Fortunately, there weren’t any real surprises yesterday at the polls, just plenty of good news.
The big winner is the House’s newest member, Rep. Stephanie Herseth (D). It was a nailbitter (51-49) and wasn’t officially called until late last night.
Herseth says, “We knew it was going to be close. We knew it was going to be history in the making for a number of reasons. We’re certainly pleased we came out on top.”
Considering the narrow margin, you think Larry Diedrich might regret effectively conceding the race a couple of days ago?
In Alabama, Roy Moore’s lawyer, Phillip Jauregui, got a whopping 13% in his GOP primary challenge to Rep. Spencer Bachus. Thanks for stopping by the booth, Phil.
In fact, it wasn’t a great night for candidates tied to Moore’s crusade.
Former Chief Justice Roy Moore backed four candidates in the Alabama Republican primary, but only one scored an outright victory Tuesday night. That candidate was Tom Parker, a former Moore aide who campaigned against Supreme Court Justice Jean Brown’s vote to remove Moore’s Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building.
And in New Mexico, two Dem primaries produced strong challengers to GOP House incumbents for the fall. In NM1, state Sen. Richard Romero beat blogosphere fav Miles Nelson for the chance to take on Rep. Heather Wilson (R) in November. In NM2, lawyer Gary King won big in his primary fight and will challenge one-term Rep. Steve Pearce (R).