UPDATE: Last Night's Primaries In Ohio And North Carolina

Speaker Boehner beats French teacher Winteregg

Last night there were primaries in Indiana, Ohio and North Carolina. Unless you're related to one of the candidates, there was nothing to write home about in Indiana but there was a lot of action in Ohio and North Carolina. Well, a lot in North Carolina and a bit in Ohio. Predictably, the anti-Choice, antigay, pro-fracking, pro-NRA shill Steve Israel recruited for OH-06, Jennifer Garrison, beat grassroots progressive Greg Howard with a lopsided 73-27% victory. In November she'll be beaten badly by GOP incumbent Bill Johnson, though not before the DCCC wastes even more money on her. Greg should be congratulated for his quixotic, purely grassroots effort to give voters in the district a real choice. 

The two other primaries we were watching in Ohio were Republican long-shot bids by teabaggers to beat more mainstream conservative incumbents. We were hoping that bizarre sociopath and tax scofflaw Matt Lynch would upset corporate hack David Joyce in OH-14, making it easier for progressive Democrat Michael Wager to win in November. Lynch came close-- but not close enough and the wounded Joyce can claim a 27,069 (55%)- 22,046 (45%) victory, having spent-- between himself and his Chamber of Commerce allies-- almost $2 million to Lynch's (and his Tea Party allies') just under $200,000. Wager, who was unchallenged in the primary, has an excellent chance of beating Joyce in November and you can contribute to his campaign here. The other race was between Boehner and J.D. Winteregg in OH-08. Since Steve Israel is once again committed to undermining any Democrats opposing Boehner, the primary was the only shot to get rid of the corrupt corporate stooge. Winteregg scored 22% and 2 minor canddiates scored another 10%, leaving Boehner with a 69% win, He'll face Tom Poetter in November, who won his own primary 55-45 against Matthew Guyette.

In North Carolina the most important race was a GOP primary to determine which right-wing lunatic would go up against conservative Democrat Kay Hagan in November. House Speaker Thom Tillis, with immense financial support from the Chamber of Commerce and Rove, avoided a runoff by taking 46% of the vote . His closest competitor, bizarre neo-fascist lunatic Greg Brannon won 27%. Convention wisdom was that Brannon would have been easier for Hagan to defeat but people underestimate the hatred most North Carolinians have for the state legislature Tillis, who basically hates working people, has been running. Tillis spent $2,195,741, Rove spent $1,631,618 and the Chamber of Commerce spent another $101,485. Brannon spent $1,145,673 and a ragtag group of teabagger groups spent some more, but not enough. Going into the general, Tillis has $1,067,859 cash on hand and Hagan has $8,623,328. The GOP Establishment is expected to fill his coffers right back up again though.

An even more interesting race that was decided last night was for state Senate, district 31, where an antigay former drag queen, Steve Stiles/Monica Sinclair came in third of three GOP candidates:

This isn't that uncommon among Southern Republicans, inordinate numbers of whom are notorious for their closeted lives and their obsessive, self-loathing, anti-gay bigotry. One of the Republican congressmen in Monica Sinclair's area is Patrick McHenry-- who won his primary last night and who is also a closet case who has been involved in scandal after scandal that his simple, backwoods constituents can't grasp.

A quick rundown of the most-watched North Carolina congressional primaries has to start with NC-03 where the GOP Establishment went after anti-war, libertarian-leaning Walter Jones again. Their candidate, Taylor Griffin, won 19,937 votes (45%) and failed to dislodge Jones, who won 22,534 votes (51%).

Up in NC-06, where Howard Coble (R) is finally retiring, Establishment favorite Phil Berger was forced into a runoff with Mark Walker after a 9-candidate brouhaha. Berger managed 34% to Walker's 25%. The DCCC recruited one of their typically mediocre candidates with no chance and no message, Laura Fjeld, who won here primary against Bruce Davis 56-44%. Interestingly, Fjeld and Davis together drew 33,787 votes while Berger and Walker together drew only 26,140 votes.

Also finally forced into retirement is Blue Dog Mike McIntyre. A far more progressive Jonathan Barfield won the primary with 58% but will now face the Republican who almost beat McIntyre last cycle, David Rouzer, who won his NC-07 primary with 53%. You can contribute to Barfield's campaign here.

When I went to bed last night the Democratic primary to pick a candidate to face Renee Ellmers (who survived her own primary challenge) was too close to call. NC-02 Democrats were almost evenly split between Clay Aiken (11,649) and Keith Crisco (11,277) with all 156 precincts reporting. I guess, wih just 372 votes separating them, there will be a recount.