LOS ANGELES — How angry are Americans? People primed for change vote in 12 states Tuesday in contests that will decide the fate of two endangered Washington incumbents — a two-term senator in Arkansas and a six-term congressman in South Carolina — while setting the stage for some of the races that could determine the balance of power on Capitol Hill in the fall.
In an Arkansas runoff, Sen. Blanche Lincoln could fall to a fellow Democrat, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, who says “the only way to change Washington is to change who we send there.”
South Carolina Republican Rep. Bob Inglis is trying to fend off primary challengers who have made the race a referendum on his 2008 vote to bail out up the nation’s banking industry.
The political strength of the Tea Party movement faces tests in several states, particularly in Nevada, where three Republicans are in a bruising fight for the chance to take on Democrat Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, in November.
California Republicans could send two political neophytes, wealthy former business executives Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, into races to succeed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and challenge Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer.
A Pew Research Center poll in April found that public confidence in government was at one of the lowest points in a half century.
Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, who failed last month to get onto his state’s primary ballot, called the political atmosphere toxic. Races on Tuesday will provide fresh evidence of how far people want to go to shake up statehouses and Washington.
“I’ve become frightened over what our government is doing,” said Roxanne Blum, 57, a Republican from Pahrump, Nev. She is alarmed by the soaring debt and has seen firsthand, through her work in the mortgage industry, the damage caused by Nevada’s highest-in-the country foreclosure rate.
Once excited by Reid’s ascendancy in Washington leadership, she now sees him as out of touch with his economically troubled home state.
“When he comes here, he does lip service,” she said.
Battle lines are drawn
States with primaries Tuesday: Arkansas, California, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia
