Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) is out with a new ad accusing primary opponent and Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock (R) of being a pawn of Washington-based interest groups, the strongest attack his campaign has made so far against Mourdock.
"Richard Mourdock has already sold out to D.C. outsiders ... but Hoosiers have questions," the ad's narrator says, after a clip of Mourdock saying he's "confident there will be a lot of national money flowing in to help us."
The ad then shows clips of average-looking voters who slam Mourdock's values. "I just wonder who's pulling his strings," says one.
"If he were senator, heaven help us, because Mourdock won't," says another.
Mourdock is closing fast on Lugar in polls of the race, aided by support from a bevy of conservative national organizations including the fiscally conservative Club for Growth and the National Rifle Association, both of whom released ads attacking Lugar Monday morning.
When reached by phone, the Tea Paty-backed candidate pushed back hard against its charges. "It's amusing that he’s been in D.C. 36 years and he's trying to portray me as a D.C. insider," Mourdock said. "That's ironic, to put it mildly."
The Lugar campaign did not say how much it had spent on the ads, but said it would be placed in heavy rotation statewide.
