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Opening Arguments

Going to extremes

Going down to the wire, huh?

A new independent poll confirms that the U.S. Senate race in Indiana is a tossup, the latest case of Republicans having to fight for a seat in a conservative state they’d been expected to win easily.

The Howey/DePauw Indiana Battleground Poll released Thursday shows Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly with 40% of the vote and Republican state Treasurer Richard Mourdock with 38%, within the margin of error. Libertarian Andrew Horning has the support of 7%.

Operatives in both parties have been saying for some time that the Indiana race is a tossup, but there had been a lack of independent polls to confirm that.

Not sure I have complete faith in this poll, though. It shows Libertarians with 7 percent, and that is way high. They usually get about 1 or 2 percent.

But assume it's accurate. Libertarians are philosphically more like Mourdock than Donnelly in their desire for smaller government and lower spending. So that would mean 40 percent for the "let's all get along" approach of Donnelly and 45 percent for the tame-Washington approach of Mourdock. Doesn't exactly fit the narrative that the race has become a tossup because Mourdock is too extreme for Hoosiers.

Comments

Harl Delos
Tue, 10/09/2012 - 4:52pm

Two years ago, Donnelly wom with 48.2% of the vote, against 46.8 for the GOP candidate and 5% for the libertarian.

I guess libertarians don't always get 1 or 2 percent, huh?  It doesn't matter.  Libertarians aren'y closeted Republicans.  Indeed, many Republicans are embarassed by the Welchian wing of the GOP.

November 7 will tell us whether Mourdock's followereds have been inhaling the fumes of a party in self-destruction.

Honest, trustworthy, personable conservatives make good candidates.  Pseudocons, with a philosophy based n hatred, don't.

Leo Morris
Wed, 10/10/2012 - 7:33am

Yes, Harl, that's why I said "usually" instead of "always."

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