Dick Lugar Finally Makes an Endorsement... in the Massachusetts Race

 This has been a fairly good week for the Democratic nominee Joe Donnelly:

• A Republican poll showed that Mourdock was only up by 3 points and within the margin of error. The poll is likely skewed in favour of the Republican candidate, which means that it should be a worry for the Mourdock campaign that they only win it within the margin of error.

• Bill Clinton appeared alongside Joe Donnelly in a high school in Indianapolis to argue on his behalf. The theme of the speech was that the country needs more bipartisanship and that Joe Donnelly will provide it. As Bill Clinton is quite respected by Democrats, Republicans and Independents, and is often seen as a bipartisan figure from a bipartisan age in politics (even though the 90s were hardly the golden age of bipartisanship that people seem to think). Clinton then made the appeal to Lugar supporters by basically lauding Lugar's record as a Senator and calling him a "bona fide conservative" who was still willing to work across the aisle. His implication was clearly that Lugar was the good kind of conservative and that Mourdock is the bad kind of conservative. Following this race, you'd think that Donnelly was a surrogate for Lugar based on the kind words he says about him every chance he gets. The purpose is obvious: attract those disenchanted Lugar voters that will win the race for Donnelly.

• Dick Lugar made an endorsement that made into the Indiana media. It was an endorsement of Scott Brown in the Massachusetts Senate race, not Richard Mourdock in the Indiana Senate race. It's become quite clear at this point that Lugar is not going to endorse Mourdock and this news story serves to illustrate that clearly to the Indiana voters that awarded him landslide victories for three decades.

The only thing that Mourdock has going for him at the moment is Romney's momentum. If Romney keeps the momentum up and Obama keeps on hemorrhaging, then this will boost turn-out among Republican voters and depress the Democratic vote. Even though Indiana is not a swing state in this presidential election, lots of people still go to the polls primarily to have their say in the presidential election. So the presidential race is relevant to this senatorial race.

The Indiana Senate race is uncomfortably close at this point for the Republican candidate. Bill Clinton's stumping and Dick Lugar's visible lack of an endorsement can only help Joe Donnelly. The only thing that will turn this race around for Richard Mourdock looks to be Romney's ongoing success in the presidential contest.