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Tuesday was a bad day for Washington establishment candidates and a bad day for conservative Democrats. All three establishment favorites performed poorly in the May 18 elections.
The most powerful Washington Republican, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), endorsed Trey Grayson for Senate. Despite being the home state Senator, McConnell’s endorsement carried little weight in Kentucky. Rand Paul completely crushed Grayson, 59 percent to 35 percent.
President Obama also fared badly as an endorser. Along with the President, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Gov. Ed Rendell gave the nod to former Republican Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania. Joe Sestak still managed to defeat him by a healthy margin.
Incumbent conservative Democrat Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas also had a bad showing despite the strong backing of Obama and the DSCC. She has been forced into a runoff against Bill Halter. Halter came very close to winning a plurality of votes, and stands a very good chance of winning the runoff.
The three Senate candidates with strong backing from their national party leadership–Grayson, Specter and Lincoln–did poorly. It was a good night for insurgent candidates, who did better than the polls projected.
So far, 2010 is an unfavorable year for establishment candidates. Marco Rubio forced Florida Gov. Charlie Crist to leave the Republican Party. Bob Bennett (R-UT) lost his party’s nomination at the state party convention. Mike Oliverio defeated incumbent Rep. Allan Mollohan (D-WV) in the primary. We’ll see if this is a pattern in upcoming primaries.
32 Comments
I noticed that in Kentucky were Rand Paul won, that the the Republican vote total for both candidates was about 330,000. The Democratic vote total was about 447,000. The Republicans are supposedly all fired up this year and the Democrats aren’t.
Ca primary in a couple of weeks should be very interesting. Interesting how more progressives are GOTV even without the Corp backing & $$$$ that fuels the tea party. So much for so-called centrism.
Oh, I would NOT call it anti-establishment, from the Dem side! I would call it anti-NON-Dem sweep! More of a Democratic reaffirmation, from the bottom up. It’s a wake-up call that DLCers are NOT welcome in the Democratic majority! Rahm/Obama pulled back, but only after their policies and tactics were rejected. Specter led off – with the DSCC’s help – with the worst smear ad in 20 years here in PA. And that wrote his obituary. If I were a Dem candidate ANYWHERE in 2010, I would not run with the DLC/Obama mantle. That is political suicide.
obama is sstarting to look like busd did during bush’s second term, if he endorses that does not bode well for the politician.
I believe obama is now in the same bubble as bush, being told he is doing fine and he should stay his corporate course.
I want obama out and I hope he gets primaried by a progressive with some weight, we need someone to pull the rug out of the corporate marionettes
Kucinich 2012!
Kentucky Democrats regularly outperform GOP votes in primaries – this is within the pattern. In fact, Rand Paul got more GOP votes in a primary than any GOP candidate in Kentucky history.
I think the only person who fared worse as an endorser than President Obama was Dick Cheney.
They’re kind of the one-two knock-out punch, you know?
who in their right mind would want that mans endorsement.
Liz
I have never bought the Obama hearts Specter meme- that situation fell in his lap, and he had to play along.
Of course he had to say he’d support him in the primary if Snarlin’ switched parties, but there was no downside in taking that position.
another non-establishment Dem, Manan Trivedi is out in front by 672 votes in PA-06. would love to hear from any PA firedogs about this race and this candidate
I wonder how Dem turnout was vs GOP and Tea Bagger in all the primary races do we have final numbers yet?
That would make a good front page post. A great one if we ran the table:)
Agreed.
I think it says, “Move this country left! That’s what we hired you to do now do it!”
Why not? They’re brothers.
Rand brought in the Tea Baggers and Minute Men and GOP turnout still sucked the Tea Bagger, Anti immigrant, anti gay movement was suppose to energize the GOP.
Energized voters turn out, despite 10% unemployment we kicked their ass!
At the end of the day who ever gets the most voters to turnout wins.
We gave Obama another Mandate now he gots the clout to give us jobs and end the war.
I want the GOP to argue against that this election. If we won big today we can win bigger doing that:)
I think this is just a warm up. Things will be exponentially worse for establishment encumbents come this fall if they have not produced a 180 degree u-turn on employment, financial reform and housing.
i fell asleep ,and missed all the action last nite…boo hoo
however
SINK THE BISMARK
SINK BLANCHE LINCOLN!
Si! Yossarian
Things are Coming Undone:)
( sorry had to say it )
AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Jon Walker and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
Good quick summary but I wonder if we can learn anything from beneath the numbers in all these primaries and in the special for Murtha’s seat in PA. Starting with Murtha’s district, what we see is that the old traditional Democratic Party base, the older, working class and socially conservative folks whose families have been votin DemocratIC since the New Deal are still scared and angry but they can smell a skunk a mile away and the fascist, Tea Party Republicans can’t get any traction…and they turn out at the polls even in an off year special election.
In the PA Senate primary we see both in the quantity of voters and in the political ID, that the real Democrats out number the Republican voters substantially.
In Kentucky, we see the Democratic numbers far outweigh the fascists and Rand Paul and even though he’s gunna be a starlit for the national corporate media, he will play hell convincin’ the majority of Kentucky voters that his anti-Social Security, pro-mining business, lunatic psuedo libertarianism will feed out of work miners and starvin’ retirees. In fact, I can see Conway makin’ Social Security a real winning issue for this race which could bury the Chicago School-Peterson efforts to kill our last safety net and further isolate ObabmaRahma from the base of his own party.
Arkansas is another real good test for just how deep the flood tide of anti-corporate DLC politics is. If Arkansas comes home for Halter in the general election, it will mean that the Republicanization of the Democratic Party which was consolidated under Clinton is over. Look at the turn out numbers comparitively between the fascist Republicans and the Democratic voters and tell me we don’t see motivation on the side of the people in this race.
All of this bodes well for real Democrats this Fall unless the corporate Democratic leadership falls on it’s sword for the corporate bosses and runs away from their candidates this summer. Ed Rendell’s chilly response to Sestak and Sestak’s win scares the hell outta me because I can see the corporate Democratic leadership killin’ the party this Fall and givin’ the fascists a victory that will put General Petraeus in the White House in 2012.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, WE CAN’T WALK AWAY FROM THIS ONE NOW!!
Finding vote totals for primary races has never been this hard before.
How many coal mining states have races this year? I bet the MSM won’t speculate at all on that story.
Jim White has a fresh cross-post already in progress: NOAA Discussed “Submerged Oil” From Spills in Five Year Research Plan
I think the opposite could be true.
In the general the pool of voters will be different and probably more moderate in nature. Also, if the recovery continues to gain pace, the anger quotient may be less.
However, the general is a long ways off and the world will be much different then. So, who knows?
I’m in PA-6. I proudly voted for Trivedi and am thrilled with the result. He is a doctor and an Iraqi war vet — just 35 years old. He seems to be a true progressive, and he connects very well with people.
I think he has a great shot against Gerlach. Trivedi is from Berks county where Gerlach has run strongest. In Chester county where I live — where Trivedi did poorly yesterday — I predict Dems will turn out for him once they get to know him.
Now if I only knew how to pronounce his names — first and last …
As a DEM, I was delighted with last nights results. I am, however, annoyed with my Party for endorsing in PA and AR. The DLC, DSCC and DCCC as well as the Administration should stay out of the primaries when it comes to endorsing. They should leave the primaries up to the voters to pick their candidate and THEN put their full support behind the winner. I resent being told by the Party leadership who to vote for in the primaries. That is MY choice and not theirs. Apparently, most DEM voters also agreed. I don’t live in either PA or AR, but will be sending a small contribution to both because Sestak and Halter deserve national support from all DEMs.
yep, kind like he HAD to support Lieberman over Lamont, right?
With all this, how did Jennifer Brunner lose in Ohio? And by enough margin of difference to be not a close election. Is Brunner just an inept campaigner? One of FPers at DKos critiqued her online presence, amateurish, bottom line.
Who wants Cheney’s endorsement? Why the Meg-inator, of course. http://www.kcbs.com/bayareanews/Dick-Cheney-Endorses-Meg-Whitman/7070669