November match-up taking shape for Indiana's US Senate seat - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

The race for Indiana's Senate seat is no longer a foregone conclusion after Indiana state treasurer Richard Mourdock handed Sen. Richard Lugar a resounding defeat Tuesday night.

Mourdock handily beat Indiana's longest-serving senator 61 to 39 percent. To those who have been following the race, his victory is not all that surprising. "Retire Lugar" signs dotted front yards in metro Indianapolis and surrounding counties, and Mourdock capitalized on anti-incumbent sentiment coupled with questions over Lugar's residency.

"The biggest thing was for a long, long time, Senator Lugar has been out of touch with this state," Mourdock said.

In a show of unity, Governor Mitch Daniels publicly endorsed the GOP nominee and tried to direct Mourdock's campaign back to the middle.

"He comes right out of the heart, the main stream of our party," Daniels said.

Despite Tea Party endorsements during the run up to the primary, Mourdock appeared Wednesday to be distancing himself from the Tea Party as he embraced the GOP. Call it the race to the middle - when candidates realize that partisan politics may work for the primary, but won't result in a November victory where they'll need broader electorate support.

"The Democratic party is very good about trying to put labels on people. The first label is that Mourdock is a wild-eyed Tea Party guy. I've already been getting that from the national media today. I have been swimming in the pool of Republican politics for a long time. I love this party," he said.

But Mourdock's Democratic rival Joe Donnelly challenged that.

"The reason they wanted to come out front and say he's not a Tea Party guy is because he is, because his actions reflect that. When you see the things Richard Mourdock did, he tried to destroy the American automotive industry," Donnelly said.

Donnelly did his share of basking as well, using his national appearance on the same MSNBC show to accuse Mourdock of trying to destroy the auto manufacturing industry in Indiana.

"The number one issue is jobs," he said.

"Mr. Donnelly has a record he's going to have to defend, that I don't think is going to be very popular with most Indiana voters when it goes from things like the stimulus plan to Obamacare."

But Donnelly turned that accusation into an invitation to pay tribute to Lugar, who voted in favor of the auto bailout.

"If you want the definition of statesman, how is that? A man who knew, when I take this vote, it will probably hurt me politically, but it's a lot more important to do what is right for the republic than to worry about your own political career," Donnelly said.

Clearly, that was Donnelly's attempt to claim the center. Perhaps the most interesting fallout from Tuesday's election was not what Lugar said, but the statement he released afterward, when he said Mourdock's unrelenting partisan mindset will lead to little accomplishment as a legislator.

"My idea of bipartisanship, frankly, going forward, is to make sure we have such a Republican majority going forward in the U.S. House, U.S. Senate and in the White House, that it will be bipartisanship by having Democrats come our way," Mourdock said.

"Only in Washington D.C., or in Richard Mourdock's world is more fighting and more partisanship a good thing. I think it is clear it is not," Donnelly said.

From WTHR's studios earlier this morning, Mourdock talked about what decided his victory.

"I think ultimately it probably was much the underlying anger against Congress. That was certainly exacerbated with the issue when the residency was brought up that Sen. Lugar has been away from Indiana for so very long, that was an issue. But what we really noticed starting to change the tide was after the debate of April 11th. It seemed at that point Republicans voters were ready to vote for someone else," Mourdock said.

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