Blue Dogs Altmire and Holden lose primaries!

[UrbScotty]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/files/elections/2012/by_county/PA_Page_0424.html?SITE=AP&SECTION=POLITICS

[AnnieBW]

1. Who is the person that primaried Altmire?

My Mom and Dad live in that Congressional district, but they haven't said anything about it. They've both been sick, so they haven't been active in politics this year.

[brooklynite]

3. Both are incumbents...

District gerrymandering pushed them together.

[Mc Mike]

6. Murtha's former chief of staff.

[brooklynite]

2. Um, Critz is hardly a progressive...

This was a race between two conservative Democrats in a conservative district.

[Pirate Smile]

4. Critz voted for the Affordable Care Act and Altmire voted against it. Holden also voted against it

and lost his primary tonight to another Democrat.

Good.

[Daniel537]

8. Critz wasn't actually in congress when the vote took place

he says he would have voted against it, but does not support repeal.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/dem-mark-critz-pa-12-why-he-opposed-health-care-bill-wont-vote-repeal-it

[liskddksil]

5. No but he's good on labor issues, unlike Altmire,

and never went on Fox News to bad-mouth the Democratic Party.

[Mc Mike]

7. + 1. It was interesting

seeing them trying to 'out-progressive' each other, in local televised attack ads. Implicitly admitting that the Dem base in their newly combined district was a lot further to the left of each candidate's positions.

Unfortunately, it's time for the winner to swing back to the right for the general election.

[LynneSin]

9. This is Tim Holden's distict - this is going to be a tough win for any democrat

It was signifcantly redrawn but it covers alot of rural parts of the state, diluting Harrisburg enough to help tilt this in favor of the GOP.

I'm not the biggest fan of Tim Holden but he was someone who could win this district. It may be a harder sell for someone more progressive but I would love to be considered wrong.