Sen. Richard Lugar chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the nomination of John Bolton to be US Ambassador to the United Nations, April 11, 2005.
By TOM LoBIANCO, Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar's allies have largely disappeared from the television airwaves in the days before Tuesday's primary. It's a sign that even Lugar's friends think the six-term Republican is in trouble and could lose to tea party-backed challenger Richard Mourdock.
Mourdock's backers, meanwhile, have stepped up their criticism of the 80-year-old Lugar as too moderate for the GOP-leaning state and out of touch after 36 years in Washington.
[Read: GOP's Dick Lugar Knocks Tea Party.]
Total ad spending intended to benefit Mourdock was pushing toward $2.3 million and could top that in the campaign's final week.
Lugar and his allies have spent $3.5 million on TV since the beginning of the year trying to persuade Republicans to stick with him.
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