White House, incumbents and Washington insiders take beating in Tuesday primaries
Tue. May 18, 2010 12:00 AM by Jay Shaff
rand paul (r-ky)
Chicago, IL -
"Tea Party" candidate Rand Paul (R-KY) drew first blood in Tuesday's much awaited primary battles in Arkansas, Kentucky, Oregon and Pennsylvania by handily winning the Kentucky U. S. Senate primary over Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's handpicked candidate, Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson (R-KY).
Tea Partiers profess that their objective is less government, taxes and spending, but have yet to make any clear unified position on LGBT issues as supporters come from both sides of the aisle. Social issues appear to take a second chair with activists, though many have aligned with social conservatives like Sarah Palin.
An anti-incumbent, anti-establishment attitude by voters seemed to prove itself Tuesday evening. Once immensely powerful Washington leaders suffered significant defeats following their support and endorsements of incumbents and insiders, demonstrating deminishment of influence.
Paul won by a margin of almost 25%, after being the underdog early in the campaign season. Paul leans Libertarian, yet remains conservative on social issues including abortion and gay-marriage. He is endorsed by conservative pro-life organizations, Sarah Palin, and the anti-gay Focus on the Family founder James Dobson.
In Pennsylvania, five term Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA), a Republican for most of his career and recent convert to the Democrat Party, has lost his opportunity of reelection to primary challenger Joe Sestak (D-PA).
Specter was heavily supported by President Barack Obama, but in recent days they had avoided direct contact. Support from historically powerful Democrat leaders including Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell failed to provide necessary ballots as voters showed their disdain with incumbency. Specter's voting record on gay issues has been less than stellar.
Incumbent Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AK) has failed to win the 50% of the vote required by the State and now faces a costly and contentious runoff against Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D-AK). Lincoln has also been evasive about LGBT issues.
In what will likely be called major victory for Democrats, Mark Critz (D-PA) has defeated opponent Tim Burns (R-PA) to fill the seat of recently deceased Congressman and Committee Chair John Murtha (D-PA). Although a 2-1 Democrat district, this has been considered to be an indicator of things to come in the fall elections. Critz' win appears to be under 8%.
Tea Partiers profess that their objective is less government, taxes and spending, but have yet to make any clear unified position on LGBT issues as supporters come from both sides of the aisle. Social issues appear to take a second chair with activists, though many have aligned with social conservatives like Sarah Palin.
An anti-incumbent, anti-establishment attitude by voters seemed to prove itself Tuesday evening. Once immensely powerful Washington leaders suffered significant defeats following their support and endorsements of incumbents and insiders, demonstrating deminishment of influence.
Paul won by a margin of almost 25%, after being the underdog early in the campaign season. Paul leans Libertarian, yet remains conservative on social issues including abortion and gay-marriage. He is endorsed by conservative pro-life organizations, Sarah Palin, and the anti-gay Focus on the Family founder James Dobson.
In Pennsylvania, five term Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA), a Republican for most of his career and recent convert to the Democrat Party, has lost his opportunity of reelection to primary challenger Joe Sestak (D-PA).
Specter was heavily supported by President Barack Obama, but in recent days they had avoided direct contact. Support from historically powerful Democrat leaders including Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell failed to provide necessary ballots as voters showed their disdain with incumbency. Specter's voting record on gay issues has been less than stellar.
Incumbent Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AK) has failed to win the 50% of the vote required by the State and now faces a costly and contentious runoff against Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D-AK). Lincoln has also been evasive about LGBT issues.
In what will likely be called major victory for Democrats, Mark Critz (D-PA) has defeated opponent Tim Burns (R-PA) to fill the seat of recently deceased Congressman and Committee Chair John Murtha (D-PA). Although a 2-1 Democrat district, this has been considered to be an indicator of things to come in the fall elections. Critz' win appears to be under 8%.