LAT: Primaries put Republicans on notice

[stopbush]

NEWS ANALYSIS
Primaries put Republicans on notice
A big day for Democrats suggests that it might not be as easy as the GOP expected to win control of Congress in November.

By Mark Z. Barabak and Kathleen Hennessey

May 20, 2010

Reporting from San Francisco and Washington

Republicans got a wake-up call this week.

For months, the GOP has been buoyed by the notion that 2010 will be a big year, delivering control of the House and perhaps even the Senate in November. But Tuesday's election results — arguably the best campaign day for Democrats since President Obama's victory in 2008 — suggest the climb back to a majority may be steeper than Republicans thought.

Democrats nominated probably their strongest Senate contender in Pennsylvania, where Rep. Joe Sestak eliminated party-switcher Arlen Specter. In Kentucky's Senate contest, Democrats drew their preferred opponent in state "tea party" founder Rand Paul (though he could be underestimated in the fall as he was this spring.)

Probably the most significant outcome, however, was the Democratic victory in a special House race in rural Pennsylvania. The district — anti-abortion, gun-loving, wary of Washington — is precisely the sort of place Republicans need to prevail to win back the House.

But Democrat Mark Critz, running on a parochial platform of job creation, easily defeated GOP businessman Tim Burns, who sought to turn the contest into a referendum on Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco).

"The Republicans test-drove their strategy for November and crashed," said Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "They believe in using the boogeyman of President Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi to rally their voters, and that failed."

Republican leaders were stoic Wednesday, if humbled. "Last night is evidence of the fact that we have a lot of work to do and we can't get ahead of ourselves," Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican, told reporters at a Washington news conference.

Privately, GOP strategists and other party insiders engaged in a now-familiar ritual, lamenting their financial disadvantage — the Democrats have $70 million cash on hand to Republicans' $48 million — and carping at the operations of the Republican National Committee and its congressional campaign under the erratic leadership of Chairman Michael Steele. His free-spending ways, on private jets, limousines and the like, have caused nearly as much consternation as his repeated verbal gaffes.

more:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-primaries-20100520,0,416329.story

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. After listening to the garbage about this upcoming midterm since Obama took office

It's nice to see the facts.

[JuniperLea]

2. Hahaha! Another wake up call?

How many has this been now? Do they keep hitting snooze, or what?

:rofl:

[monmouth]

3. I have to laugh at Charlie Cook..."This should not have to have been

rocket science" (for the repubs to lose)..Wasn't it a week ago he was touting wins for the repubs??? If he says one thing I'm going to go in another direction from now on...LOL.

[tularetom]

4. Perhaps our friends in the liberal media should not be so eager to embrace the repub bullshit

This story got batted around the echo chamber so long and so enthusiastically that no news provider (with a couple of notable exceptions) had the balls to even suggest that it might not be true. As a result members of the media now have omelets on their faces.

This ain't the first time it's happened either. You'd think they'd learn. But they probably won't.