More Primary Impetus, The Morning After

Last night's primaries in Colorado, Connecticut and Minnesota and the Republican Governor runoff in Georgia came down to the wire in many cases, and in the case of the Georgia runoff are still to close to call even as of this morning.

In Colorado, Dem. Sen. Michael Bennet won relatively handily defeating Andrew Romanoff 54-46%  He'll be taking on Tea Party Republican Ken Buck, who won despite a number of high profile miscues caught on tape.  He beat McCain-backed Jane Norton 52-48%.  The GOP gubernatorial primary is still too close to call, less than 4,000 votes separate Dan Maes from Scott McInnis, and both of those candidates have been plagued by ethics problems and thousands of dollars in questionable money.  Democrat John Hickenlooper is feeling pretty good about his chances in November, especially with Tom Tancredo in the race as a third party candidate.

In Connecticut, WWE wrestling exec Linda McMahon bodyslammed her competition to win the Republican primary over her two challengers and will be taking on state AG Richard Blumenthal in November for Chris Dodd's Senate seat, which is just what Blumenthal and Connecticut Dems wanted to see.  In the Governor's primary results, the Dems saw Ned Lamont go down hard to Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy by double digits, and Malloy will face Republican former Ambassador to Ireland Tom Foley, who edged out the state's Lt. Got Mike Fedele and businessman Oz Griebel to claim a three way race.

In Minnesota, former Dem. Senator Mark Dayton will take on Republican State Rep. Tom Emmer for Governor,  Dayton is a definitely a progressive candidate from a state long known for them, and Emmer is the quintessential Tea Party man, which means third party centrist Tom Horner is the wild card.

Finally, Georgia's GOP Governor primary runoff is still too close to call, less than 3,000 votes separate Newt Gingrich-backed Nathan Deal from Sarah Palin-backed Karen Handel this morning.

Dems have to be feeling pretty good about last night, Bennet survived in Colorado and Hickenlooper has an easy run thanks to Tancredo splitting the tea party vote in a Hoffman Effect maneuver,  in Connecticut Blumenthal will win big over Linda McMahon, and Dan Malloy should have no problem, and Dayton is a strong progressive candidate running against a tea party extremist in Emmer.

We'll see how this all shakes out.