A quick round-up of last night’s congressional and gubernatorial primaries:
- DE-Gov (D): State Treasurer Jack Markell edged Lt. Gov. John Carney by 1,700 votes for the Democratic nomination to succeed retiring Gov. Ruth Ann Minner. Markell will face Republican Bill Lee in November.
- DE-AL (D): Children’s rights activist Karen Hartley-Nagle beat Mike Miller by a 55-34 margin for the right to take on GOP Rep. Mike Castle in November. Kossack Jerry “Possum” Northington gobbled up 10% of the vote.
- MN-Sen (D): Al Franken jogged past attorney Priscilla Lord Faris by a 65-30 margin for the Dem nomination against Norm Coleman.
- MN-01 (R): Physician Brian Davis schooled state Sen. Dick Day by 67-33 for the right to challenge Democratic Rep. Tim Walz. I guess it just wasn’t a Dick Day Afternoon.
- NH-01 (R): Former Rep. Jeb Bradley squeaked by former state Health Commissioner John Stephen by a 51-47 margin for the GOP nod against frosh Dem Rep. Carol Shea Porter.
- NH-02 (R): Radio personality Jennifer Horn beat state Sen. Bob Clegg by a 40-34 margin for the dubious prize of a GOP nomination in this D+2.7 district. Horn faces steep odds against Democratic Rep. Paul Hodes in November.
- NY-10 (D): Crusty Democratic Rep. Ed Towns held back a primary challenge from former reality TV star Kevin Powell, winning with a comfortable 67-33 spread.
- NY-13 (D & R): NYC Councilman Mike McMahon easily dispatched ’06 candidate Steve Harrison by a 75-25 margin for the Dem nod for this open seat. In what has been the most pathetic offering of candidates by the Staten Island GOP in decades, unpopular ex-Assemblyman Robert Straniere bounced unpopular physician Jamhsad Wyne by 59-41.
- NY-21 (D): Ex-Assemblyman Paul Tonko nabbed the Dem nod to replace retiring Rep. Mike McNulty in this D+8.7 district by 39-30 over former Hillary Clinton aide Tracey Brooks.
- NY-26 (D): I believe this is called a “murder-suicide”. Iraq Vet Jon Powers and perennial candidate (and billionaire nativist industrialist) Jack Davis were trounced by unheralded environmental attorney Alice Kryzan, who won the Dem nod for this open seat with 42% of the vote to Powers’ 36% and Davis’ 23%. Kryzan will go up against businessman Chris Lee, who is partially self-funding his campaign, in November.
And I’m still laughing at Dick Day Afternoon. I bet you waited and hoped for that outcome for weeks, just to say that.
How many primaries are left? Hawaii? FL? LA?
This is probably the best possible outcome for Shea Porter. A closely divided vote, with the person she already beat once managing to win! I’m always afraid that voters would say “we gave A a chance and we gave B a chance, now let’s give C a chance.”
Anyone have any sense of how NY-26 stands in terms of chances of flipping? My understanding is that it was around toss-up status with Powers, but that’s not going to happen. And his presence on the Working Families Party line may complicate matters. Don’t know enough about Kryzan to offer an opinion.
And perhaps the DCCC should reevaluate making exceptions to its general rule about not taking sides in primaries. Powers was a good candidate, but I’m not sure it was a good idea for the DCCC to get involved.
Don’t get me started on Jack Davis. Argh!
good observation that I wish I’d noticed: after all their pratfalls this cycle (Nikki Tinker, Hillary Clinton), EMILY’s List racked up two more yesterday: supporting Tracey Brooks, who lost big in NY-21, and not supporting Alice Kryzan, who won in NY-26. But, as they point out, here’s a shot for EMILY’s List to try and make up for lost time by helping to fix some of Kryzan’s empty coffers for the general.