Tea party group puts more pressure on Lugar

The tea party pressure on Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar continues to mount.

FreedomWorks PAC, an offshoot of the advocacy group led by Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, has endorsed Lugar’s primary opponent, state Treasurer Richard Mourdock.

“Over the past few months we have been speaking with our Indiana members and allies, including those affiliated with the Hoosiers for a Conservative Senate, and two things are clear: they want Richard Mourdock to be their senator and they are going to do the hard work necessary to make it happen,” said Max Pappas, executive director of FreedomWorks PAC, in a statement.

FreedomWorks has been active in organizing and assisting tea party groups across the country. Their endorsement follows another from a major tea party-linked group. California-based Tea Party Express announced its support for Mourdock late last month.

In his sixth term, Lugar is the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the most senior Republican in the Senate. In 2006, the senator skated to an easy win, with 87% of the vote. But in a sign of the shift in the Republican Party, conservative and tea party critics have zeroed in on unseating Lugar next year. Critics have targeted his votes in favor of the auto industry and Wall Street bailouts, while painting Mourdock as the true conservative in the race.

“Mourdock’s [sic] has always been a reliable, consistent supporter of limited government principles, and he proved his commitment to fiscal responsibility as Indiana’s State Treasurer,” the FreedomWorks statement read.

A spokesman for Lugar’s campaign, David Willkie, said the endorsement “is not a surprise.”

“The campaign by Mourdock and outside groups promises to be negative and deceptive and ear-popping. FreedomWorks cherry-picked from 1% of Sen. Lugar’s more than 12,000 votes,” said Willkie.

FreedomWorks said it used its network to arrive at the endorsement, hearing from activists “from Lee County to Marion County to Washington County.”

Willkie used the line to rib the outside group: “Hoosiers know that there is no Lee County, Indiana,” he said.

Pappas said the error was likely a typo.

kathleen.hennessey@latimes.com