Chrysler Issue Not The Silver Bullet Against Mourdock

Joe Donnelly and the Democrats are tying their hopes of defeating Richard Mourdock in the November election based on his opposition to the Chrysler bailout deal cobbled together by the Obama administration. The issue didn't resonate in his re-election race two years ago against Pete Buttigieg, and it fell flat when Lugar hammered Mourdock over the issue in the Republican primary race. The Ft. Wayne Journal-Gazette picks up on the large winning margins Mourdock racked up in the region of the state most impacted by Chrysler.

Donnelly has criticized Mourdock for trying as treasurer to halt the 2009 sale of bankrupt Chrysler to Italian automaker Fiat.

Mourdock opposed terms of the deal unfavorable to Indiana pension and infrastructure funds that held Chrysler bonds.

“That was incredibly irresponsible to do. Sen. Lugar and I fought to save the auto industry,” Donnelly said Tuesday.

Yet in Howard County, where Chrysler employs about 5,000 people at its Kokomo transmission operations, Mourdock attracted 61 percent of the vote, a smidgen more than he received statewide.

Mourdock topped 70 percent throughout northeast Indiana.

“Never did we expect to see the numbers we saw statewide, but never ever did I imagine we would win by a 70-30 margin here in Allen County,” he said.

Democrats seem to forget that Evan Bayh's silver bullet in defeating John Mutz back in the 1988 gubernatorial election was the Orr-Mutz administration's support of tax breaks and incentives to entice Japanese auto maker Subaru-Isuzu to build a plant in Lafayette.