Voters Throw out Incumbents in US Primaries

Yesterday was primary day in a few US states, and while there is no ideological theme to it, voters decided that it was time to throw the rascals out. Challengers from the right and the left triumphed. Long-time Senate fixture Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania lost in his first run as a Democrat, libertarian Republican Rand Paul annihilated the competition in Kentucky, and in Arkansas, Senator Blanche Lincoln failed to get 50%+1 of the vote and will face a run-off in June.

Mr. Specter's defeat was hardly surprising. After 5 terms in the US Senate, he was established as a Washington insider, and in this political climate, that is not a good thing. Moreover, he switched parties some time back, largely because he felt he couldn't win a Republican primary. It turns out he couldn't win a Democratic one either. Joe Sestak won because people were tired of Mr. Specter, and Admiral Sestak made no mistakes.

In Kentucky, the political establishment got its comeuppance. Rand Paul, of Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) crushed Secretary of State Trey Grayson, who had the support of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Mr. Paul, a tea-party favorite, took almost 60% of the vote. In his victory speech, he said, "I have a message, a message from the tea party, a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words. We've come to take our government back."

The most interesting outcome was in Arkansas, where corporate shill Blanche Lincoln faced a challenge from the left from Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter and on the right from political unknown D.C. Morrison. The Washington Post said, "Lincoln was leading Halter by 45 percent to 43 percent early Wednesday morning, with 99 percent of precincts counted. Morrison collected 13 percent." In other words, the anti-Lincoln vote is hefty. The question is whether Mr. Morrison's backers will vote for Mr. Halter, or whether they will simply stay home.

Two races went against the anti-incumbent trend to a degree, Oregon's gubernatorial primaries and the 12th Congressional District in Pennsylvania, where the late John Murtha was Congressman. John Kitzhaber is a former two-term governor of Oregon, and state Senate president who won the Democratic nod. On the Republican side, Chris Dudley, a 15-year veteran of the National Basketball Association who has proven his ability to raise funds and fight campaign battles, won the GOP nod. Meanwhile, an ex-Murtha staffer, Mark Critz, held the seat for the Democrats.

The mood among voters is ugly, but it is not taking a single ideological turn. While the tea-party movement is having a good show, MoveOn.org and others are proving effective on the left. What is likely from here is not so much a shift rightward or leftward, but instead a class of rookie legislators when Congress gathers in 2011.

© Copyright 2010 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.

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