Mitch Daniels Endorses GOP Sen. Lugar, A Tea Party Target

Indiana Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels on Sunday called embattled Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) a role model and pledged to support Lugar’s re-election despite Tea-Party opposition.

The endorsement of Lugar could further inflame conservative activists grumbling over Daniels’s call for a political truce on social issues and complicate a potential White House bid.

“I’m for Dick Lugar, he’s the role model I’ve had,” Daniels said on NBC’s “Meet the Press”. “Folks in Indiana know that I am for him and that I admire him and think if he wants another term he ought to have one.”

Lugar, the most senior member of the Senate Republican conference, is running for a seventh term against Indiana state treasurer Richard Mourdock, who has Tea-Party backing.

Daniels served as Lugar’s chief of staff and later under him as executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Lugar on Thursday announced he would support Daniels for president, if he chose to run.

Indiana’s most prominent representatives in Washington, Sen. Dan Coats (R) and Rep. Mike Pence (R) have pledged to stay neutral in the Lugar-Mourdock race.

Tensions have grown between Lugar and conservative activists in Indiana over the years.

Tea Party voters were dismayed late last year by Lugar’s staunch support for Senate confirmation of the New START nuclear treaty, which gave President Obama an important political victory.

Lugar was also critical of spending cuts in the House-passed spending measure that chopped $61 billion from the federal budget.

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