Times of London
Democrats were celebrating their revived prospects for the November midterm elections yesterday after a string of primary results put paid to the notion of an anti-establishment mood sweeping the country.
In Tuesday’s biggest race in Colorado President Obama’s favoured candidate secured the Democratic Senate nomination while Republicans picked a maverick conservative with links to the Tea Party movement but questionable appeal to a general electorate.
The result, mirrored by races in three other states that also nominated Republican outsiders, suggests that the vaunted anti-establishment fervour is a Republican phenomenon that may hurt the party’s chances at polls.
Republicans are banking on a general anti-Washington mood to help them overturn the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.
Ken Buck, who won the Republican nomination in Colorado, was favoured by many in the conservative Tea Party movement but he was shunned by most of the mainstream Republican Party. He is the fourth Tea Party candidate to win a Republican Senate nomination this year over the Republican leadership’s pick.
Mr Buck will go up against Michael Bennet, the incumbent Colorado Senator, who retained the Democratic nomination despite a challenge by his rival Andrew Romanoff.
The White House backed Mr Bennet’s campaign, which paid off with a comfortable nine-point lead and a much-needed fillip for Mr Obama, whose support was seen as a double-edged sword for some candidates. Mr Romanoff lost despite backing from the former president, Bill Clinton.
While the Republican nomination races reflect the growing strength of the party’s right wing they highlight a potentially self-destructive trend in which its voters repeatedly picked candidates on their anti-establishment credentials over those blessed by the party as more electable.
Rand Paul, the libertarian darling who won Kentucky’s Republican Senate nomination earlier this year, was quickly shuffled out of the media glare by party officials after a series of gaffes including his public questioning of the wisdom of the Civil Rights Act.
Mr Buck was also caught on tape last week saying that he deserved the nomination over his female rival because he did not wear high heels.
Republican voters showed a similar deafness in their choice of candidate to run for Colorado Governor. A recent suggestion by Dan Maes that a bicycle sharing scheme may “threaten our personal freedoms” and lead to greater United Nations influence in America has only heightened Republican fears about the gubernatorial race.
In Connecticut Republicans nominated another colourful but decidedly untested candidate to compete for the Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Democratic incumbent.
Linda McMahon is the former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc, which stages rigged fights featuring scantily clad women, wrestlers and dwarves bashing each other, sometimes with chairs. She won easily after pouring millions of dollars of her money into the race and has pledged to spend another $50 million (£32 million) on her Senate campaign.
Democrats said that they would not hesitate to use her past against her in November’s race. Connecticut has one of the most affluent and educated electorates in the country and there has been considerable scepticism there about Ms McMahon’s qualifications.
“Connecticut Republicans today nominated a corporate CEO of WWE, under whose watch violence was peddled to kids, steroid abuse was rampant, yet she made millions,” Robert Menendez, the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said. “McMahon built an empire peddling violent, sexually explicit material that glorified the exploitation of women and the mentally disabled.”
Commentators are questioning whether the off-beat Republican choices may rob them of their opportunity to overturn the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.
Republicans need to win ten seats in the Senate to take control. Several Tea Party candidates have already run into controversies that Republicans fear could lose them races. Sharron Angle, the Tea Party-backed Republican Senate candidate in Nevada, has thrown away an 11-point lead over the Senate majority leader Harry Reid in only seven weeks, mostly through gaffes that highlighted her inexperience.
Florida has entered the list of Senate seats in play after the mainstream Republican choice, Charlie Crist, decided to run as an independent after being beaten to the nomination by Marco Rubio, who is backed by the Tea Party.
In Tuesday’s biggest race in Colorado President Obama’s favoured candidate secured the Democratic Senate nomination while Republicans picked a maverick conservative with links to the Tea Party movement but questionable appeal to a general electorate.
The result, mirrored by races in three other states that also nominated Republican outsiders, suggests that the vaunted anti-establishment fervour is a Republican phenomenon that may hurt the party’s chances at polls.
Republicans are banking on a general anti-Washington mood to help them overturn the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.
Ken Buck, who won the Republican nomination in Colorado, was favoured by many in the conservative Tea Party movement but he was shunned by most of the mainstream Republican Party. He is the fourth Tea Party candidate to win a Republican Senate nomination this year over the Republican leadership’s pick.
Mr Buck will go up against Michael Bennet, the incumbent Colorado Senator, who retained the Democratic nomination despite a challenge by his rival Andrew Romanoff.
The White House backed Mr Bennet’s campaign, which paid off with a comfortable nine-point lead and a much-needed fillip for Mr Obama, whose support was seen as a double-edged sword for some candidates. Mr Romanoff lost despite backing from the former president, Bill Clinton.
While the Republican nomination races reflect the growing strength of the party’s right wing they highlight a potentially self-destructive trend in which its voters repeatedly picked candidates on their anti-establishment credentials over those blessed by the party as more electable.
Rand Paul, the libertarian darling who won Kentucky’s Republican Senate nomination earlier this year, was quickly shuffled out of the media glare by party officials after a series of gaffes including his public questioning of the wisdom of the Civil Rights Act.
Mr Buck was also caught on tape last week saying that he deserved the nomination over his female rival because he did not wear high heels.
Republican voters showed a similar deafness in their choice of candidate to run for Colorado Governor. A recent suggestion by Dan Maes that a bicycle sharing scheme may “threaten our personal freedoms” and lead to greater United Nations influence in America has only heightened Republican fears about the gubernatorial race.
In Connecticut Republicans nominated another colourful but decidedly untested candidate to compete for the Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Democratic incumbent.
Linda McMahon is the former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment Inc, which stages rigged fights featuring scantily clad women, wrestlers and dwarves bashing each other, sometimes with chairs. She won easily after pouring millions of dollars of her money into the race and has pledged to spend another $50 million (£32 million) on her Senate campaign.
Democrats said that they would not hesitate to use her past against her in November’s race. Connecticut has one of the most affluent and educated electorates in the country and there has been considerable scepticism there about Ms McMahon’s qualifications.
“Connecticut Republicans today nominated a corporate CEO of WWE, under whose watch violence was peddled to kids, steroid abuse was rampant, yet she made millions,” Robert Menendez, the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said. “McMahon built an empire peddling violent, sexually explicit material that glorified the exploitation of women and the mentally disabled.”
Commentators are questioning whether the off-beat Republican choices may rob them of their opportunity to overturn the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.
Republicans need to win ten seats in the Senate to take control. Several Tea Party candidates have already run into controversies that Republicans fear could lose them races. Sharron Angle, the Tea Party-backed Republican Senate candidate in Nevada, has thrown away an 11-point lead over the Senate majority leader Harry Reid in only seven weeks, mostly through gaffes that highlighted her inexperience.
Florida has entered the list of Senate seats in play after the mainstream Republican choice, Charlie Crist, decided to run as an independent after being beaten to the nomination by Marco Rubio, who is backed by the Tea Party.
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