http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_primary_rdp Paul rides tea party support, takes GOP nod in Ky. By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent – 1 min ago WASHINGTON – Political novice Rand Paul rode support from tea party activists to a rout in Kentucky's Republican Senate primary Tuesday night, jolting the GOP establishment and providing fresh evidence of voter discontent in a turbulent midterm election season. "I have a message, a message from the tea party, a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words: We have come to take our government back," Paul told supporters after sealing his triumph over Secretary of State Trey Grayson. On the busiest primary night of the year so far, very early returns showed Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania ahead of Rep. Joe Sestak. In Arkansas, Sen. Blanche Lincoln swapped early leads with primary challenger Bill Halter, the lieutenant governor. A June 8 run-off was a possibility in a three-way race. In a fourth race with national implications, Republican Tim Burns and Democrat Mark Critz vied to fill out the final few months in the term of the late Rep. John Murtha in Pennsylvania. Each political party invested nearly $1 million in that contest and said the race to succeed the longtime Democratic lawmaker was something of a bellwether for the fall. In Oregon, Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden faced little opposition for nomination to a third full term. Voters in Pennsylvania and Oregon also selected gubernatorial candidates. Paul had 59 percent of the vote with returns counted from three-quarters of the precincts, compared to 35 percent for Grayson, who had been recruited to the race by the state's dominant Republican, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
It's one of the biggest races of the night, news-wise. Arkansas, too. Also the special election to fill Murtha's seat.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/right-now/2010/05/what_to_look_for_in_tonights_p.html What to look for in tonight's primary results No "last call" today, because the news isn't really stopping tonight. My colleagues have the info on what to look for state by state, and our reporters are embedded to cover the results in Pennsylvania's 12th District as well as the primaries in Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Arkansas. Here's what I'm looking at. 7 p.m. -- Polls close in Kentucky, where Rand Paul's campaign is confident that it will secure the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate over Secretary of State Trey Grayson, giving a self-identified "tea party" activist his first victory over the GOP establishment in a primary. Look at Pulaski, Monroe, Russell and Jefferson counties to see how the vote is trending. 8 p.m. -- Polls close across Pennsylvania, where Democrats are deciding whether to nominate party switcher Sen. Arlen Specter. In the southwestern part of the state, all voters are participating in the special election to replace Rep. John Murtha (D) -- if Republican businessman Tim Burns wins, expect to hear, accurately, that his candidacy "started at a tea party." There will be much more to pore over in the Keystone State. In the 4th District, which covers some of Pittsburgh's suburbs, U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan is facing a stiff challenge from lawyer Keith Rothfus for the right to run against Rep. Jason Altmire (D); Buchanan may become the rare U.S. attorney who loses a primary. In the 8th District, in the Philadelphia suburbs, former congressman Mike Fitzpatrick is running for the GOP nomination to take on the Democrat who beat him in 2006, Rep. Patrick Murphy. Remember, back in Indiana, former congressman Mike Sodrel lost the right to challenge the man who beat him, Rep. Baron Hill (D). In the 11th District, Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D) is fending off Corey O'Brien, a Lackawanna County commissioner running to his left, as well as Brian Kelly, a tea party activist running to his right. And in the governor's race, the Republican front-runner, Attorney General Tom Corbett, is expected to beat the tea party favorite, state Rep. Sam Rohrer. But watch the margins. 8:30 p.m. -- Polls close in Arkansas, where the attention is on Sen. Blanche Lincoln's (D) primary, but pay attention to Rep. John Boozman's (R) Senate bid. Credible candidates were running for the GOP Senate nod before Boozman decided to take advantage of a weakened Lincoln and jump in -- there is an outside chance that one forces him into a runoff. Three of Arkansas' four congressional districts are open, and Republicans hope to win both of those open seats currently held by Democrats. (The fourth is held by Rep. Mike Ross, seen as a harder target.) In the 1st District, which Democrats are reasonably confident they can hold, Republicans are choosing between broadcaster Rick Craword and Capitol Hill staffer Princella Smith, who is African American. In the 2nd District they're choosing between scandalized former U.S. attorney Tim Griffin and restaurant owner Scott Wallace. And there's an eight-way race for the 3rd District seat, the ultra-conservative one Boozman is vacating. Another thing to keep an eye on: former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee's endorsements. He's backed candidates not necessarily supported by the rest of the GOP or by tea party activists. 11 p.m. -- Polls close, technically, in Oregon -- which is to say that the state starts counting the mail ballots that have been trickling in for weeks. The front-runner in the eight-way GOP primary for governor is former basketball player Chris Dudley, who's seen as an underdog to popular former governor John Kitzhaber (D), running once more for his old job. The best Republican hope for a gain in the House delegation here is in the 5th District, held now by Rep. Kurt Schrader (D); voters will almost certainly choose state Rep. Scott Bruun. Funny story: Bruun last ran for the seat in 1996 to take it from a scandalized Class of '94 member, but he came up short.
Wow . . . the "outsider" pulls it off. I'm happy only because I somehow got on Allen Alley email and snail mail list and recieved at least one correspondence a week for the last few months . . .there was one week I got 2 letters and 3 emails
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100519/ap_on_el_se/us_arkansas_senate LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Arkansas voters delivered a muddled verdict on establishment politicians Tuesday, thrusting Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln into a prolonged fight to keep her job while handing a sitting congressman the GOP nomination for the seat. Lincoln, already considered one of the most vulnerable incumbents in Washington, now begins a three-week extension of her battle with Lt. Gov. Bill Halter for the Democratic nomination. Halter, embraced by labor unions and groups on the left that soured on Lincoln, vowed to make the chance count. "We're just going to keep battling over the next 21 days to get that word out about the distinctions and the differences that we have about policy and the different direction we want to take the country," Halter told The Associated Press. Whoever wins the June 8 runoff will face Republican John Boozman in the fall. Boozman, who scrapped a re-election bid for his U.S. House seat in order to challenge Lincoln, defeated seven primary hopefuls as voters rejected claims he was a Washington insider. Polling before the primary indicated Boozman would defeat either Lincoln or Halter in the general election. All three have spent considerable time in Washington.
That's a brutal result for Lincoln. Now she has to raise and spend money all over again just to get her party's nomination. Politics this season is like the chicken who's trying to cross the road. Be on one side or the other; playing to the middle is going to get you run over. I'm not sure I like that development.
I think the Kentucky GOP just make the Senate race competitive. A tough loss by a pretty substantial margin in the PA 12th for Burns, but Murtha had gerrymandered that district so much it's awfully tough for any Republican to win in it. Pennsylvania will have a clear choice between Toomey and Sestak; both are preferable to Specter whose policies weren't terrible, but who just needed to go. Overall, we're seeing both parties move to their extremes. Which ones can run back to the middle for the general is what's going to determine control of the House. Right now I have to think the Democrats are feeling pretty good while the GOP is still wondering what it stands for.
