Longtime Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar (R) said Sunday that he does not plan to actively campaign for Richard Mourdock, who defeated him in the state's GOP primary.
Lugar said he would support the Indiana State Treasurer's general election campaign because he supports Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell's (Ky.) efforts to retake control of the chamber.
But beyond offering advice to Mourdock on how to be a constructive senator, Lugar indicated his role in the upcoming campaign to defeat Mourdock's challenger, Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly, will be limited.
"I hope that he will in fact, begin to adopt some of those ideas, but for the time being, I don’t plan an active campaign," he said on CBS's "Face the Nation."
Mourdock has drawn headlines for declaring that he does not plan to pursue bipartisanship if elected senator, arguing that lawmakers should adhere to their principles instead of looking for compromise.
"Bipartisanship has brought us to the brink of bankruptcy," he told ABC in a recent interview. "We don't need bipartisanship, we need application of principle."
Lugar was long hailed as a seeker of bipartisan deals in the Senate. After he was defeated by Mourdock, several Democratic lawmakers, as well as President Obama, hailed his work as a legislator.
