Last Night's Primary Runoffs

North Carolina Secretary of State, Elaine Marshall, yesterday's big winner

The first election to end last night was in South Carolina (7pm), where it was easy to predict the outcomes: in every single runoff in the state a dangerous conservative sociopath would win. I was right. South Carolina, where teabagger= secessionist, is one of the places where being a far right extremist of any stripe appeals to the anger, bigotry, willful ignorance and confusion of so much of the population-- and the vast majority of the Republican base. And as repulsive as a political Palin-- rather than a reality TV show Palin-- is to most Americans, in South Carolina Republican politics, she's a serious political figure. Couple that with the explosion of anger towards GOP Establishment politicos Gresham Barrett and Bob Inglis, and there was no room for surprises last night. Inglis, though a conservative kook by any standards, once publicly berated Glenn Beck-- saying nothing that 80-90% of House Republicans would agree with-- off the record. That was his undoing.

A.P. called the gubernatorial race early. Less than 90 minutes after the polls closed, and with just 36% of the precincts counted, they stuck a fork in Barrett, who wound up with 35%. Palin's candidate beat the Establishment guy. In the two important House runoffs, Tim Scott, an African-American teabagger-- also endorsed by Palin-- beat Establishment fave Paul Thurmond, son of Strom, 68.4-31.6%. And in the very conservative 4th CD, the spawning ground of Jim DeMint, Inglis got trounced by Trey Gowdy 70.6-29.4%, a horrible repudiation for an incumbent.

Conservatives and teabaggers also had their fratricidal spats going in Mississippi's 2nd congressional district (where Bill Marcy won and will face popular incumbent Bennie Thompson in the state's most powerfully Democratic district), in a couple of North Carolina House races and in Utah's Senate race.
The only discernible difference between most of the Republican candidates were like those between a mere sociopath and a full-on psychopath. In NC-08, where worthless and cowardly freshman Dem is among the most vulnerable incumbents, the sociopath, Harold Johnson, beat the psychopath, Tim D'Annunzio, handily, 61.2% to 38.8%. William Randall, another bizarre kook-- who insisted that the Gulf Oil spill was part of an Obama plot, took 58.9% of the vote and will be thoroughly beaten by Democrat Brad Miller in November.

What I was more concerned with, of course, were two important Democratic races. The biggie, for the Democratic nomination to face extremist Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), was won-- and very decisively, by Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, the grassroots populist heavily backed by... well, basically by everyone but the DSCC. Bob Menendez, continuing his losing record, personally recruited some guy named Cal Cunningham-- idea being that North Carolina isn't "ready" for two women senators. North Carolinians didn't agree and the $300,000 plus massive support from DC insiders didn't save Cunningham from an electoral thrashing. He was trounced 60- 40% in a runoff that saw Ken Lewis' primary voters follow Lewis straight into Marshall's camp. Score one-- one big one-- for the good guys. Menendez, who forced this divisive and costly primary on North Carolina Democrats sounded on the inauthentic side last night when he managed to croak out, "Tomorrow, we begin the general election and the choice for North Carolinians could not be any starker. Voters will face a choice between a Democrat who has focused on creating jobs and the needs of North Carolina's middle class and a Republican who puts partisanship ahead of doing what's right." He should resign from the DSCC before its too late. Blue America has been urging progressives to contribute to Marshall from the day that Menendez blatantly inserted himself into the race. And we still are-- let's beat Burr!

And then there was the longshot grassroots primary pitting Claudia Wright, an ex-Mormon, openly lesbian, openly progressive, great great granddaughter of Brigham Young, challenging a rolling in corporate cash Establishment Blue Dog, Jim Matheson. Claudia's feisty challenge saw Matheson voting with Democrats on issues-- like abolishing DADT-- that would have been unthinkable without a vigorous primary. We consider the ads Blue America ran this past week in the St. George area to be the least we could do for a stalwart Democrat taking on such a thankless and odious task. Her first try for public office, Claudia wound up with around a third of the vote. Matheson spent $46.00 for every vote her received; Claudia spent $2.91/vote. Thanks to everyone who stood with her!