Yesterday’s primaries: Out with the old, in with the new

The results of yesterday’s primary elections were almost all good news for the political challenger: Rand Paul, the tea party favorite, walked away with a 24-point lead over the GOP-backed Trey Grayson in Kentucky. Party-swapper Arlen Specter’s 30-year record wasn’t enough to save him this time — even with robo-calls from President Obama on his behalf — as Joe Sestak won the Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania. And in Arkansas, Sen. Blanche Lincoln was forced into a run-off after failing to win 50 percent of the Democratic vote.

The narrative in the news this morning is all about change:

With the electorate’s intense anger reverberating across the country, this is all but certain: It’s an anti-Washington, anti-establishment year. And candidates with ties to either better beware.

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Any doubt about just how toxic the political environment is for congressional incumbents and candidates hand-picked by national Republican and Democratic leaders disappeared late Tuesday, when voters fired Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania, forced Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln into a run-off in Arkansas and chose tea party darling Rand Paul to be the GOP nominee in Kentucky’s Senate race.

“People just aren’t very happy,” Ira Robbins, 61, said in Allentown, Pa.

With anyone linked to power, it seems.

Paul, for one, made that challenge explicit:

“I have a message, a message from the Tea Party, a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words,” Mr. Paul said in his victory speech in Bowling Green, Ky. “We have come to take our government back.” . . .

It’s just a tremendous mandate for the Tea Party,” Mr. Paul said. “It cannot be overstated that people want something new, they don’t want the same old, same old politicians. They think the system is broken and needs new blood.”

Finally, the result of a smaller race that warms my heart: Keith Rothfus, a Catholic father of six, won his own upset against GOP incumbent Mary Beth Buchanan in Pennsylvania’s fourth congressional district. You might have heard that, during the campaign, Buchanan questioned Rothfus’s commitment to the job because of his large family. I’m happy to see Rothfus driving his minivan in circles around her today.

 

Author

  • Margaret Cabaniss

    Margaret Cabaniss is the former managing editor of Crisis Magazine. She joined Crisis in 2002 after graduating from the University of the South with a degree in English Literature and currently lives in Baltimore, Maryland. She now blogs at SlowMama.com.

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