2010 The first Primary Election Cycle since 1980 to have 3+ Incumbent Senators fired in Primaries!

Ask.com ^ | August 31, 2010 | steelers6

[Steelers6]

Alabama Donald W. Stewart Democratic Defeated in primary,

Republican victory Jeremiah Denton (Republican) 50.2% Jim Folsom, Jr. (Democratic) 47.1%

Alaska Mike Gravel Democratic Defeated in primary,

Republican victory Frank Murkowski (Republican) 53.7% Clark Gruening (Democratic) 45.9%

Florida Richard Stone Democratic Defeated in primary,

Republican victory Paula Hawkins (Republican) 51.7% Bill Gunter (Democratic) 48.3%

New York Jacob K. Javits Republican Defeated in primary,

Republican victory Al D'Amato (Republican) 44.9% Elizabeth Holtzman (Democratic) 43.5% Jacob K. Javits (Liberal) 11.0%

[Steelers6]

All 4 turned out to be Republican victories, oddities abound since Frank Murkowski, Lisa's father became Senator that year and she loses her's this year. Mike Gravel had defeated Ernest Gruening (Clark's grandfather) in the Democrat Primary 12 years earlier.

Had it not been for Jacob Javits 3rd party run as a Liberal that he truly was, Elizabeth Holtzman probably would have been Senator for many years in New York. Well we got Schumer eventually, but D'Amato was around for 3 terms.

Since 1980 Incumbent Senators losing in Primarys has been rare.

Joe Liebermann lost to Ned Lemont in 2006 but won the rematch in the General.

Alan Dixon lost to Carol Moseley Braun in 1992 over Clarence Thomas Supreme Court vote and being too Conservative.

Bob Smith Republican turned Independent turned Republican was defeated by John Sununu Jr., He lost to Jean Shaheen in 2008.

Sam Brownback defeated Sharon Frahm in 1996.

Arlen Spector could be counted as the only Senator to lose 2 elections in 1 cycle, he was running as a Republican until he couldn't win that, then the Democrats said your done.

[Dilbert San Diego]

It’s nice to see comparisons to 1980. 1980 was a very good year for Republicans. Not only did Reagan win a big landslide, but the Republicans captured the Senate that year also.

I still am frustrated all these years later at pollsters. The polls showed Reagan and Carter neck and neck after the party conventions. And newspaper headlines on election morning reported that the last polls showed the election ws too close to call. And then that evening, Jimmy Carter lost so big he conceded before the polls had even closed in the Pacific Time Zone.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

The fishwraps knew that carter was in big trouble and just attempted to make everyone think it was close.Just selling papers while trying to get that miserable excuse for a human being reelected.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Good memory.

[fhayek]

Mark Belling is right (on Rush the past two days). There NEEDS to be a Democrat bloodbath. They must not be able to salvage ANYTHING out of the November elections. If they survive this onslaught, they will read it as a mandate to continue down the socialist road. The tea leaves (pun intended) point to Republicans, and more to the point, conservative Republicans. It needs to happen.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

Thank you.I remember it pretty well as being my first time voting and praying that this Ronald Reagan guy would clobber our former wussy governor of Georgia.Carter has sucked for a long time.I have young children and they think I am the history book when I tell them of RR.

[BenKenobi]

I’ve always been saying it’s morning in america again...

[lentulusgracchus]

[imahawk] The fishwraps knew that carter was in big trouble .....

Do you know that for a fact? Not trying to be impertinent, but I was hugely surprised like most people, then wore myself out doing cartwheels and lifting the glass.

But if the media people knew it was going to be a blowout and were just trying to psych out conservative voters again (like Mark Foley, etc., like pushing Dole and McCain, knifing Quayle and Palin), then it was a huge betrayal of their professionalism and their public. Ethics and character charges don't get much more damning than that. So do you know for sure that that was true, and do you mind my asking your source?

[AmericanInTokyo]

hmmmmmmm.... now THIS should be interesting...

[justlurking]

then it was a huge betrayal of their professionalism and their public.

Head on over to Amazon.com and do a search on "Bernard Goldberg". Order "Bias" (it's less than $5), and optionally: "A Slobbering Love Affair" (it's a recent book, and more expensive).

If you can read those and still believe in the media's "professionalism", I have this great bargain on a bridge for you. It's in Brooklyn.

[ajb44]

Very interesting article. But the senator from Kansas in 1996 was Sheila Frahm not Sharon. She had been appointed to the Senate when Kansas senator Bob Dole resigned earlier that year to concentrate full time on losing to President Clinton in that year’s presidential race.