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Alleged Database Hacking Alleged in Indiana Senate Primary

Republican leaders in Indiana are trying to decide how they’ll handle allegations that a US Senate campaign tried to access a critical database of voter information. The dispute concerns the GOP primary race between long-time incumbent Richard Lugar and State Treasurer Richard Mourdock.

At issue is an email obtained by the Associated Press in which Mourdock’s campaign manager, Jim Holden, writes that staffers should—quote—“start pillaging email addresses.”

Those addresses were contained in a database known as Salesforce, which is available to all Indiana Republicans.

In the email, Holden told staffers to download email addresses into the campaign’s own file. A Mourdock campaign spokesman denied the campaign had accessed the statewide database, and called the email by by Holden "a joke" that was being "taken out of context".

Senator Richard Lugar’s campaign chastised his challenger’s campaign after learning about the alleged impropriety.

The Indiana GOP Senate primary is expected to be one of the most closely watched in the nation, with Lugar trying to win a seventh Senate term against the Tea Party-backed Mourdock.