuts.

The ad buy helps cut into Lugar's big cash advantage in this suddenly hotly contested primary battle against State Treasurer Richard Mourdock.

In the most recent quarterly filing on December 31st, 2011; the Lugar campaign reported $4 million cash on-hand.

By contrast, The Mourdock campaign had just a little over $360,000.

The most recent polls on this race suggest Lugar's lead over Mourdock is down to a single-digit margin with the primary set for May 8th.

The Marion County Election Board today voted 2-1 to strip Senator Richard Lugar and his wife of their eligibility to vote. The vote reportedly fell along partisan lines; two Democratic members voting for the motion to revoke the Lugars' registration, the lone Republican member voting against.

The six-term Republican US Senator has acknowledged his voter registration is linked to his former Indianapolis home which he sold decades ago. Lugar's current residence is in the Washington suburb of McLean, Virginia.

"Since Senator Lugar took office, he and Mrs. Lugar have scrupulously complied with Indiana law. The Lugars have also sought and followed the express direction of every legitimate government authority to have addressed the question," said Lugar spokesman Andy Fisher.

Lugar maintains he remains eligible to vote in Indiana based on the state constitution which reads: "No person shall be deemed to have lost his residence in the State, by reason of absence, either on business of the State or of the United States."

Additionally, three state Attorneys General have supported Lugar's Indiana residency first validated in an opinion by Attorney General Linley Pearson, back in 1982.

But in 1995 state election law was changed to define a candidate's residence as a "person's true, fixed, and permanent home...to which the person has...the intention of returning." (read more)

Voters are less than three weeks out from the biggest contested Republican primary of Super Tuesday on March 6. 

That's Ohio, the always-critical presidential battleground state.

Lots of excitement? Lots of activity? Lots of money being spent?

No, no ... and no.

For now, it is a low-budget, low-key affair in the Ohio nominating contest.

In terms of campaign visits to Ohio, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum have yet to make a stop here (though Santorum will be in Ohio on Friday).

Newt Gingrich's first swing through the Buckeye State was just last week. Mitt Romney has made a couple of visits.

That's it. 

Ditto grassroots campaign operations.

"(That's) largely non-existent," said Chris Littleton, a Paul supporter in Westchester. 

So, without a campaign to work for, some banded together to create their own presidential political operation. 

Littleton said, "There are many of us who decided ... we didn't see the campaigns were going to engage in a large level, so we decided to do it for ourselves." (read more)

The answer depends on who you ask.

The Indiana Democratic Party has combed through records going all the way back to Lugar's first year in the Senate, 1977.

The hundreds of pages of itemized travel expenses were passed along to Fox News. Among the findings offered by the party is that the six-term US Senator has spend almost $50,000 in travel expenses just visiting his home state.

The expenses are necessary, in part, because Lugar has no home in Indiana. The Indiana Senator lives in the Washington DC suburb of McLean, Virginia. So, virtually every time Lugar stays in Indiana there's an added cost.

"At the very least, Senator Lugar should be compelled to better explain the more than twenty years worth of taxpayer dollars used to fund his travel expenses in Indiana," says state Democratic party chairman Dan Parker.

Another of the Indiana Democratic Party's findings puts a finer point on the issue. It says Lugar appears to have expensed 325 nights in Indiana over a 21-year period, from 1990 through 2011.

The suggestion is that Lugar's time in the state has been limited to less than a year over the course of two-plus decades. The Lugar campaign says that suggestion is completely false.

"(Senator Lugar) spends a quarter of the year, every year in the state," says campaign spokesman David Wilkie. (read more)

In Iowa, caucus campaigns are won and lost AWAY from the podium where the candidate is speaking.

"What I look for is are they actually signing people up?...and how do they actually do that?", says Craig Robinson, founder of the political blog TheIowaRepublican.com.

Robinson explains successful caucus efforts are often won and lost at the campaign events by staffers and volunteers working the crowds. What they're after is names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses. That contact data is gold.

"And as fast as you can," says Robinson, "you need to get it to your campaign office, so they can have a staffer follow-up."

Then, the barrage of contact is on.

"If they'll share an e-mail and a phone number with us...we will absolutely stay in touch. Give 'em a call and encourage 'em to come out on caucus night," says David Fischer, vice-chairman of Ron Paul's Iowa campaign.

At this stage, each week caucus campaigns are expected to be making tens of thousands of phone calls to potential caucus-goers. It is not unusual for a single Iowa household to get a half-dozen or more calls every evening from competing campaigns that have also plumbed the depth of voter registration information.

Ron Paul's campaign is viewed in Iowa as having built the best organization.

"Very strong," says Chuck Launder who consults for the Rick Santorum campaign, "Ron Paul has been at it for four or five years. You gotta give those guys their credit." (read more)

(With apologies to Hank Williams, Jr.)

Those Sioux City-bound for Thursday night's Fox News Republican presidential candidates debate should prepare for a "rowdy crowd."

Iowa Republican Party Chairman Matt Strawn predicts a loud and charged-up audience for the final debate before the Jan. 3 caucuses.

In addition to being the last in a long series of pre-caucus/primary debates, Strawn notes the crowd should be very different from previous audiences, including the most recent debate on Saturday night hosted by ABC.

Watch the Fox News debate on Thursday at 9 p.m. ET from the Sioux City Convention Center.

First of all, Strawn points out a large bloc of tickets to Saturday's debate went to the host, Drake University. The Fox News debate audience will include far more partisans.

"We could have (given away) another 1,000 tickets (for the debate)," Strawn said.

Adding to the excitement is that this remarkably is the first presidential debate in Sioux City, the heart of red-dirt Republican territory.

"People out there are psyched for this," Strawn said. 

Topping it off are the stakes surrounding the debate.

"If a candidate doesn't have momentum by then, this may be the last chance to get it (before the caucuses)," said long-time GOP activist Chuck Laudner. (read more)

Still no consensus from The FAMiLY Leader, one of several social conservative groups in Iowa, on which GOP presidential candidate to back.

Board members continued deliberating Tuesday, but Bob Vander Plaats, the CEO of the group says that despite a conference call yesterday, there is "nothing new to report". Vander Plaats says The FAMiLY Leader board is still working on narrowing its list of four candidates to back: Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum.

"I think the board is where 80% of Iowans are, they can be persuaded," explains Vander Plaats. The Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition has announced it will not endorse any candidate. The president of the group, Steve Scheffler, who is also an RNC committee member, says he will not personally endorse a candidate either.

Similarly, Iowa Right-to-Life's board of directors have decided not to back a single candidate, and its executive director Jenifer Bowen will also abstain from endorsing a presidential candidate.

There is a persistent concern among social conservatives, which includes the state's politically active Evangelical Christians, that without consensus self-described "pro-family" candidate Mitt Romney may win the Iowa Caucuses, and perhaps roll-up the Republican nomination early. (read more)

"Oh, no-one knows what goes on behind closed doors..."
-Charlie Rich

Fox News has learned there will be another meeting Monday of what could be called Iowa's ‘Coalition of the Anxious'.

After the Thanksgiving weekend is over, some of Iowa's social conservative leaders will gather for a second time.

"There is a lot of concern from different organizations and churches who want to know is there a candidate who can defeat Mitt Romney?", says Bob Vander Plaats.

Vander Plaats, CEO of The Family Leader, was not at the 1st meeting but was briefed on it.

Vander Plaats explains social conservatives have become nervous that Romney, despite sparingly visiting Iowa, could walk away with a victory in the first-in-the-nation nominating contest.

"(Romney) has managed to hold on residual support (from his 2008 Iowa Caucus campaign)", notes Vander Plaats.

Indeed, Romney has been the one candidate this year always in the top tier on every presidential preference poll in Iowa, placing no worse than third in any survey.

Social conservatives in Iowa have had an open distaste for Romney. Bob Vander Plaats, CEO of The Family Leader, another social conservative group says, "(Romney) has been passionate on both sides of every issue." (read more)