Incumbent campaigns for 5th Senate term

He could just sit back and relax.\nIncumbent Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., is seeking re-election to a fifth consecutive term this year, and he is leading by double digits in every poll across the state.\nBut Lugar is treating this election as though he were a first-time candidate -- as President Bill Clinton has noticed. Clinton told the Republican senator he was impressed by Lugar's fiery debate Oct. 23 against opponent David Johnson in Elkhart.\n"I was watching that debate of yours," the president told Lugar at a White House trade agreement signing ceremony last week. "You were really going at it. It was terrific."\nIn between Senate sessions, Lugar has pressed palms across Indiana, but most of his campaigning has been mounted by an extensive statewide volunteer program.\n"Lugar always runs his campaign in a very organized, frugal way," said Gail Lowry, the campaign's press secretary.\nThe three-part program incorporated 2,800 precinct captains across the state to set up an information distribution system. First, volunteers called voters reminding them to vote in the primary election. Then came the door-to-door project in September, when volunteers distributed county-specific door hangers. The final stage of this program will take effect the week before the election, as volunteers call voters to remind them to get out and vote.\nMany still question the necessity of the program when Lugar has such an enormous lead over his two opponents.\n"You never take anything for granted," Lowry said. "And Lugar just isn't like that."\nLugar decided to run for re-election this year because he still has "unfinished business" in Congress. One of the areas he wants to continue focusing on is the Lugar-Nunn program to dismantle nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union. The bipartisan program earned Lugar and Nunn a Nobel Prize nomination earlier this year, although the pair eventually lost to South Korean president Kim Dae-jung.\n"Over 5,000 nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union have been eliminated," said Andy Fisher, Lugar's press secretary in Washington. "And that's about halfway done."\nFisher said Lugar wants to dismantle chemical and biological weapons, as well as taking on the remaining nuclear weapons in the area.\n"This is critical in terms of safety and security for the U.S. and for the world," Fisher said.\nIn addition to peace-keeping, Lugar has set his sights on issues closer to home -- improving the education system and keeping high-tech jobs in Indiana.\n"Lugar wants higher standards," said Josh Claybourn, events director for the IU College Republicans. "He supports school choice. It's unjust for a student to be forced to stay in a school that's failing. If a school isn't teaching or getting the job done, parents and students should have the option of going to another school that is meeting standards."\nLugar has also directed his attention to improving literacy, with the promise of a program that would guarantee all Hoosier students would be able to read by the time they reached third grade.\nAll these initiatives would help make the state more attractive to college graduates and high-tech companies, according to Lugar's spokesman Fisher.\n"Indiana has lost high-tech jobs in recent years as opposed to gaining them," Fisher said. "Hopefully we can turn the corner."\nThe last issue Lugar has been spending time trying to solve is the hidden problem of hunger that plagues Indiana.\n"Essentially about 10 percent of Hoosiers are food insecure," Fisher said. "About half of those people get their food from food banks and charities."\nBut many of these organizations can no longer meet market demand levels.\n"They are falling short in terms of donations right now," Fisher said. "Part of the problem for many small businesses is that it's more expensive to donate than to throw away."\nTo combat this problem, Lugar recently introduced a hunger tax relief incentive, which would allow small businesses to donatefood to charities without the added cost.\nIf the polls don't lie, Lugar will get the chance to spend six more years in Washington implementing his ideas.\n"Lugar is about as safe as an incumbent senator can get," said political science professor Gerald Wright.\nAnne Scuffham, president of the IU College Republicans, agreed that the outcome of this race is predictable.\n"I feel like were going to keep our representation," Scuffham said. "Who really runs against the Peace Prize nominee?"\nFor more information about U.S. Senate candidate Richard Lugar, visit him on the Web at www.lugarcamp.com or at www.senate.gov/~lugar.