Upstart Senate candidates claimed two stunning victories in primary elections Tuesday night as Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak denied incumbent Democrat Arlen Specter renomination to a sixth term and Kentucky insurgent Rand Paul easily bested establishment favorite Trey Grayson for the Republican Party's Senate nod.
In the evening's third key Senate race, Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln clung to a slim lead over Lt. Gov. Bill Halter with nearly 64 percent of the vote counted in the state's Democratic primary, but will face an expensive and potentially dangerous June 8 runoff since neither candidate will reach 50 percent of the vote.
Looks like Specter isn't exactly thrilled with the Tea Party folks either, according to quotes from him in another The Politico article:
“What you see happening across the country is that the tea party organization has taken over,” Specter said in an interview with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell.
“We know what happened to [Sen. Bob] Bennett [R-Utah], what happened to [Florida GOP Gov. Charlie] Crist,” Specter said.
“They drove him out of the Republican Party,” Specter said of Crist, now running for the Senate as an independent in Florida.
Specter fled the Republican Party after polls showed the conservative grass-roots support behind former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) would likely be enough to propel him to a primary win over the longtime senator.
Specter has acknowledged he switched to the Democratic Party at least in part to stand a better chance of preserving his seat. But on Tuesday he suggested that he had changed to remain one of the only men standing in front of a tea party revolution.
My favorite part though is this from Specter:
"Beating the tea party gang is more important than who does the beating.
They want to go back to the gold standard. It’d be an 18th-century America."
Considering how Obama and Democrats, including Specter have been spending money like drunk sailors, money we don't have, that gold standard is starting to look a little better these days.
Arkansas:
Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D) forced Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D) into a June 8 runoff after both failed to win a majority of the vote in Tuesday's Senate primary.
Lincoln led Halter 44 to 42 percent with more than half the state's precincts reporting. The Associated Press projected the race was heading to a runoff.