2012 Non-Presidential Primaries Thread (6/12 - AR runoff, ME, ND, NV, SC, VA)

[Talleyrand]

MI-14 kinda sucked...Peters did run a much better campaign though.

Maybe Clarke will run for something in the future....

Pretty obvious Peters is just using this as a stepping stone for higher office. I think he might even be gone the next cycle, so Clarke can run whenever he runs for something else.

[Talleyrand]

Steelman conceded to Akin just a while ago.

And the AP just called it for him.

[Talleyrand]

Tulsi Gabbard vs Kawika Crowley (a man by the way) must be the most oddly firstnamed race in Congressional history.
Incidentally, Tulsi and three of her four siblings have Hindu first names but apparently no Indian ancestry - seems to be three quarters White and a quarter Samoan (also, she is fairly young and was the bluedoggish person in the primary race.) Kawika is a crazy but definitely not a standard-issue crazy.

She wasn't the bluedoggish person in the race. That was Mufi Hanneman, although Gabbard had some controversy regarding her past opposition to gay marriage and ties to socially conservative organizations (including her father). However, she addressed these issues by indicating she now supports gay marriage. I believe she gave an apology for her past views, but I don't remember.

[Talleyrand]

After the past 12 years of watching the Senate... do we really care who has 51 seats? So Mitch McConnell will have some chairmanships...as long as the Dems have 40 seats, and Harry Reid employs scorched earth fillibuster tactics, does it really matter?

Yes, the future of the Affordable Healthcare and Patient Protection Act depends on it. Otherwise, not really.

[Talleyrand]

He's probably referring to that the GOP theoretically can repeal the mandate through reconciliation now (because it's now considered a tax), except repealing the mandate and leaving the rest of the bill intact is not what they and especially not the insurance companies want.

This. They can also gut the law's implementation through reducing appropriations for it, I believe.

[Talleyrand]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/elections/2012/by_state/GA_Page_0821.html?SITE=CSPANELN&SECTION=POLITICS

In the newly created heavily Republican Georgia's 9th congressional district, the Establishmentarian State Representative Doug Collins defeated Tea Party and Herman Cain backed talk show host Martha Zoller by ten points in the runoff.

Meanwhile, in the 12th district, the GOP race to take on highly vulnerable Congressman John Barrow is very close, but there seems to be something unusual going on with the results. They've been literally the same since 88%, but I think all the votes are probably in. Lee Anderson leads Rick Allen by just over 100 votes. I'm not sure who's the better candidate for the GOP.