The Latest Numbers
At 12:37 P.M., here are the latest numbers, which will be updated constantly:
BREAKING: In Maryland's forth district Democratic primary, incumbent Rep. Al Wynn appears to be creeping further ahead of challenger Donna Edwards. With 92.40% of precincts reporting, Wynn is now up four points, 50%-46.12%.
BREAKING: Ben Cardin has won the Dem primary, beating Kweisi Mfume 46%-38% with 93% precincts reporting. Cardin will now square off against the GOP's Michael Steele in the general election.
RI-SEN: Lincoln Chafee pulls out a sizeable win over conservative challenger Steve Laffey in the GOP primary, beating him 54%-46%.
AZ-08: In the closely watched GOP primary, Randy Graf has edged out Steve Huffman, 43%-37%, not an uncomfortable spread considering Huffman was the national GOP's candidate. Graf's victory is good news for Dems, because the more moderate Huffman would have had a better short against Gabrielle Giffords, who easily won the Dem primary.
More results after the jump.
John Sarbanes, a lawyer and the son of retiring Sen. Paul Sarbanes, has won the Democratic primary in Maryland's third district, beating former health official Peter Beilenson 32%-25%.
WI-08: Steve Kagen, a doctor who founded a group of allergy clinics, rolled to an unexpectedly wide victory with 48% in a three-way race. He will face Assembly Speaker John Gard, who won his primary against an underfunded opponent 68%-32%, in what is expected to be a top-tier race to succeed Rep. Mark Green, the GOP nominee for governor.
MN-05: Keith Ellison wins Dem primary, putting him on track towards becoming the first Muslim member of Congress.
VT-SEN: Bernie Sanders won the Dem primary for Senate to replace outgoing James Jeffords, the AP reports. Sanders will run as an independent against GOP nominee Richard Tarrant.
WI-SEN: Incumbent Senator Herb Kohl easily prevailed over challenger Ben Masel, 86%-14%.
NY-GOV, NY-SEN: Eliot Spitzer and Hillary Clinton won smashing victories in the New York gubernatorial and senatorial primaries.
If Chafee pulls it out, it means that in the two hottest Senate primaries in the country (with incumbents being challenged), the anti-war candidate won.
Go Linc! And bye bye John Bolton!
September 12, 2006 10:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
More like a vote for incumbency. Did Chafee's anti-Bolton vote really help in a Republican primary?
I would say Lieberman lost the CT primary, rather than Lamont won it. The proof in CT is whether Lamont can win the Senate seat. So far his performance after the primary is disappointing. Did he hire some of Lieberman's people?
September 12, 2006 11:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't count out Donna Edwards yet. She's pulling 59% of the vote in Montgomery County, where voting was delayed due to a Diebold snafu, and there are thousands of absentee and provisional ballots yet to be counted. This race won't be decided until Monday at the earliest.
September 13, 2006 2:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
You all are missing Minnesota's Fifth District, where Keith Ellison defeated a former chief of staff (and State Party Chair) of retiring Martin Olav Sabo, and one of the founders of the DLC and a 16 year vet of the Minnesota Senate, and a Mpls City Council member.
Ellison as I post has about 47% of the vote in this 4 way race. He will be the first African American Muslim elected to Congress, given that this district is about 74% DFL. The Republicans in this district are lucky to get more than 23-25% of the vote. So Ellison is essentially elected.
Ellison got the full support of Wellstone's people -- and while Paul may be gone, the people are still around. (We do have distinctive burial rites.) He directly confronted the Muslim-Jewish issue, and held about half of the pre-primary forums in synagogues. Questions got asked and answered. All of the major Jewish organizations endorsed, as did all of the progressive organizations. Gays and Lesbians raised funds and phone banked. Jesse Jackson came in and told the jealous Black Baptists to slow down and shut up.
And this is actually a Lutheran-Scandinavian district. If the DFL had put forward a progressive with a Scandianavian sounding name, it could have won -- but in the anti-Iraq-war mish mash, none really surfaced. The turn out was relatively huge, and if I am tracking precincts correctly, the Lutherans voted for the African American Muslim.
I look forward to additional analysis of this race.
September 13, 2006 3:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
If the democrats play to a tie in the November Senate races, there are rumours that perhaps two liberal republicans could be enticed to switch over. Chafee? Possible?
I cannot imagine having to watch Cheney continually voting to break ties. I'd rather watch reruns of the Gong show!
September 13, 2006 4:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
More like a vote for more GOP control. Laffey had no chance in November and Republicans know it--that's why they spent so much money in this primary.
I blame Lamont's problems on him going on vacation after the primary while Lieberman was out setting the pace of the general election. Now Dems have to suck up to Lieberman so that he'll still caucus with them. Lamont should have been out painting Lieberman as a loser and setting the terms of the debate as the winner of the Dem primary...but I guess he was tired or something.
September 13, 2006 9:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Very interesting. Thanks for the post.
Do you know if he'll be the only Muslim in Congress?
September 13, 2006 10:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yup, the only Moslem in congress.
September 13, 2006 10:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
That would be awesome, given how much money the GOP spent on his primary, but in order for the Dems to get to a tie, I think Whitehouse almost definitely has to beat Chafee in R.I.
Unfortunately, liberal republicans are extinct, and moderate republicans are an endangered species, and I'm not sure whether two of them actually exist in the Senate still. I really can't see Specter, Chafee, Snow, Collins, or anyone else switching parties.
September 13, 2006 10:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Looks like Wynn is now leading again with 82% reporting (7:40 PST).
September 13, 2006 10:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
With only 4 precincts outstanding (all in PG County, where Wynn fared better) I've tallied the following totals:
Wynn, Albert R. 37026 49.7%
Edwards, Donna 34575 46.4%
There are a lot of provisional ballots in Montgomery due to our inexcusable delays. But Edwards is looking at 2500-3000 votes to make up, and even with a 60-40 edge in MoCo it would take 12-15,000 provisional ballots to make up the difference. The real number is probably closer to 2000.
So, it doesn't look good. I'm hopeful that the absentee ballots will break for Edwards, too, but it's a long shot at this point. Makes me very, very angry about the substantial number of people who were denied the right to vote by the computer woes. I'm having flashbacks to Florida 2000.
September 13, 2006 1:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
And the first ever?
September 13, 2006 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fourth District, not forth.
162 of 171 Precincts Reporting - 94.74%
Name________ Votes _____ Pct
Wynn _______ 36,141 ___ 50.04
Edwards ____ 33,290 ___ 46.10
McDermott ___ 2,787 ____ 3.86
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/elections/bal-elections-ushouse,0,5062829.htmlstory
September 13, 2006 10:16 PM | Reply | Permalink