Franken Primary Win One of Many Key Results From Tuesday’s Primaries

• New Hampshire. This fall’s marquee Senate race in New Hampshire will feature a rematch of the close 2002 contest that Republican John E. Sununu , then the 1st District House member, won narrowly over Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, then the state’s governor. CQ Politics currently rates that highly competitive race as Leans Democratic. But with Sununu and Shaheen each breezing over one minor primary opponent, the most highly anticipated congressional result was in the 1st District House race — with the Republican primary setting up a rematch of the close 2006 race in which Democrat Carol Shea-Porter upset two-term Republican Rep. Jeb Bradley.

CQ Politics rates the 1st District general election as Leans Democratic.

With most precincts reporting, Bradley had 51 percent of the vote to best John Stephen, the former state health and human services commissioner, who had 47 percent. This, too, was a rematch of sorts, as Bradley had edged Stephen in a more crowded field for the 2002 Republican nomination in the then-open 1st District.

Shea-Porter was unopposed in the Democratic primary, as was her freshman Democratic colleague Paul W. Hodes , who in 2006 unseated six-term Republican Rep. Charles Bass in the 2nd, the more Democratic-leaning of New Hampshire’s two districts. Hodes’ general election opponent is Republican Jennifer Horn, a conservative talk-show host who won a five-candidate Republican primary with 40 percent of the vote. State Sen. Bob Clegg ran second with 34 percent. CQ Politics rates this general election as Democrat Favored.

The popularity of Democratic Gov. John Lynch makes him a heavy favorite to win a third two-year term over the Republican nominee, state Sen. Joseph Kenney. This race is rated as Safe Democratic.

CQ Politics has published a more detailed analysis of the New Hampshire primary returns.

• New York. With more U.S. House districts than the combined total of the other six states voting Tuesday, New York had the busiest primary day.

The favored candidate won the Democratic nomination for what appears to be the party’s clearest shot to pick up a Republican-held House seat, with New York City Councilman Michael McMahon easily winning his primary for the seat in the 13th District. That is the district, made up of Staten Island and a small piece of Brooklyn, that unexpectedly was left open after Republican incumbent Vito J. Fossella admitted to having a child from an extramarital affair and decided to retire. Although Republicans long dominated this district, they floundered at recruiting after Fossella’s stunning downfall while the Democratic establishment rallied around the politically experienced McMahon.

That core party support helped boost McMahon to a 75 percent to 25 percent primary win over 2006 nominee Stephen A. Harrison, who contended he deserved another chance after he held Fossella to 57 percent last time despite getting greatly outspent. That sent McMahon on to a general election matchup with Republican former state Rep. Robert Straniere, who gained the Staten Island Republican Party’s endorsement after several top Republican officials declined to run and after the first candidate tapped to replace Fossella, retired Wall Street executive Frank Powers, died of a heart attack.

Straniere won his primary with 59 percent over a little-known Republican opponent. But the tough odds he faces for the general election were underscored by this statistic: He received fewer votes winning the Republican primary than Harrison received while badly losing the Democratic contest. CQ rates the general election race as Democrat Favored.

By contrast, the primary to nominate the Democratic contender for another top takeover bid, this one in the 26th District at the other end of the state, resulted in at least a mild upset. Alice Kryzan, a lawyer from Buffalo running to succeed retiring five-term Republican Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds , did not receive as much of the spotlight during the primary campaign as did opponents Jon Powers, an Iraq War veteran-turned-critic, and businessman Jack Davis, seeking his third consecutive nomination after holding Reynolds to a 4-point win in 2006. But she also steered clear of the vitriol that infused campaign exchanges between those two, which helped her claim victory with 42 percent of the vote to 36 percent for Powers and 23 percent for Davis.

Kryzan now faces Republican businessman Christopher Lee, a businessman who was unopposed in the GOP primary, in a general election race CQ Politics rates as Leans Republican.

The other unexpected results took place in the Albany-region 21st District, where former state Rep. Paul Tonko won a five-way Democratic primary with 39 percent of the vote — a victory that makes him the strong favorite to succeed retiring 10-term Rep. Michael R. McNulty in the strongly Democratic district. Regarded as an underdog, in part because he lagged a bit at fundraising, Tonko nonetheless outran Tracey Brooks, a former aide to New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton , who had 30 percent and Albany County Legislator Phil Steck, who took 19 percent. Republican James Buhrmaster, a Schenectady County legislator, won the much lower turnout GOP primary.

Franken Primary Win One of Many Key Results From Tuesday’s Primaries

Other key fall matchups were decided without primary competition. Democrat Dan Maffei, a former congressional aide who came within 2 points of unseating long-time Republican Rep. James T. Walsh in the 25th District in 2006, will face Republican Dale Sweetland, a former chairman of the Onondaga County legislature, for the seat Walsh left open to retire, with CQ Politics rating the race as Leans Democratic. Republican Rep. John R. “Randy” Kuhl Jr. of the 29th District faces a rematch of the 2006 race in which he defeated Democrat Eric Massa, a Navy veteran, by just 3 points: CQ Politics’ rating is Leans Republican. And in the Republicans’ most vigorous effort to take back a New York seat that they lost in 2006, Democratic freshman Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand of the 20th District faces a challenge by Sandy Treadwell, a former state Republican Party chairman, in a race CQ Politics rates as Leans Democratic.

The only New York incumbent who faced serious primary opposition was 10th District Democrat Edolphus Towns , who won by 67 percent to 33 percent over Kevin Powell, a political activist who was an inaugural cast member on the MTV program “The Real World.” Towns, who also faced serious primary opposition in 2000 and 2006, is a shoo-in to win a new term in a heavily black and Democratic area of Brooklyn that includes Bedford-Stuyvesant and Canarsie.

CQ Politics published a detailed treatment of the New York primary results.

• Rhode Island. Democrat Jack Reed , an overwhelming favorite to win a third Senate term, found no obstacle in breezing past primary opponent Christopher Young with 87 percent of the primary vote. His general election opponent, Republican Bob Tingle, also challenged Reed in 2002 and drew just 22 percent of the vote. The state’s two House members, Democrats Patrick J. Kennedy and Jim Langevin , were unopposed in the primary and also should be easily re-elected in a state that is one of the nation’s leading Democratic Party strongholds. CQ Politics rates the Senate race and the House races as Safe Democratic.

• Vermont. Tuesday’s primary confirmed a general election matchup between Republican Gov. Jim Douglas, who has won three two-year terms, and Democrat Gaye Symington, the state House Speaker. Though Vermont is one of the nation’s most Democratic-leaning states in presidential contests and at most other levels, its “Yankee Republican” heritage occasionally shows through for candidates, such as Douglas, who state voters deem moderate enough. Some Democratic strategists nonetheless are touting Symington, who entered the race on the late side, as a sleeper candidate for a November upset. CQ Politics currently rates the race as Safe Republican, though that rating is subject to re-evaluation.

Democratic Rep. Peter Welch , who was first elected in 2006 to the seat liberal independent Rep. Bernard Sanders left open for a successful Senate bid, easily beat one primary challenger for the state’s at-large House district — and doesn’t face Republican opposition in November. CQ Politics rates the House race as Safe Democratic.

• Wisconsin. Democratic freshman Rep. Steve Kagen and Republican John Gard, a former state Assembly Speaker, were unopposed in their primaries in the northeastern 8th District. They have thus been going head-to-head for months in a rematch of the 2006 open-seat election that Kagen, an allergist then making his first bid for public office, won by 2 percentage points — a rare Democratic victory in a conservative-leaning, Green Bay-centered district. CQ Politics rates the race as Leans Democratic

Among Wisconsin’s eight U.S. House incumbents, the only one who faced primary opposition on Tuesday was 15-term Republican Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. , who took 78 percent of the primary vote in the strongly Republican 5th District in suburban Milwaukee. Sensenbrenner is heavily favored to win another term in November.