Welcome to the Tuesday edition of your semi-daily open thread. I hope you’re having a fabulously wonderful Tuesday.
Today is primary day in several states: Minnesota, Connecticut and Colorado as well as a run-off election for the GOP nomination for Georgia governor.
In Minnesota, the governor’s race is interesting. Tom Emmer, who thought that waiters should take a pay cut, is the likely Republican nominee. On the Democratic side, former Senator Mark Dayton is the likely nominee but he’s taking on two challengers, Margaret Anderson Kelliher and Matt Entenza.
Connecticut has gubernatorial primaries for governor and U.S. Senate. In the Democratic gubernatorial primary, almost-Senator Ned Lamont takes on Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy. The last poll had this as a toss-up with Lamont with a small lead (45-42). On the Republican side there’s a 3-way race between Tom Foley, Lt. Gov. Mike Fedele and Oz Griebel. Foley is leading 38-30-17 with a lot of undecideds. On the Senate side AG Richard Blumenthal has no challenger on the Democratic side and the on-again, off-again candidacy of Rob Simmons may be off-again for good. Linda McMahon is expected to win this primary.
Colorado has the most intriguing match-ups. Appointed incumbent Senator Michael Bennet is being challenged by Andrew Romanoff. Romanoff has come on strong in the last few weeks, he was endorsed by Bill Clinton and a funding scandal has hurt Bennet – Bennet approved a deal while Superintendent of Denver public schools which has turned out to be a very bad deal. The last poll gave Bennet a small lead 49-43 but Colorado has mail-in ballots so the scandal may have been too late to help Romanoff. On the Republican side, Ken Buck (birthers are dumbasses) and former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton (establishment pick) are tied. On the Senate side, crazy Dan Maes (bicycles lead to abortion) and wounded Scott McInnis are also tied. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper is unopposed for the Democratic governor nomination.
For the Georgia run-off Palin-endorsed “mama grizzly” Karen Handel takes on Gingrich-endorsed Congressman Nathan Deal. Three different polls have either a small Handel lead, a small Deal lead or a tie. This one is a toss-up.
So lots of suspense tonight watching the primary results come in.