Primary Results Worry Democrats

A year after switching from the Republican party to the Democratic party, Senator Arlen Specter (Pennsylvania) was defeated in yesterday's primary. "Upstart" Rep. Joe Sestak won, and with Rand Paul (R) winning a Senate primary in Kentucky, the Washington Post says, "Tuesday's results were the most powerful indicator to date of the voter anger and dissatisfaction that has shaped the political climate all year." A Democratic strategist admitted to the Daily News, "If the election were held today we'd lose both [the House and the Senate]. Thank goodness it's not being held today - but we still might lose the House." But Politico points out that Republicans "failed spectacularly" in trying to get late Rep. John Murtha's Pennsylvania seat (Democrat Mark Critz won).

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By Jen Chung in News on May 19, 2010 1:03 PM

Comments [rss]

used_up_shoe

The conventional wisdom is that everything is bad for democrats because that's what the media keeps saying, and then they keep reporting on their reports, so everything must be bad because an industry with no product needs to make money.

Splicer

Bingo!

idiolect

Whatever, one could just as easily read this as a continuance of the push against the old guard, which isn't about disgust with the past year but disgust with the past ten. I think that would still be a little oversimplified, but a lot more accurate than this "Democrats should be quaking in their boots because they didn't let a former Republican into their party" business.

Also, I can't believe Ron Paul named his kid "Rand." Also also, apparently Rand Paul's "victory song" as he started his acceptance speech was Rush's "Free Will." No, really.

Splicer

Great song written in honor of an ass clown writer. Oh, Rand Paul sucks.

drewo

His proper name is Randal. Nothing to do with Howard Rourke.

Politburo

I have a hard time believing that was merely a coincidence.

Note that his middle name is Howard....

phillip anderson

A PA Dem beat a guy PA Dems have been trying to beat for 30 years, forced a corporate Dem into a runoff and held a seat in a district McCain carried in 2008 and in which Obama has a superlative 33% approval rating. Yeah, we're shakin' in our boots alright.

This post doesn't make a whole lot of sense, btw. Oh, and just FYI, Rand Paul won the GOP Senate primary in KENTUCKY, not Texas where his dad is a GOP Rep.

Try again, Gothamist.

Jen Chung

Thanks—had Ron Paul in my mind.

tblake

I thought Paul won in Kentucky.

SP

He won his primary vs another GOPer. The election will be in November.

Politburo

A Democrat beat a Democrat, and this is bad news for Democrats!

National media is really misunderstanding these races. PA race had nothing to do with Obama. It had to do with Specter.

SP

You are correct. This also is more lazy headline grabbing paraphrasing from Gothamist.

Kojak

Whatever. No one party ever controls Congress & the Presidency for long. Always expect this in the first midterm of a new Presidency if the Prez's party is in power. This has happened with both Bush & Clinton and many other times before that.