G.O.P. Insurgents Win in Del. and N.Y., © The New York Times, September 14, 2010, by Jeff Zeleny, photo © N.Y. Times/Jessica Kourkounis, excerpt quoted verbatim:

The Tea Party movement scored another victory on Tuesday, helping to propel a dissident Republican, Christine O’Donnell, to an upset win over Representative Michael N. Castle in the race for the United States Senate nomination in Delaware.

Mr. Castle, a moderate who served two terms as governor and had been reliably winning elections for the last four decades, became the latest establishment Republican casualty. Republican leaders, who had actively opposed Ms. O’Donnell, said the outcome complicated the party’s chances of winning control of the Senate.

With all precincts reporting, Ms. O’Donnell won 53 percent of the vote to Mr. Castle’s 47 percent. The primary drew 57,000 voters, a small slice of the overall electorate.

Ms. O’Donnell, a former abstinence counselor who had failed in previous attempts to run for office in Delaware, won the endorsement of Sarah Palin, Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina and other leaders of the party’s conservative wing.

“A lot of people said we can’t win the general election; yes we can!” Ms. O’Donnell said. “It will be hard work, but we can win if those same people who fought against me work just as hard for me.”

The results on the last big night of primaries highlighted the extent to which the Tea Party movement has upended the Republican Party and underscored the volatility of the electorate seven weeks from Election Day.

In New Hampshire, another candidate with strong backing from grass-roots conservatives, Ovide Lamontagne, was locked in a tight battle with his main opponent, Kelly Ayotte, in the Republican primary for Senate.

“In the interest of making sure all the votes are counted,” Mr. Lamontagne told supporters at a rally after midnight, “we’re going to continue to wait this out.” In Delaware, Ms. O’Donnell’s victory touched off a new round of recriminations among Republicans over the direction of their party, raising the question of whether there was still room for moderates and whether the drive for ideological purity would cost the party victories in November. The state and national Republican Party had mounted an aggressive campaign to defeat Ms. O’Donnell, but it fell short, with Mr. Castle unable to rely on independent voters who have long formed his base of support.

“The voters in the Republican primary have spoken, and I respect that decision,” Mr. Castle said, addressing crestfallen supporters who gathered in Wilmington. “I had a very nice speech prepared here, hoping I would win this race.”

In Maryland, former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. won the Republican nomination for governor, positioning him for a rematch with Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat who defeated him four years ago. Mr. Ehrlich defeated Brian Murphy, an investment executive, who was endorsed by Ms. Palin.

In Wisconsin, Scott Walker, the Milwaukee County executive, won the Republican nomination for governor. He defeated Mark Neumann, a former congressman, and will face Mayor Tom Barrett of Milwaukee, a Democrat, in November.

The contests on Tuesday night were the last big cluster in a seven-month string of primaries that will come to an end when Hawaii votes on Saturday and Louisiana holds a runoff early next month. Seven members of Congress had already been defeated in their bids for re-election.

In Delaware, O’Donnell supporters who gathered at an Elks lodge in Dover began chanting “Christine! Christine!” as returns began to trickle in and her lead steadily climbed. A little more than an hour after the polls closed, the race was called for Ms. O’Donnell.

In an interview, Ms. O’Donnell said she felt confident that she would have the support of Democrats and independents (neither group could vote in Delaware’s closed Republican primary). If elected in November, she said, she would “work to repeal the health care bill.”

Throughout the campaign, Ms. O’Donnell was dogged by reports — many of them generated by members of her own party — that she had trouble with personal finances, had fudged her educational history and was not fit for office. But Ms. O’Donnell continued to rebut, repudiate and push on, with a hefty dose of help from the Tea Party infrastructure and rank-and-file voters who were furious at Washington. ….

Read the full article, here.

UPDATE: See Tea party wins could derail GOP bid for Senate control, McClatchy, September 15, 2010, by David Lightman and William Douglas, excerpt quoted verbatim:

WASHINGTON — The tea party movement’s upset victory Tuesday by an insurgent conservative in Delaware’s Republican Senate primary puts GOP chances to win control of the U.S. Senate in November in serious jeopardy.

They need to gain 10 seats to run the Senate. Most leading prognosticators had said they appeared to be within reach of that until Tuesday. (Although most analysts say Republicans still have a good chance to gain a majority in the House of Representatives, where they need to pick up 39 seats.)

Delaware’s not the only Senate race in November where Republicans will field a tea party candidate vulnerable to the “fringe” label against well-known Democrats in the Nov. 2 general elections.

Colorado and Nevada face the same scenario, with incumbent Democrats seeking re-election against tea party insurgents who defeated better-known Republican candidates in low-turnout contests.

However, among the Senate seats most analysts expected Republicans to gain was Delaware’s, where the GOP establishment’s choice for Senate nominee was Rep. Michael Castle. A former two-term governor, the popular 71-year-old Castle has won 12 statewide elections and routinely pulls many Democratic and independent votes.

Running, however, in a closed Republican primary Tuesday in which Democrats and independents couldn’t vote, Castle was upset by little-known tea party candidate Christine O’Donnell.

As of Sept. 1, Delaware has a total of 621,746 registered voters. Nearly half are registered Democrats, while another 146,000 are independents.

Despite the intense campaign in the small state, the GOP primary attracted only a 32 percent turnout Tuesday. That means that a passionate but relatively small tea party movement was able to win a majority of a light Republican turnout.

Next, however, O’Donnell must face Democrat Chris Coons in the Nov. 2 general election. He’s the executive of New Castle County, the most populous of the state’s three counties. O’Donnell pulled 30,561 votes Tuesday. In Delaware’s 2006 general election, Democratic Sen. Tom Carper won — with 170,567 votes.

Closed primaries, where only registered party members can vote, tend to reflect the “small, intensely held preferences of fringe groups, and compared to the electorate in open races, the small size of the tea party makes it a fringe group,” said Michael Munger, a political science professor at Duke University.

See National GOP Looks West: NRSC Washing Hands Of Delaware After Christine O’Donnell Win, Talking Points Memo, September 15, 2010, by Christina Bellantoni: "The national Republicans who whispered for weeks that Christine O’Donnell was unelectable are done with Delaware."

UPDATE: But See Four Reasons Why Christine O’Donnell Might Win, Alt Society Liberalism (Google group), September 16, 2010, by Knifefight Afterdance.

UPDATE and Exercise in Amazement: See O’Donnell In 2007: Scientists Have Created Mice With Human Brains!, Talking Points Memo DC, September 16, 2010, by Eric Kleefeld. Nooooo…. it couldn’t BEEE…. Could it???

See Tea Party win hurts Republicans’ Senate chances, Reuters, September 14, 2010, by Reuters staff, excerpt quoted verbatim:

The string of victories by Tea Party candidates was fueled by broad voter dissatisfaction with President Barack Obama and government in Washington, and left Republicans in turmoil.

“Delaware Republicans chose an ultra-rightwing extremist who is out of step with Delaware values,” said Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, who leads the party’s campaign committee.

The Republican Senate campaign committee issued a terse one-sentence statement of congratulations on O’Donnell’s win. O’Donnell shrugged off the likelihood the committee would not spend any money on her.

“They don’t have a winning track record this season,” she told CNN.

See Christine O’Donnell defeats Rep. Mike Castle in Delaware Senate primary, Politico, September 15, 2010, by Jonathan Martin.

See Christine O’Donnell upsets Mike Castle in Delaware Senate primary, The Washington Post, The Fix, by Chris Cillizza.

See N.H. Senate race too close to call, Politico, September 15, 2010, by Shira Toeplitz, excerpt quoted verbatim:

Former state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte led the field for the Republican nomination for the open New Hampshire Senate seat, in a race that was still too close to call by early Wednesday morning.

Ayotte led attorney Ovide Lamontagne by less than one percentage point, 38.2 percent to 37.5 percent, with just over 85 percent of precincts reporting.

Around 3 a.m., representatives from both campaigns said the race was too close to determine a winner and the candidates would wait until daylight Wednesday morning to hear the final results.

The GOP field also included two deep-pocketed businessmen, investor Bill Binnie and network-server company president Jim Bender, who each received 14 percent and 9 percent of the vote, respectively, despite spending their own money heavily on their bids.

The contest pitted the GOP establishment against grassroots conservatives and tea party activists. Ayotte, the early front-runner who was preferred by national Republicans, sought to fend off a late surge by Lamontagne, who ran with tea party support.

See Election Results Live: September 14 Primary Liveblog, The Huffington Post, September 15, 2010, by HuffPo.

Note by Evans Liberal Politics:According to the latest, updated election results for New Hampshire, Kelly Ayotte now leads with 38 percent, or 46,311 votes, to Ovide Lamontagne’s 37 percent, or 45,352 votes. We will bring you updated results here as they become available. ~ Paul Evans.

Highly recommended: Great piece on GOP political philosophy by David Brooks at the New York Times, The Day After Tomorrow, September13, 2010.

Check out Paul’s Playlist of 187 Rock and Pop Hits, and have fun with all the artists you love while you surf the web.

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