PRIMARIES TONIGHT – AT 7:08 P.M. ET:  There are primaries in four states today – Georgia, Connecticut, Colorado, and Minnesota. 

The Georgia Republican gubernatorial nomination race will be a test of endorsements.  Nathan Deal is endorsed by Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee, but Deal has some ethics problems.  Challenger Karen Handel is backed by Sarah Palin, although Handel is considered the less conservative of the two candidates.

Connecticut will probably see Republicans putting the gun to their heads and nominating Linda McMahon as U.S. Senate candidate, to go up against Richard Blumenthal, the highly defective Dem entry who fibbed about his Vietnam record.  Republicans have a chance to take this seat in a normally Democratic state, but Linda McMahon's record is largely with the World Wresting Federation, which she started with her husband.  Not exactly stellar credentials.  Her main claim to the nomination is that she can finance her own campaign.  Money talks.  It spoke too loudly in this case.

Colorado will have establishment Republican Jane Norton, backed by John McCain, in a race for the GOP Senate nomination against rebel Ken Buck, a prosecutor who leads Ms. Norton by about ten points.  Here is a case where a Senate seat is clearly winnable, but Mr. Buck may simply not be the man the people of Colorado want to send to Washington.  Republican rebels have succeeded in nominating several problematical Senate candidates already – Sharron Angle in Nevada and Rand Paul in Kentucky.  Buck might be the third.  The GOP winner will face either incumbent Democrat Michael Bennet, the Obama choice, or Andrew Romanoff, endorsed by Bill Clinton.  That race itself is fascinating, another test of endorsements.

I don't know much about the Minnesota contests, and they don't seem nationally significant, so I won't comment.

We'll naturally note the results later on.

August 10, 2010