This is a class blog for the students of POLSCI 426: Congressional Politics at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

Richard Lugar, the Grandfather of the Indiana GOP, fights for reelection

Richard Lugar fights for reelection

This article about 7 time incumbent GOP representative out of Indiana, Richard Lugar fights for another election. It presses on the difficulty of not only winning the election but winning the primary as well. Lugar, long-time incumbent now know as a "Washingtonian" more than an Indiana Hoosier still has the ability to outfinance his competition but fights to prove that he still worries about the issues that press the constituents of Indiana, even though he's lived in Washington for so long. I think this brings up a lot of the issues we discussed in class, like how incumbents win a strong majority of the time, especially when the article states that Lugar hasn't been involved in a close race since 1972!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

It makes sense that Lugar is facing a primary challenge, he's got a longtime reputation for being among the more moderate Republicans in the Senate. And past that, his legislative reputation is based on his foreign policy expertise. Not too many primary voters are thinking about foreign policy these days.

Jacob Goehl said...

Great point! Lugar is such a centrist there were a lot of people towards the end of 2008 speculating that he may have been considered for a major position in the current administration! He would be a huge loss to the Senate as far as a voice of reason when it comes to I.R.

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