Voters weighed the merits of establishment candidates against outsiders, as US Senator John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee who took a hard turn to the right in a bid for a fifth US Senate term, handily defeated a conservative talk radio personality.
The Arizona election was one of five state primaries on Tuesday in which voters chose party candidates for November balloting nationwide that could end Democrats’ majority hold on the US House of Representatives and, perhaps, the Senate.
The primary season has tested the strength of insurgent campaigns. With Americans in a sour mood over the down economy and unemployment at nearly 10 percent, outsiders — especially those aligned with or belonging to the amorphous, hard right Tea Party movement — already have swept away some incumbents.
PHOTO: EPA
McCain, however, went into the vote with a healthy lead in the polls over Tea-Party-backed former representative J.D. Hayworth.
The challenge from party’s right wing prompted McCain, who has a long history of bucking the conservative establishment, to toss aside his self-described “maverick” label. He adopted a hard-line stand on immigration just a few years after working with Democrats on a path to citizenship for those in the country illegally.
McCain’s 2008 running mate, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, was trying to help a Tea Party-backed candidate in her home state.
PHOTO: EPA
Joe Miller’s upstart Republican primary bid against Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski — who hoped voters would reward experience — looked like a long shot. However, Murkowski was trailing her lesser-known conservative opponent in a surprisingly tight race that was seen as a test of the political power of Palin and the Tea Party movement.
In previous primaries this year, voters have shown both a readiness to fire veteran lawmakers and a willingness to keep them.
The Tea Party has had mixed success. It won big in Nevada, Kentucky, Colorado and Utah Republican Senate contests, but lost just about everywhere else.
However, no matter Tuesday’s outcomes, there is no question that the Tea Party and Palin have provided an enormous dose of enthusiasm for Republicans heading into the fall campaign, and that is dangerous for a dispirited Democratic base.
In Florida, former healthcare executive and political novice Rick Scott pushed past state Attorney General Bill McCollum to win Florida’s Republican gubernatorial primary.
McCollum had said voters have not been swayed by his opponent’s outlay of US$39 million of his own money to blanket the state with commercials, most attacking McCollum.
Scott faces Florida chief financial officer Alex Sink, who won her Democratic primary.
Washington-backed Representative Kendrick Meek beat billionaire and real estate businessman Jeff Greene, who has spent lavishly from his fortune and forced Meek to drain his campaign coffers, in the Democratic primary for the Senate.
Meek will face Republican Marco Rubio and Florida Governor Charlie Crist, the Republican who turned independent in face of the Rubio Tea Party juggernaut.
In Vermont, Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, first elected in 1974, coasted to renomination for what is likely to be a new term in November. A five-way Democratic primary for Vermont governor was too close to call; the victor could win the seat currently held by a Republican.
Meanwhile, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, the Republican who signed the tough law designed to crack down on illegal immigration, has cruised to nomination for a new term.
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