Richard Mourdock: Q & A with Indiana’s GOP Senate nominee

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney campaigns with Senate candidate Richard Mourdock (R-Ind.) at Stepto’s BBQ Shack in Evansville, Ind., on Saturday.
(Charles Dharapak – AP)

On a fund-raising trip to Evansville, Ind. this weekend, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney appeared alongside Republican senatorial candidate Richard Mourdock, the state treasurer and tea party favorite, in Mourdock’s hometown.

A week earlier in Indianapolis, I spoke to Mourdock about his race against Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly, a former small business owner from outside South Bend. Polling released this week shows the contest is a dead heat.

Q: How much help do you expect Mitt Romney to give you in November?

A: People are so fearful of where this economy is going, they don’t want to support [Democrats.] He will be a big help, but I take nothing for granted. I’d have said [Obama] wouldn’t win in ’08, either, but he did.

Mourdock’s opponent, Rep. Joe Donnelly, shakes hands during Dyngus Day on April 9, 2012, at the West Side Democratic Club in South Bend, Ind.
(James Brosher – AP)

Q: Do you worry about how you’re going to win over more moderate Lugar Republicans? [Mourdock bested longtime Senate Republican Dick Lugar in the primary.]

A: I worry about everything every day, so of course I do. But the primary showed Indiana voters look past negative attacks. Lugar spent a lot on negative attacks and it didn’t work.

Q: How does addressing a tea party convention [in Dallas the day before] help you with those voters?

A: People will have to make their own judgment on the fact I was asked to speak to a national conservative meeting, but I was proud to stand alongside [South Carolina Republican Senator] Jim DeMint [and other tea party heroes.]

Q: Have you been in touch with Lugar or his people? [This was four days before Lugar introduced Mourdock at a Republican senatorial lunch in Washington.]

A: Not directly, no. But in the end, he is a Republican.

Q: You didn’t endorse Romney or anyone else in the primary, right?

You can read the rest of this article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/post/richard-mourdock-a-q-and-a-with-indianas-gop-senatorial-nominee/2012/08/05/ca11ceee-df0d-11e1-8fc5-a7dcf1fc161d_blog.html