Lugar longest serving Ind. congressman

If Congress were a race, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., would be in the lead.

The sixth-term Republican Senator from Indianapolis is now the longest serving member of Congress in Indiana history, as well as the most senior Republican in the U.S. Senate.

As of Jan. 5, Lugar had served 12,421 days in the Senate, according to a press release from his office. On top of that, the release said he has voted 12,587 times — a 98.2 percent voting record.

Lugar was first elected to the Senate in 1976, and before that, he served as mayor of Indianapolis from 1968 to 1975.

As the Republican leader of the foreign relations committee, Lugar has worked on various pieces of foreign affairs legislation.

“The most significant thing he’s done is the Nunn-Lugar program,” said Mark Helmke, a spokesman at Lugar’s Senate office.

The Nunn-Lugar Act — which he created with Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., in 1991 — helped remove weapons of mass destruction from former members of the Soviet Union after it fell apart in the early 1990s.

“All those weapons were aimed at Indiana,” Helmke said. “He was at a secret site in Russia, and it had a map of Indianapolis.”

Helmke said one of Lugar’s other main concerns during his political career has been nutrition.

He was a supporter of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which set stricter regulations of school lunch quality and appropriated federal dollars to ensure that quality.

Helmke also said Lugar has been working on alternative energy legislation recently.

In 1974, Lugar made an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate, but since his election in 1976, he has not lost a race. Some of his races were won by as high as 60 percent.

In 2006, he ran against Libertarian Steve Osborn and won by a landslide 87.4 to 12.6 percent victory. The Democratic opponent, Jack Baldwin, was a write-in candidate and received only 294 votes.

Lugar will be up for re-election in 2012 — his seventh term should he choose to run and win.

Helmke said Lugar’s most recent milestones show that he has passion for his job.

“It showcases his dedication to Indiana,” he said. “It showcases his dedication to the job. He shows up for work, and he votes.”