The first results of the night are in and former state Sen. Tom Graves (R) won the Georgia special election runoff.

Car dealer Scott Rigell won the GOP nomination in the Virginia's 2nd district Tuesday after securing 41 percent of the vote, according to the Associated Press.

He'll challenge freshman Rep. Glenn Nye (D-Va.) for the seat in November.

The win is good news for the National Republican Congressional Committee, which recruited Rigell to run and promoted his candidacy.

He was a good fundraiser but had difficulty burnishing his GOP credentials after it emerged he donated $2,000 to Barack Obama's presidential campaign in 2008 and his car dealerships received hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds through the federal "cash for clunkers" program.

He has attacked the president and the clunkers program in the primary campaign.

Tea Party groups endorsed businessman Ben Loyola (R), his closest rival, who finished with 26 percent of vote, according to unofficial results.

Prosecutors usually make for strong political candidates, but Democrats are trying to use their jobs against them.

Democrats are furious with Louisiana Sen. David Vitter (R) over his claim that Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.) supports President Barack Obama's six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling.

"Charlie Melancon's support for President Obama's offshore moratorium will kill Louisiana jobs," Vitter wrote in a recent e-mail to supporters. "Melancon has endorsed Obama's moratorium in numerous interviews and repeatedly makes the point that he thinks offshore rigs are 'toys,' not jobs."

Vitter's message called for the president to lift the moratorium. His campaign has consistently sought to tie his Senate challenger to Obama, who is unpopular in Louisiana.

The Melancon camp said Vitter was "lying" about Melancon's position.

"Charlie Melancon couldn't be any clearer: he opposes the President's moratorium on offshore drilling," Jeff Giertz, a spokesman for Melancon, said in an e-mail. "David Vitter's just trying to distract attention from his efforts to bail out BP by lying about Charlie's record — Vitter's lied to Louisiana once, and he'll lie again."

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's (R) first ballot didn't count in Tuesday's primary election, the Associated Press reports.

The scanning machine at his Los Angeles polling place rejected the ballot because he selected two Senate candidates instead of one, according to reports.

No word on which two candidates he voted for, but former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, former Rep. Tom Campbell, and state Assemblyman Chuck DeVore have been running a tough campaign.

Poll worker Keta Hodgson told the AP the governor was given the choice of filling out a new ballot or not having his Senate pick count. He cast a new ballot.

There's also a competitve GOP primary for Schwarznegger's job. Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and state insurance commissioner Steve Poizner have sunk up to $100 million total into the race. 

Polls close at 11 p.m. EST.

And Schwarzenegger isn't the first politician to have trouble voting.

When Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) tried to vote for herself in the May 18 Democratic primary it turns out she had already voted. She and her husband had requested absentee ballots in case she was called to Washington for Senate business. They cast provisional ballots to make sure their votes counted.

That won't be a problem for Lincoln in today's runoff. She will vote "in person" at her polling place in Little Rock with a traditional ballot, according to a spokeswoman for her campaign.

She faces Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D). Polls close at 8:30 p.m. EST.

Cross-posted to the Briefing Room 

Twelve states are voting Tuesday — here's a quick cheat sheet for when polls close and what races to watch:

7 p.m. EST: The first round of polls closes, with races being decided in Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia.

Georgia will decide which Republican it will send to Congress in the special election to replace Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.), who has resigned to run for governor. Former state Rep. Tom Graves and state Sen. Lee Hawkins advanced to Tuesday's runoff after last month's election failed to produce a majority-candidate. It's no surprise Republicans will hold on to this district, one of the most conservative in the country.

In South Carolina, all eyes will be on the governor's race, where state Rep. Nikki Haley is fighting for the Republican nomination. She's the favorite in the race and has the support of both Sarah Palin and Jenny Sanford, but a few weeks ago a conservative blogger alleged he had an extramarital affair with Haley — a charge she denied. A Public Policy poll released Monday had her leading her nearest GOP competitor by 20 points.

In Virginia, Republicans will be waiting to see who wins the nomination to face freshman Rep. Glenn Nye (D-Va.), who is a top GOP target. Scott Rigell is the party favorite but he's been under attack by the Tea Party. It'll be interesting to see if this primary goes the way of GOP primaries in Idaho and Kentucky, where the Republican Party favorite lost to a Tea Party candidate in both races. And seven candidates are vying for the GOP nomination to take on Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello, another leading GOP target.

8 p.m. EST: Maine and New Jersey

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Tuesday he would be "highly surprised" if his union federation's state chapter supported Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) if she won her runoff against Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D).

The labor movement has invested millions in defeating Lincoln by canvassing the state and running television ads.

Lincoln has ended up on the wrong side of unions — traditional Democratic allies — for her opposition to legislation that would make union organizing much easier, as well as being against a government-run health insurance program. 



Trumka said the decision to endorse Lincoln, if she emerged victorious on Tuesday, would be up to AFL-CIO members in Arkansas. "That is a decision that our members on the ground make. I would feel highly surprised if they were to do that," Trumka said.

While the AFL-CIO has not committed to not supporting Lincoln if she did win Tuesday, at least one powerful labor group has pledged not to help her in the fall.

The Service Employees International Union, another Halter supporter, has said that they would not endorse Lincoln if she was the Democrats' general election candidate.



The union leader also said he thought Halter would prevail Tuesday in his challenge against Lincoln.
"I think Halter wins tonight and I think he ultimately goes on and wins in the fall. If I didn't believe that, we would probably have not been in the race," Trumka said.

The 2010 midterm elections aren't finished but both parties are planning for the 2012 presidential election.

The biggest issue on table: the calendar of primaries and caucuses that decide the party's nominee.

New Hampshire will retain its first-in-the-nation primary status while other states will hold their contests in an "orderly timetable" throughout the beginning of the year, according to plans from both parties.

This must-read piece in the Boston Globe looks ahead two years to the White House race and how the parties will persuade states to follow their calendar recommendations.

From the article:

Officials from both parties have separate proposals that would ban states from holding their vote before the first Tuesday of March, with four exemptions: the Granite State; Iowa, which holds the first caucuses; South Carolina; and Nevada. And no state can hold a contest before Feb. 1.

Implicit in the plans is the parties’ determination to infuse more discipline into the scheduling. …

[As an incentive to get the states to comply] the Democrats are dangling the prospect of extra delegates; Republicans are discussing allowing winner-take-all contests in later states instead of proportional allotment of delegates. A winner-take-all allotment makes a state’s haul more valuable to candidates.

The early planning is a reaction to the 2008 race, where states jockeyed to move up their primary dates in order to have more influence in the presidential nominating process. New Hamsphire cast ballots on Jan. 8th, its earliest contest ever, in order to keep its first-in-the-nation primary status. The Iowa caucuses took place Jan. 3rd. 

Several states lost delegates because they moved up their primary dates.

Both parties have set their dates for the 2012 conventions: Republicans will hold theirs August 27-30, 2012, in Tampa. Democrats will hold theirs from Sept. 3-6, 2012, but are still deciding what city to pick.

The Hill's Kris Kitto offers career advice to congressional staffers every week in his column, A Second Opinion. As campaign season heats up, this question is likely to be asked in more than a few offices on Capitol Hill.

Dear A.S.O,



I’ve been asked to "volunteer" for my boss’s campaign "in my free time." I already spend enough of my life at work, but feel obligated to say yes. But then that strikes me as being against some ethics rule. What can I do?

Anonymous
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