Mullings An American Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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Are the Primaries Over, Yet?

Rich Galen

Thursday August 26, 2010

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From Dallas, Texas
The Fairmont Hotel

There is a Fitness Convention being held at this hotel. You want to feel old, bald, and fat? Stay at a hotel where every other guest has a Body Mass Index in the minus column.

What was I going to write about before all those thin people in spandex shorts stopped by at the lobby bar to have club sodas, thereby forcing me to retreat to my room? Oh, yes, the Tuesday primaries.

The Democrats, and their allies in the popular press, were looking for anything which could derail the "narrative" that the GOP taking control of the U.S. House is a strong probability and taking control of the Senate has become a legitimate possibility.

So, they focused on Alaska and Florida. We will get to them in a moment. First, though, Arizona.

Ben Quayle, son of the former Vice President (and my former boss) came in first in the 10-person primary to succeed another former boss of mine, Rep. John Shadegg, as Member of Congress from the 3rd District.

The national press, forgetting that this was a Republican primary in Arizona, attempted to smear Quayle-the-Younger, but he won anyway.

Ben and The Lad are about the same age - about 34. They were in school together in Northern Virginia through much of their elementary and junior high school years. It is useful to remember that at age 34 Dan Quayle had already been a Member of Congress (having knocked off an 16-year incumbent) for four years, and had just been elected to the U.S. Senate (having led Birch Bayh to the same fate).

The other race in Arizona was for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate between John McCain and J.D. Hayworth. McCain won pretty handily, but not before he had to spend about $20 million in the effort.

McCain will turn 74 on Sunday and so this is probably his last turn around the track. It will be interesting to watch how he votes during what we can expect to be his final six-year Senate term.

Up in Alaska, Sen. Lisa Murkowski looked like she was in a walk-over in her primary against attorney Joe Miller but it turned out to be anything but. As I type this, Murkowski is trailing Miller by 2,000 votes but there are an undetermined number of absentee ballots to be counted.

The total number of ballots cast on election day were about 90,000. Miller is leading about 46,000 to about 44,000 so it will not take a huge swing in the absentees to change the outcome.

Nevertheless, this will remain a Republican seat so don't let the guy in the next cube tell you that this makes it more difficult for the GOP to take control of the Senate.

The big news, Tuesday night, was Florida. And it is through the prism of Florida that I believe we see the reality of what will happen on November 2.

The popular press was totally focused on which billionaire won (the billionaire in the GOP primary for Governor) and which billionaire lost (the billionaire in the Democrat primary for U.S. Senate).

But, that misses the point which follows:

In the Republican primary for U.S. Senate (which was won by Marco Rubio) there were about 1.2 million votes cast. Two other candidates were in the race, but after Charlie Christ bailed out to run as an independent, Rubio was virtually unopposed. 1.2 million votes.

The Democrat primary for U.S. Senate between U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek and billionaire Jeff Green was a hard-fought slug-fest. Nevertheless only about 840,000 votes were cast in that Democratic primary - about 360,000 fewer than in an uncontested GOP primary.

If Charlie Christ continues on his path of attempting to woo Democrat voters to his side, this is good news for Democrats � how?

About the same thing held in the two party primaries for Governor of Florida. On the Republican side there were about 1.3 million votes cast, leading to the nomination of Alex Sink in a race which drew the votes of about 860,000 Florida Democrats - 440,000 fewer than voted in the GOP primary.

Florida is a closed-primary state, meaning only registered members of a political party can vote in that party's primaries. Unless Florida's independent voters - contrary to every poll in America - all come rushing out to vote for the Democrats for Senate and Governor the intensity of Republican voters will likely hold way in November.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Bios of Quayle and McCain. A license plate Mullfoto which will test your TV-knowledge and a very, very nice Catchy Caption of the Day.

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