WASHINGTON — Virtually unknown a month ago, Christine O’Donnell rode a surge of support from Tea Party activists to victory in Delaware’s Republican Senate primary Tuesday night, dealing yet another setback to the GOP establishment in a campaign season full of them.
A second insurgent led narrowly for the GOP nomination in New Hampshire.
In New York, 40-year veteran Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel easily won renomination in his first time on the ballot since the House ethics committee accused him of 13 violations, most of them relating to his personal finances.
O’Donnell defeated nine-term Rep. Mike Castle, a fixture in Delaware politics for a generation and a political moderate.
Republican Party officials, who had touted him as their only hope for winning the seat in the fall, made clear as the votes were being counted they would not provide O’Donnell funding in the general election campaign for the seat once held by Vice President Joe Biden.
She enters the fall campaign as an underdog to Chris Coons, a county executive who was unopposed for the Democratic nomination.
The Republican state chairman, Tom Ross, said recently that she “could not be elected dogcatcher,” and records surfaced during the campaign showing that the IRS had once slapped a lien against her and that her house had been headed for foreclosure. She also claimed falsely to have carried two of the state’s three counties in a race to unseat Biden two years ago.
8th incumbent to fall
Castle’s defeat boosted the number of members of Congress who have lost primaries to eight — five Republicans and three Democrats. But that list does not include a lengthy list of GOP contenders who fell to Tea Party-supported challengers despite having the backing of party officials eager to maximize their gains in November.
With unemployment high and President Barack Obama’s popularity below 50 percent, Republicans said a run of hotly contested primaries this spring and summer reflected voter enthusiasm that will serve the party well in the fall. The GOP needs to win 40 seats to take the House and 10 for control of the Senate.
Democrats countered that the presence of Tea Party-supported Republicans on the ballot Nov. 2 would prove costly to the GOP.
That proposition will be tested in seven weeks’ time in Senate races in Colorado, Nevada, Florida, Kentucky — all states where establishment Republican candidates fell in earlier primaries — and now Delaware.
In the other marquee race of the night, for New Hampshire’s Republican Senate nomination, lawyer Ovide Lamontagne led former Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, 40 percent to 38 percent, with votes counted from more than a third of the precincts.
Lamontagne, a former chairman of the state Board of Education, campaigned with the support of Tea Party activists, while Ayotte had a coalition of establishment Republicans, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and other conservatives.
The winner will face Democratic Rep. Paul Hodes, who is giving up his seat in the House to run for the Senate.
New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, rolled to renomination for a fourth term, and he will face John Stephen, a former state health commissioner who won the GOP line on the ballot easily.
In all, five states chose nominees for the Senate, and six more had gubernatorial hopefuls on the ballot in the final big night of a primary season marked by recession and political upheaval. The winners had scant time to refocus their energies for midterm elections on Nov. 2.
In Wisconsin, businessman Ron Johnson defeated two minor opponents for the Republican nomination to oppose three-term Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold in November in what polls show is a tight race. Johnson has said he will spend millions of his own money to finance his campaign.
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker defeated former Rep. Mark Neumann for the Republican nomination for governor. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett won the Democratic nomination.
Cuomo, Rangel advance
In New York, Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo faced no opposition for the party’s nomination for governor, and he will be the prohibitive favorite in the fall for an office his father held for three terms.
Political novice Carl Paladino, a wealthy developer who enjoyed Tea Party support, defeated Rep. Rick Lazio for the Republican nomination.
Joseph DioGuardi, father of former “American Idol” judge Kara DioGuardi, won a three-way GOP primary election in a bid to unseat Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.
Rangel’s principal challenger for the nomination in his Harlem-based district was Adam Clayton Powell IV, a state assemblyman whose father Rangel defeated 40 years ago. In the decades since, Rangel rose to become chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, with enormous power over taxes, trade, Medicare and more, but Democrats forced him to step aside from that panel while he battles ethics charges.
He is accused of accepting several New York City rent-stabilized apartments, and omitting information on his financial disclosure forms. He’s also accused of failing to pay taxes from a rental property in the Dominican Republic, and improperly soliciting money for a college center to be named after him. He has vowed to fight the charges, and faces an ethics committee trial, possibly after the elections.
A second New York Democratic incumbent, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, won easily despite a spirited challenge.
In Maryland, former Republican Gov. Bob Ehrlich won the nomination for a rematch against the man who ousted him from office in 2006, Democratic Gov. Martin O’Malley.
Rhode Island had a rare open seat in its two-member House delegation, following the decision of Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy to retire. Providence Mayor David Cicilline, who is gay, defeated three rivals for the Democratic nomination.
