Sen. Lugar drops to Mourdock in new poll

Sen. Dick Lugar, who has represented Indiana in the United States Senate for 36 years, might experience an upset in tomorrow’s primary election, according to a poll released this week.

The Howey/DePauw Indiana Battleground Poll released Friday shows Lugar down 10 percent to his opponent Richard Mourdock for the GOP ticket.

According to the poll, 48 percent were in favor of Mourdock, who is a two-term treasurer for the state. Lugar, the longest serving senator in Indiana history, garnered approval from 38 percent of those polled.

Among those in favor of Mourdock, 23 percent said the main reason they are voting for Mourdock is because Lugar has “been in office too long.”

The margin is even greater among those polled who consider themselves “very conservative.” Of those, 63 percent favored Mourdock and 26 percent favored Lugar. Seventy-six percent of those polled identified as Republican.
 
The poll was conducted April 30 through May 1, with 700 likely voters, by Republican Christine Matthews of Bellwether Research and Democrat Fred Yang of Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group. A margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percent was included.

The poll did not focus solely on the heated battle between Lugar and Mourdock. The poll also showed that 60 percent of conservative voters plan to vote for Mitt Romney for President of the United States. Tied for second are Ron Paul and Rick Santorum with 10 percent each.

—Mark Keierleber