There were primaries and races of interest to conservatives in six states on June 6. California's statewide primaries and the special election in its 50th U.S. House District attracted the most media attention. One interesting aspect o the races was that so many familiar names from the past - George Wallace and Tom Kean among them - resurfaced in the form of office-seeking sons, and, in the case of California's Jerry Brown, the onetime "Governor Moonbeam" himself walked out of the past to win a primary for attorney general. Here's a look at the results:
Alabama: No Moore
To no one's surprise, Republican Gov. Bob Riley won renomination over former State Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore with 60% of the vote. Moore had been a conservative hero nationwide for his steadfast defiance of federal court orders to remove a monument bearing the Ten Commandments from the Supreme Court building and, as a result of his action, was ousted as chief justice by his fellow jurists. But, pundits concluded, Moore could never get beyond his role as the "Ten Commandments judge" and become a more broad-based candidate for governor. In addition, Moore had been strongly criticized among his own conservative admirers for accepting big donations from trial attorneys.
Yellowhammer State Democrats gave their nomination for governor to Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley by a narrow margin. The first woman to be nominated for governor in Alabama by a major party since Democrat Lurleen Wallace in 1966, Baxley won with more than 60% of the vote over former Gov. (1998-2002) Don Siegelman, who had faced bribery and racketeering charges in federal court earlier this year.
Thirty-eight years after Lurleen Wallace died in office and eight years after the death of husband George, the Wallace name still packs a punch in Alabama. Their son, George Wallace, Jr., topped the field for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. But because he fell short of a majority, young Wallace now goes into a run-off with lawyer and first-time candidate Luther Strange.
California: Golden State Grab-Bag
The biggest political story in the Golden State last week was that Republicans - to the disgust of Democrats nationwide - held onto the San Diego-based 50th District vacated by disgraced former Rep. (1990-2005) Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R.-Calif.). With more than 100 volunteers and 10 full-time staffers flown in by the Republican National Committee, plus campaigners from the state GOP-based "Victory '06" Committee, moderate Republican Brian Bilbray clung to the seat with 51% of the vote. Bilbray, who represented the neighboring district from 1994-2000, edged out Democrat Francine Busby.
The same day that 50th District voters selected a congressman to fill out the remaining months of Cunningham's term, they nominated Democrat Busby and Republican Bilbray to square off again for a full term in November. Knowledgeable observers expect the same result.
Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had no major opposition for renomination. In fact, there were only two contested GOP races for the seven other statewide offices on the fall ballot. Conservative former Assemblyman Tony Strickland edged out the more moderate Assemblyman Abel Maldonado for nomination as comptroller, and Michelle Lee Steel, wife of former State Republican Chairman Shawn Steel, won a contested primary for the state Board of Equalization, which determines California taxes. Steel thus became the first Korean-American woman to be nominated on the GOP ticket for state office in California.
State Senators Tom McClintock and Chuck Poochigian, both stalwart conservatives, are the GOP nominees for lieutenant governor and attorney general respectively. Each will face a very familiar Democratic fixture - McClintock will square off against former State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, who also serverd in the Clinton Administration. Poochigian will face former Gov. (1974-82) Jerry Brown. Following a bloody primary, California Democrats narrowly chose State Treasurer Phil Angelides over State Comptroller Steve Westly to take on Schwarzenegger.
In the only major contested Republican primary for Congress, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo won a comfortable renomination over former Bay Area Rep. (1967-82) Paul "Pete" McCloskey, who moved into Pombo’s 11th District and raised more than $380,000 - almost all of it from out-of-district environmentalists. Pombo rolled up about 62% of the vote over 78-year-old liberal McCloskey, best-known for his challenge to President Richard Nixon’s renomination in 1972 on an anti-Vietnam War platform and his sharp criticism of Israel in later years.
Iowa: Nussle Up
There were no surprises in the primaries to nominate a successor to lame-duck Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack: Strongly conservative eight-term Rep. Jim Nussle, former chairman of the House Budget Committee, was unopposed for the Republican nod, and Secretary of State Chester Culver, son of far-left former Sen. (1974-80) John Culver (D.-Iowa) topped a four-candidate Democratic primary. Culver won 36% of the vote to 34% for his leading opponent, former Rep. (1974-78) and State Economic Development Director Michael T. Blouin.
In the 1st District vacated by Nussle, Mike Whalen, political newcomer and owner of a restaurant chain in the Quad Cities, easily won the Republican primary with 48% of the vote over two opponents with political experience. The self-styled "outsider candidate" now faces Democrat Bill Braley, a Waterloo lawyer.
Mississippi: Family Feud
When former Rep. (1986-93) Mike Espy resigned his 2nd District (Delta) seat to become U.S. secretary of Agriculture, then-Hinds County Supervisor Bennie Thompson won the all-important Democratic nomination over Espy's brother and chosen heir, Clarksdale Mayor Henry Espy. Thompson has since been a congressman and his relationship with the Espy family has been, well, tense. The latest chapter in the feud came this year, as State Rep. Chuck Espy, nephew of Mike, challenged Thompson for renomination. Young Espy received the backing of some pro-life groups and the National Rifle Association - rare for an African-American Democrat. But Thompson, who will become chairman of the Homeland Security Committee if Democrats win the House this fall, survived with 57% of the vote.
Montana: Surviving Burns
For all his identification in the media with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff because he received several large donations from former Abramoff clients, Republican Sen. Conrad Burns survived a strong primary challenge with about 70% of the vote. Folksy former auctioneer and three-termer Burns defeated State Senate GOP Leader Bob Keenan.
Burns, who says he never did anything for Abramoff and wishes the central figure in the ongoing congressional scandal "had never been born," now faces State Senate President Jon Tester. State Auditor John Morrison, son of a former chief justice of the state supreme court and grandson of the late Democratic Gov. (1960-66) Frank Morrison of Nebraska, had been the favorite, but began to decline following revelations of an extra-marital affair.
New Jersey: No Surprises
Republican State Sen. Tom Kean, Jr., namesake-son of the revered former governor (1981-89) and nationally known liberal GOPer, was nominated to take on Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez, who was appointed by fellow Democrat Jon Corzine to succeed himself in the Senate after Corzine was elected governor last year. Both candidates had minor primary challenges, but both won by 3-to-1 margins.
In the only open U.S. House District, the 13th (Jersey City) vacated by Menendez to become senator, the overwhelming winner of the nomination to a full term and the remainder of Menendez's term was Democrat Albio Spires, West New York mayor and former Assembly speaker. Spires' almost-sure election to Congress completes a mission he began 20 years ago, as the Republican nominee for Congress who was one of the first signers of the no-tax pledge of Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform. Sires later became a tax-and-spend Democrat while in the state legislature and Norquist now refers to Spires as "Lucifer."
CORRECTION: Bennie Thompson beat Mike Espy with 65% of the vote, not the 57% I reported. The vote breakdown was Thompson winning 56,174 votes to Espy's 30,151.
