US May Primary Day Election Results

[downtown]

Couple of different election results from last night..

Kentucky:

Rand Paul (R) handily defeats Trey Greyson, the establishment candidate supported by Mitch McConnell and the rest of the GOP, for the Republican Senate nomination. Rand Paul is, of course, Ron Paul's son.

Jack Conway defeated Daniel Mongiardo for the KY Dem primary, creating what polling suggests to be the best possible matchup for Dems to flip Kentucky. Paul should be the strong favorite here, but Conway may be able to eeek out a win. Kentucky isn't the most economically conservative state in the union, after all.

Pennsylvania

Rep. Joe Sestak defeats Arlen Specter for the Dem nomination for the Senate seat. While this is somewhat a reputation of the Dem establishment (Obama did endorse Specter after all), many dem heavies had started to pull back their support, and Sestak is polling better against the GOP candidate now. Prob helped their chances of keeping PA.

Arkansas

Blance Lincoln and Bill Halter will have a runoff for the Dem Senate primary. I think its moot, as both as double digit losers in polling against Republicans. Lincoln is the incumbent, but the GOP should flip the seat. Halter is the more liberal of the two.


PA 12th district

Mark Citz (D) defeats Tim Burns (R) 53-45 in a congressional special election for John Murtha's (D) old seat. The 12th district voted for McCain...these are the types of house seats Republicans have to win if they're going to take back the house. I don't think think they will (but they should pick up 25, 30 seats)

 

[warpus]

Ignorant Canadian here. What *are* the primaries? I thought that they were a litmus test of sorts for an upcoming election, but then people are getting elected, so I guess I had it all wrong..

 

[illram]

They're where each party votes for their nominee for the actual elections, later in the year.

 

[Bestbank Tiger]

Ignorant Canadian here. What *are* the primaries? I thought that they were a litmus test of sorts for an upcoming election, but then people are getting elected, so I guess I had it all wrong..

A primary is the election where each party chooses its nominee. The nominees then run against each other in the general election, which decides who holds the office.

Oh, and it's awesome to see Specter go down in flames. That guy is a colossal douchebag. He started his career by cooking up the inane magic bullet theory for the Warren Commission.

Plus as much as I despise Rick Santorum, what Specter did to him was a disgrace. In 2004 Specter was challenged in the Republican primary by a more conservative candidate. Santorum campaigned for him and saved him from getting voted out. Then two years later, when Santorum was in trouble in the general election, Specter just hung him out to dry.

 

[JohnRM]

Goodbye Specter! Don't let the door hit your butt on the way out!

 

[warpus]

Cool, thanks for the answers guys.. So it's only party members who vote here? Like, elected officials?

 

[Shekwan]

When you register to vote in the US you can state party affiliation. This allows you to vote in the primary of your choice. Party "membership" is therefore a looser term in the States and refers to this.

At least thats what I know, could be way off.

 

[downtown]

The rules vary a little from state to state, but if you declare your affiliation for a particular party, you can vote in the primaries, which determine which Democrat or Republican (or whatever) will appear on the final ballot.

There was also one real election, in a fairly conservative PA district, where the D beat the R.

 

[Tani Coyote]

Goodbye Specter! Don't let the door hit your butt on the way out!

I know my father would post a rave if he was a member of OT once he hears this. He hates Specter's guts enormously, and since my father's a fairly strong Republican, I can understand why.

 

[I'm Cleo!]

Everybody seems to have hated Specter.

Cleo

 

[.Shane.]

The rules vary a little from state to state, but if you declare your affiliation for a particular party, you can vote in the primaries, which determine which Democrat or Republican (or whatever) will appear on the final ballot.

Yes, can be quite different from state to state. CA has a proposition to end closed primaries (need to see if it passed).

That said, in terms of the OP, I'm thinking more and more that the effect of the Tea Party is to divide and even restrict the Republican party moreso than to be an affront to the Dems. I still expect Dems to lose seats overall (as per typical in the mid-terms), but I'm real interested to see if that lose is +/- typical. The way things were going I thought it was going to be worse. Now, I'm not so sure.

Of course, its all non-sense right now because a Hell of a lot is going to happen between now and November.

 

[Dachs]

VA has open primaries

wooooo

 

[sophie]

Yes, can be quite different from state to state. CA has a proposition to end closed primaries (need to see if it passed).

That said, in terms of the OP, I'm thinking more and more that the effect of the Tea Party is to divide and even restrict the Republican party moreso than to be an affront to the Dems. I still expect Dems to lose seats overall (as per typical in the mid-terms), but I'm real interested to see if that lose is +/- typical. The way things were going I thought it was going to be worse. Now, I'm not so sure.

Of course, its all non-sense right now because a Hell of a lot is going to happen between now and November.

My friend who's a registered independent says that you can vote in the primaries as an independent, you just choose which party you want to vote for. This is for California.

 

[I'm Cleo!]

That said, in terms of the OP, I'm thinking more and more that the effect of the Tea Party is to divide and even restrict the Republican party moreso than to be an affront to the Dems. I still expect Dems to lose seats overall (as per typical in the mid-terms), but I'm real interested to see if that lose is +/- typical. The way things were going I thought it was going to be worse. Now, I'm not so sure.

I agree (right now). The Tea Party people have what I'm going to call a "Sarah Palin Effect." When Sarah Palin was running around telling pure-as-the-driven-snow crowds about Obama "palling around with terrorists" and members of those crowds were yelling "traitor!", I think a lot of people who otherwise would have voted for McCain either voted for Obama or didn't vote because they wanted to think of themselves as "not like those people," "those people" being the ignoramuses at Sarah Palin rallies. This doesn't speak well to Obama or McCain, or even the people who succumbed to the Sarah Palin Effect, but I think it played a role. You could probably see a similar effect with 1960s and 1970s radicals -- people who otherwise would have voted more liberal didn't because they wanted to think that they weren't like the freaks.

Tea Party people are basically the same as the Sarah Palin rally-goers, if not even more loony, and the more tea partiers show up looking like this lunatic at an open carry rally:

Spoiler :

Lots of voters are going to think, "Hmm, I'm not like those people."

Cleo

 

[mangxema]

Cool, thanks for the answers guys.. So it's only party members who vote here? Like, elected officials?

To piggyback off of downtown, some states have open primaries, which case anyone can vote for anybody. At least in Georgia you told them which party ballot you wanted when at the polling station. Since I've moved to Florida I can't do that, which really blows if you're not a partisan hack.

Also, the reason why there was the random House election was because the previous Rep died recently. So for the last few months that district had no official representation in the House. Which is bad. Hence the election.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

Cool, thanks for the answers guys.. So it's only party members who vote here? Like, elected officials?

It's different state to state. In Michigan, there is no party affiliation recorded when you register to vote. You walk in on primary day (first Tuesday in August), get either the D ballot or the R ballot and vote for either the D candidates or the R candidates. No cross voting allowed until November.

 

[The Imp]

VA has open primaries

wooooo

You vote? Because I did not peg you as a voter at all.

 

[sumit1207]

Rand Paul was on Maddow's show, arguing that government back away from banning racial discrimination in private institutions. Great job, tea party. This could be the one gain Dems make this year.

 

[Bestbank Tiger]

It's different state to state. In Michigan, there is no party affiliation recorded when you register to vote. You walk in on primary day (first Tuesday in August), get either the D ballot or the R ballot and vote for either the D candidates or the R candidates. No cross voting allowed until November.

We have the same thing in Mississippi. All voters are registered independents. You decide at the polls which party's primary you want...the only catch is if there are runoffs for the nomination (if no candidate gets a majority) you have to vote in the same party's runoff.

I like Louisiana's system for state and local elections. All candidates run in the same primary and if nobody gets a majority the top two go to a runoff regardless of party. For Senate and House elections, they use the typical party nomination process. Each party sets its own rules, so only registered Republicans can vote in a Republican primary but Democrats and Independents can vote in a Democratic primary.

 

[.Shane.]

My friend who's a registered independent says that you can vote in the primaries as an independent, you just choose which party you want to vote for. This is for California.

That may be true, but there is still a proposition here to make them completely open. I just read through it on my mail-in ballot. Oh, here we go...