Indiana's long-serving Sen. Dick Lugar says that he is steeled for a primary battle in 2012 with the Tea Party. "I take any opposition seriously," says the Republican leader on agricultural and foreign policy issues. [See who gives Lugar campaign cash.]

Given warning by the Tea Party's impact in the 2010 Delaware and Utah primaries, and their effort to block new Indiana Sen. Dan Coats's election, Lugar says that he is preparing earlier than ever before, and probably earlier than any other Indiana senator in history. For example, he conducted a poll last November that found him very popular in the state and this Friday he is hosting a fund raiser expected to earn his campaign $320,000.