After 35 years on the job in Washington, D.C., U.S. Senator Richard Lugar has suddenly become an underdog in his latest re-election efforts.

On this day before the Indiana Primary Election, Lugar finds himself ten points behind in a poll of likely Republican voters.

“He’s (Lugar’s) a very nice guy and he would have, it would have been very appropriate for him to gently retire and let a younger man in and he didn’t do that,” said Bob Moore of Goshen.

Today, Moore and a handful of others were holding up signs on behalf of the apparent frontrunner in the race--senate candidate Richard Mourdock. Mourdock today spoke to members of the Elkhart Rotary.

Mourdock said he was shocked when he was first asked to run against Lugar in the primary. “It took a long time for me to consider it, but the more I began to look at Mr. Lugar's record in the last few years, especially during 2010, I came to realize, competition in the conservative marketplace is a good thing.”

The latest poll shows Mourdock with 48 percent support among likely Republican voters, while Lugar has just 38 percent.

Today, Mourdock admitted that he himself had voted for Lugar “many, many times in the past,” and Mourdock became emotional as he talked about how his campaign will begin and end. “I made a vow to them that what we were about to do that day, we would do again on May 8th, when this campaign ends, regardless hot it ends, and what that thing is that we did, was to have a round of applause in tribute for a great public servant, Dick Lugar.”

As tears welled up in Mourdock’s eyes, he was asked if he was choked up. “I am, I do have respect for him, I really do, I mean how can you give 50 years of your life to public service and not have respect for that person, but still I think it’s time. I think his votes of late have shown, have shown that he’s not in touch with the people of Indiana, and I think he’s more of a Washington insider, which I can guarantee you, I won’t be because I’m not going to be there that long.”

Mourdock has pledged that he would serve no more than two terms in the U.S. Senate, much the way he limited his service as a Vanderburgh County Commissioner to two terms.

Mourdock is currently the Indiana State Treasurer, having defeated Democrat Pete Buttigieg in 2010.

Mourdock is a licensed pilot, and a marathon runner with a master’s degree in Geology. While Moudock has a reputation as someone who would not work in a bi-partisan fashion, he offers no apologies. “The problem we have is one really of a historical nature because both the most powerful people in both political parties on the Republicans and the Democrats are polar opposites right now, and there’s not going to be a sense of bi-partisanship between them because one is saying, we must have smaller government, and the other is effectively saying we must have bigger and bigger government. One side or the other is going to have to win that argument before we work through this crisis of getting our budget under control.”