Tuesday's primaries test political establishment

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Tuesday's primaries test political establishment

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent Espo, Ap Special Correspondent –

10 mins ago

WASHINGTON – In a season of peril for establishment politicians, Democratic Sen.

Bennet battled primary challenger Romanoff in Colorado on

Tuesday, and voters in Connecticut, Minnesota and Georgia picked their parties'

candidates for fall campaigns for Congress and governor.

Bennet was the latest in a string of incumbents to face serious challenges from

within their own parties. So far this year, two senators and four House members

have fallen.

Subplots on Tuesday also included presidential hopefuls bestowing endorsements

in hopes of helping themselves in the 2012 race for the White House.

Nowhere was that more evident than in Georgia, where former vice presidential

candidate Palin endorsed former Secretary of State Handel in her bid

to become the state's first female governor. Handel was in a runoff for the

Republican nomination with former Rep. Deal, who was endorsed by Georgian

Newt Gingrich, once the speaker of the House and now a possible presidential

contender.

Deal is a former Democrat whose party switch 15 years ago reinforced the

Gingrich-led GOP majority after the 1994 congressional elections. Deal also had

the support of Mike Huckabee, who won the Georgia presidential primary in 2008.

In other races Tuesday:

• In Connecticut's Senate primary, Republicans chose among McMahon, the

former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, money manager Schiff and

former Rep. Rob , the one-time favorite who suspended his campaign months

ago but recently got back into it, running television ads and participating in

several debates with Schiff that McMahon declined to attend.

State Attorney General, Blumenthal was unopposed for the Democrats'

Senate nomination to succeed retiring Dodd, also a Democrat.

With Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell retiring, Connecticut voters also settled a

pair of contested gubernatorial primaries.

GOP contenders included Lt. Gov. Fedele; Tom Foley, a businessman and

former U.S. ambassador to Ireland, and business executive Oz Griebel.

Democrats seeking a ticket to the fall campaign were former Stamford Mayor Dan

Malloy and Ned Lamont, a businessman making his second try for statewide office.

Lamont won a Senate primary four years ago, upsetting Sen. Joe Lieberman, who

then won a new term in the fall as an independent.

• In Minnesota, where Democrats have not elected a governor in nearly a

quarter-century, former Sen. Mark Dayton, former state Rep. Matt Entenza and

House Speaker Margaret Kelliher vied for the party's nomination.

Republican state lawmaker Tom Emmer had only minor opposition, and recently

announced a campaign shake-up to prepare for the fall.

Five rivals vied for the independent line on the fall ballot — in a state where

Ventura was elected governor a dozen years ago as a third party contender.

• In Colorado, the challenge was to Democratic Sen. Bennet, who was appointed to

his seat nearly two years ago when Ken Salazar resigned to become Interior

secretary in the Obama administration.

Romanoff, a former speaker of the state House, had hoped for the appointment,

and he spurned entreaties from senior party officials to skip the race with

Bennet.

In an intense campaign, both men sought the mantle of political outsider. Yet

each relied on very well-known establishment politicians to help them —

President Barack Obama in Bennet's case and former President Bill Clinton in

Romanoff's.

The Republican primary was equally intense, pitting former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton

against Ken Buck, a county district attorney and former federal prosecutor.

They, too, sparred over ownership of the outsider's credentials. Both also have

ties to tea party activists, although Buck expressed frustration at one point,

asking aloud for someone to tell those " dumba---s " to stop asking him about

Obama's birth certificate while he was being recorded. He later expressed regret

for the remarks.

In the state's gubernatorial campaign, Denver Mayor Hickenlooper was

unchallenged for the Democratic nomination.

The Republican rivals were former Rep. McInnis and businessman Dan Maes,

each marring their chances through self-inflicted wounds.

McInnis has acknowledged receiving $300,000 as part of a foundation fellowship

for a water study report that was partly plagiarized. His chief rival,

businessman Dan Maes, has paid $17,500 for violating campaign finance laws.

The spectacle prompted former Rep. Tom Tancredo to jump into the race as an

independent, which in turn led state party chairman Dick Wadhams to say it would

be difficult if not impossible to defeat the Democrat this fall.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects to Fedele; Clarifies ' campaign action;

Note contents of 19th paragraph. Polls close in Georgia at 7 p.m. EDT, in

Connecticut at 8 p.m. and in Colorado and Minnesota at 9 p.m.)