Richard Lugar Is Pressed by His Own Party Peter W. Stevenson for The New York Times Supporters and detractors of Richard G. Lugar, who is locked in a primary fight for the Indiana seat he has held for six terms. At his campaign office here the other day, Mr. Lugar smiled politely while volunteers boxed up thousands of yard signs to distribute to Indiana's 92 counties. He spoke with admiration of the sophistication of his campaign's mobile, computerized, microtargeting phone bank, with which, he explained, volunteers "can just press a button and they're on line with somebody." He described how his campaign had, in essence, gone "to school" on the methods of campaigns around the country. Mr. Lugar, who has not had a primary challenger since he first won election in 1976 and last contended with a race where the margin was close in 1982, is locked in a Republican primary fight for the seat he has held for six terms with the May 8 election fast approaching. A poll conducted late last month, the Howey/DePauw Indiana Battleground Poll, showed Mr. Lugar leading Richard E. Mourdock, the state's treasurer, 42 percent to 35 percent among likely primary voters, an advantage that is within the poll's margin of sampling error of plus or minus five points. Craig Dunn, the Republican chairman in Howard County, said he was stunned last year when he asked the 15 members of his local steering committee how many would vote for Mr. Lugar. "Not a hand went up," said Mr. Dunn, who has supported Mr. Mourdock, as did, his campaign said, nearly three-quarters of the party's county chairmen back when he announced plans to run more than a year ago. Mr. Lugar's supporters say those numbers have since shifted and shrunk. "This never would have happened to Dick Lugar in his prime," Mr. Dunn said. Mr. Lugar sees his troubles as a product of forces outside Indiana. "You can say, "Why in the world are we having such a time?" " he said. Then he offered an answer to the question: "Because there are others in America who are very interested in this, sort of as a battleground, or I'd even say a playground, for their thoughts." To hear others tell it, Mr. Lugar, the product of a more genial era of politics, faces a confluence of opposition. Tea Party groups and organizations like the Club for Growth and the National Rifle Association are questioning his conservative credentials, some pointing to positions he has taken in favor of the bank bailout, President Obama's Supreme Court nominees, the New Start nuclear arms control treaty, and more. Meanwhile, some Indiana residents, including active members of the Republican Party, say they wonder whether Mr. Lugar, in all those years in Washington and around the world in his influential role on the Foreign Relations Committee, has failed to come home enough for ordinary Lincoln Day dinners and the like. Along the way, some say, he lost touch. And just below the surface is an uncomfortable question about age and how long in Washington is too long. Beyond Indiana, much is at stake. Democrats hoping to hold on to a majority in the Senate see a glint of opportunity to take a Republican seat - a possibility that polls suggest is more likely if Mr. Lugar loses and leaves Mr. Mourdock, 60, to face Representative Joe Donnelly, a Democrat, in November. Tea Party members view the potential defeat of Mr. Lugar as a crucial chance to prove their muscle as some observers try to declare their movement over. "If we win, the Tea Party goes into a higher level as a credible force," said Greg Fettig, a supporter in Indiana. Last fall, he said, 55 of the state's Tea Party groups convened and overwhelmingly favored Mr. Mourdock. Organizers at FreedomWorks, a national group that has helped build the Tea Party movement and has assisted efforts here, have already begun likening this race to Mike Lee's defeat of Senator Robert F. Bennett, a fellow Republican, in Utah in 2010. But others say that the strength and unity of the Tea Party here have been overblown, and that Mr. Lugar, a former Eagle Scout, Rhodes scholar and Navy officer, has clear wells of strength. These include more money in the bank than his opponent and support from Mitch Daniels, the popular governor who, as a student, worked for Mr. Lugar when he was mayor of Indianapolis in the 1960s and "70s and stayed on for years. Mr. Daniels, who asked Mr. Lugar to be godfather to one of his daughters, fended off assertions that Mr. Lugar might not be conservative enough or had compromised too often across party lines. Mr. Lugar's supporters say he has pressed for less government spending and a balanced budget amendment, and fought President Obama's health care overhaul and regulations that stifle business. "It's ironic and it's just inaccurate to suggest that somehow he's not very strongly Republican in his viewpoints," Mr. Daniels said. Lately, Mr. Lugar has taken blow after blow. A challenge that he did not meet a residency requirement for candidates because he lives much of the time in McLean, Va., failed. However, he was required to change his voter registration to the farm his family has owned for decades, rather than the Indianapolis house that he sold in 1977. Then his office announced that he was returning $14,500 to the government for nights he had spent in Indiana hotel rooms during adjournments - a technical oversight of a Senate expenses rule, but one more reminder of his long time away.