The fledgling candidacy of former Senator Dan Coats — some have gone so far as to call it a belly flop — hasn’t exactly been a sterling example of how to manage a campaign kick-off. Whether the stories have revolved around Coats’ out-of-state status, his lobbying connections, or his self-described preference for North Carolina over Indiana, the news cycle hasn’t been all that kind to the guy.

But more than anything, it’s beginning to look as if the biggest hurdle Coats will have to clear will be fending off attacks from within his own party. Recent days of have found his primary election opponents turning their guns away from Senator Bayh and pointing them squarely on the establishment candidate. Politico reports:

Former Indiana Rep. John Hostettler and state Sen. Marlin Stutzman, who have been in the race against Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh for months, both said they wouldn’t stand down for Coats. Stutzman told POLITICO he’s prepared to wage a “grassroots” campaign against the former senator, pointing to the tea party movement as a “huge” force that could be harnessed in the GOP primary.

“With all due respect to Sen. Coats, all the campaigning we’ve done and all the thousands of people that we’ve spoken to, people are tired of Washington. If there’s one group people are more disenfranchised from than Washington politicians, it’s lobbyists,” said Stutzman, who represents a northeast Indiana district in the state legislature. “Sen. Coats has probably been back to Indiana fewer times than Sen. Bayh has and has those questionable relationships. If you’re trying to contrast with Sen. Bayh, why would you go with Sen. Coats?”

Hostettler, too, told the Evansville Courier & Press last weekend that he’s not concerned about Coats’s possible entry.

“If I waited on the imprimatur of everybody that thought they knew how to run a political campaign, I probably would never have announced [for Congress] in 1994, either,” he said.

Ouch. If you don’t have enough anecdotal evidence already, one prominent Republican blog in the state features a poll right now showing the anti-Coats coalition squarely in the majority.

If conservatives don’t do him in, the weather might. Coats has been forced to dispatch political operatives from Kentucky in his bid to earn the 4,500 signatures required to appear on the statewide ballot. In case you haven’t gone outside in the last few days, Mother Nature hasn’t exactly been cooperating.

On the bright side, it could be worse: Virginia has been worse off than us in recent days in terms of snowfall, which probably means Mr. Coats has had plenty of time to himself at home to question his decision to get into the race.