It’s official, Joe Sestak has defeated Arlen Specter for the Democratic nomination for Senate in Pennsylvania.
Rather refreshingly, Specter is staying relatively classy:
Specter also said he called Sestak to congratulate him and tell him he thinks it’s vital to keep the seat in the Democratic Party.
I don’t expect him to aggressively stump for Sestak, first, he’s an 80 year-old cancer survivor, and second, he lost in large part because of his unpopularity, but I expect a joint press conference in the next few days.
And in the Democratic primary for Senate in Kentucky, Conway beats Mongiardo in a close one, so the good Dem beats the faux (anti-abortion, etc.) Dem.
In the special election in PA-12 to replace Murtha, Mark Critz defeated Tim Burns, which means that the Dems hold on to the seat, but Critz is the a seriously right wing Dem, rather far to the right of Murtha, who he worked for as a staffer.
On the other hand, both Congressional campaign committees dumped a lot of money on this, so it’s a good sign that Critz won, and that it was not particularly close.
It’s still to soon for Arkansas, but right now, it looks like it will be headed to a runoff, because neither Blanche Lincoln nor Bill Halter will get 50% of the vote.
As it stands right now it’s Bill Halter with 42.65%, Blanche Lincoln 43.26%, and DC Morrison with 14.09%, with 53% reporting, which means that Halter or Lincoln would need to get somewhere around 58% of the remaining votes to avoid a runoff, which is not going to happen.
The only question now is who will finish in 1st place.
(on edit)
There will therefore be a runoff on June 8.