Republican voters toss senior Senator out of office; GOP still headed towards brokered convention

Republican rebels continue to collect scalps after a hiatus. Although Senator Hatch survived a challenge in Utah, Senator Luger of Indiana will finish out his sixth and final term in the Senate this year after his challenger, State Treasurer Mourdock, took 60% of the vote.

Six-term Senate veteran Lugar defeated in Indiana primary

Lugar, along with Utah’s Orrin Hatch, is the longest serving Republican in the Senate. But like GOP senators Lisa Murkowski in Alaska, Bob Bennett in Utah, and Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania in 2010, Lugar found himself challenged by those in his party who decided he was not conservative enough on federal spending.

Spending is the focal point, but negative social mood is driving these elections. All of the candidates mentioned above, save Murkowski, are long serving Republicans first elected decades ago. In previous posts on U.S. politics, I've talked about voter anger at both parties. Voters want to throw politicians out of office and there are two ways to do that: knock them off internally during the primary, or have them lose their seat in the general election. Since the Republicans continue to prune their ranks, they remain the favorites to control the House and retake the Senate; and their longer-term prospects remain brighter. I've said it before, but if Obama wins a second term, it may be a curse upon Democrats because they will likely avoid radically changing their membership. Political parties in the U.S. have two states: in power or trying to get back into power. The Democrats seen themselves in power, Republicans out of power, thus Democrats are risk-averse and Republicans are risk-taking. On that note, Republicans continue to head towards a convention battle and possible brokered convention.

Anyone interested in the story of the delegate count should follow Ben Swann of WXIX Cincinnati. He is covering this story in-depth and frankly, appears to be one of the only reporters in America still practicing journalism. Nothing but the facts, including a look at Republican convention rules that could mean Romney has a much lower delegate count than even the Ron Paul supporters believe.



Even if you don't think Ron Paul has a snowball's chance in Hell of even challenging for the nomination (Gingrich and Santorum will probably throw their delegates to Romney), it's important to keep in mind that delegates also shape the party platform and even a small group of supporters can have a large impact. Given the current state of social mood, which is more likely: Romney smooths over policy disagreements (imagine a bunch of Ron Paul delegates end up shaping the foreign policy plank!) or major policy disagreements turn into a bigger fight?