Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said on Fox last night that it would be a “complete misunderstanding” to brand Richard Mourdock’s primary victory over six-term GOP Sen. Richard Lugar as a Tea Party victory.
On “On the Record,” Greta van Susteren asked Daniels, onetime chief of staff for Lugar, about the primary and the status of the Tea Party in the country right now.
“Oh, it’s a factor. It was a factor here in our state,” Daniels said. “But in this contest, very honestly, the winner, Richard Mourdock, started with two-thirds of the regular Republican county chairmen and added to that as he went along.”
“So this was a test between two good friends of mine two, good allies and two really good people,” the governor continued. “But it would be a complete misunderstanding to label this a Tea Party phenomenon when in fact, the winner had been very strong majority with rank-and-file Republicans who felt they knew him, had seen a lot of him.”
“He has been elected twice, statewide in the last six years,” Daniels added. “He’s a Republican regular. That was the decisive factor.”
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