Republican primary victories set the stage for Senate midterm elections
If theres one takeaway from this weeks Senate primaries, its that the Republicans have a realistic shot at winning control of the Senate during midterm elections this November. That would give them control of both houses of Congress and enable them to frustrate the final two years of Barack Obamas presidency.
To be a real contender, the party had to get through the primary season with a slate of electable candidates. Mission accomplished. Six states narrowed their fields for the primaries on Tuesday, and the Republican establishment continued its winning streak against the upstart wing of Tea Party hardliners.
Heres what we know about the U.S. political scene heading into the summer:
The Republican establishment has its party back
In 2012, Richard Lugar, a moderate Republican senator from Indiana, assumed he would win his partys nomination with ease. The Tea Party had other ideas and Mr. Lugars complacency likely cost the Republicans a Senate seat as the hardliner the party chose was beaten easily by the Democratic challenger. The more strident Tea Party wing also blocked Republican leaders from co-operating with their Democratic counterparts, causing legislative gridlock that culminated in a three-week government shutdown last fall.
Republican elders mobilized at the end of last year to block Tea Party groups from choosing unelectable and obstructionist candidates in the 2014 primaries. They have yet to lose any significant contests, getting their candidates on the Senate ballot in North Carolina, Georgia and Oregon and protecting incumbents from Tea Party challenges in Kentucky and Texas.
Payback is expensive
One major U.S. news organization said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell beat his Tea Party challenger without breaking a sweat. That assumes there were no sweat stains on the $11-million (U.S.) that Mr. McConnell spent in the first four months of 2014 crushing a political neophyte.
Mississippis Thad Cochran, the Republican senator thought to be most vulnerable in the primaries, raised $2.9-million in the first quarter, more than he raised through the entirety of his last campaign in 2008 and three times as much as his 2014 primary challenger, state senator Chris McDaniel, has put in the bank. The two Georgian Republicans who will compete in a runoff election for the partys senate nomination on July 22 spent a combined $10-million separating themselves from a pack of conservative hardliners. And so on.
Much of the money is coming from outside the states in which the contests are being held. Three Wall Street banks rank among Mr. McConnells four biggest donors. According to OpenSecrets.org, a website that monitors election spending, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has handed out director contributions of about $300,000 in this election cycle and has spent more than $12-million on its ads and other forms of indirect political contributions.
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Republican primary victories set the stage for Senate midterm elections