Primary Night: A Mixed Bag

A mixed bag of results, mostly good, from my point of view. Everyone has heard by now that Joe Lieberman lost to Ned Lamont and the left-wing nutroots of the Democratic Party. John McIntyre of Real Clear Politics explains why this is a disastrous path for the Democrats to follow.

Over in Michigan (a nice place to be from, let me tell you), the Club for Growth and fiscal conservatives scored a significant victory as Tim Walberg unseated one-term incumbent Republican Congressman Joe Schwarz in the 7th District primary. Two years ago Schwarz won 29% in a crowded field with five conservative opponents. Last night, he went one-on-one against a conservative and lost. Even the endorsement of President Bush and John McCain couldn’t get him more than 46% of the ballot. A kudos to my college buddy Joe Wicks, who has successfully managed the Walberg campaign to one victory and now faces a looming (but very winnable) battle against liberal Democrat Sharon Renier.

Back in Colorado, Republicans in my 7th District have to be happy to see Ed Perlmutter surviving the bitter Democratic primary to face our Rick O’Donnell. It will be an uphill battle for the Republican in this open seat race, but Perlmutter is more beatable than his primary challenger Peggy Lamm. O’Donnell already has challenged the Democrat to a debate a week going into the general election. I’m glad to see Rick running this race with confidence. Note to the national pundits: don’t hand this one to the Dems quite yet.

In the 5th District, conservative Doug Lamborn prevailed with a surprise win after the absentee ballots were counted to put him over a stunned Jeff Crank. I’m a bit disappointed, too, having endorsed Crank. The bitter campaign tactics of Lamborn’s surrogates were the story in this race. I had hoped that Lamborn would condemn the slanderous attacks on Crank and Rivera, but now the challenge is to bring unity and healing here in a race that Democrat challenger Jay Fawcett has virtually no chance of winning.

Quickly running down the state and local races of interest – the good, the not-so-good, and the undecided:

GOOD – strong conservatives win contested GOP primaries
Senate 13 – Scott Renfroe
Senate 7 – Josh Penry
Senate 16 – Marty Neilson
Senate 30 – Ted Harvey
House 14 – Kent Lambert
House 19 – Marsha Looper
House 38 – Matt Dunn

NOT-SO-GOOD – less fiscally conservative or anti-school choice candidates win contested GOP primaries
House 23 – Ramey Johnson
House 52 – Don Marostica
Jefferson County Treasurer – Faye Griffin

UNDECIDED – too close to call
Senate 22 – Conservative Mike Kopp holds a 79-vote lead over Kiki Traylor with some provisional and absentee ballots apparently still to be counted
House 37 – Spencer Swalm appears to have the final edge over Betty Ann Habig, but no result has been called yet
Arapahoe County Treasurer – Out of more than 24,000 votes cast, conservative Dan Kopelman trails Sue Sandstrom by 56 votes

For more, check out the ongoing coverage at To the Right.