In the Indiana Senate race, polling has shown Republican Richard Mourdock is having trouble gaining traction with moderate voters in his battle with Democratic Congressman Joe Donnelly and a fundraising letter may indicate why.It was Mourdock's ties to the Tea Party that helped him upset longtime Sen. Dick Lugar in the GOP primary, but days after his victory a message to voters continued to attack Lugar as a traitor to the conservative movement.From Howey Politics Indiana: "Conservatives scored a tremendous victory in Indiana just a few weeks ago," the Mourdock letter read. "Against all odds and with the establishment working day and night to defeat me, we retired a 36-year entrenched incumbent senator, who routinely betrayed conservative voters to push through some of the most radical aspects of President Obama's agenda." (SNIP) What is emerging in late summer is that Mourdock is still playing to his Tea Party base and not making inroads with voters who don't buy into the parts of the Mourdock candidacy that favored voting against the debt ceiling and allowing the U.S. to go into default, as well as attempting to derail the Chrysler-Fiat merger, which Mourdock has consistently compared to Civil War era slavery as well as the Civil Rights movement a half century ago.A Rasmussen poll shows Mourdock leading Donnelly by 2-points, but Mourdock's approval rating among moderates is only 25 percent compared to 51 percent for Donnelly. Several observers have pointed out that it appears Mourdock is committed to running to his base even in the general election.
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