Conservative talker Glenn Beck declined to endorse J.D. Hayworth (R) during an interview with Don Imus on Fox Business Network Wednesday morning.
Beck said he was for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) going "off into the sunset."
Imus expressed disbelief. He asked Beck if he's for "that fat, undisciplined maggot … shock jock?"
Beck refused to say he's backing Hayworth, the senator's primary opponent. "Just because I'm for John McCain going away now, doesn't mean I'm for J.D. Hayworth," he said.
The McCain camp pointed out that Beck was the latest in a long line of prominent conservatives who have declined to endorse Hayworth, but this snub is likely to hurt more.
Officials with the Hayworth camp told The Ballot Box in March they were hoping to have Beck's endorsement.
Hayworth and Beck overlapped as broadcasters in the Phoenix market and Hayworth's campaign anticipated that personal connection would translate into an endorsement.
Reps. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) and Mark Souder (R-Ind.) emerged from Tuesday’s primaries bruised but unbeaten. Their performances, however, won’t do much to hearten members worried about their own primaries.
So, as we talk about this pervasive anti-incumbent mood, who’s next? In fact, several other members of Congress will learn their primary fates in the coming days and weeks.
The Ballot Box looks at incumbents who could fall in the next month:
Saturday – Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah): The three-term senator has turned into an underdog at his state party convention this weekend, and recent polls suggest he might not even make the final ballot at the convention, which would effectively end his tenure in the Senate.
Tuesday – Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.): Mollohan faces state Sen. Mike Oliverio, who nearly outraised him in the first quarter and led him 41-33 in an internal poll two weeks ago.
May 18 – Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) and Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.): Could two Democratic senators fall on one primary day? They could. Both Lincoln and Specter have seen their leads shrink to single digits. The most vulnerable man that day, though, might be Kanjorski, who faces Lackawanna County Commissioner Corey O’Brien.
June 1 – Rep. Parker Griffith (R-Ala.): Much like Specter, Griffith is dealing with the aftermath of a party switch. He went the other way, to become a Republican, and the GOP primary never cleared. Madison County Commissioner Mo Brooks and businessman Les Phillip will battle with Griffith over who is the real conservative Republican in the race.
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) insisted he will run for reelection this year, saying that Rep. David Obey's (D-Wis.) retirement has no bearing on his race.
"I've made my decision," Rangel told The Hill.
New York state assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV is challenging Rangel in the Democratic primary.
Rangel said that he will run for another term when reporters whether the news about Obey, the House Appropriations Committee chairman and 20-term House member, makes him think about leaving Congress.
"That’s a very, very good question, but I don’t know how to be more clear that each situation has to really depend on the individual," Rangel said.
"If this becomes a difficult job — believe me, none of us were drafted and there are plenty of people that are eligible and qualified to take our place," he added. "It's not one of these things where you look and see what someone else has done and think it impacts you."
Lots of names were on the ballot on Tuesday. In case you don't want to go through each individual race, The Ballot Box gives a quick and dirty version of the winners and losers:
Winners
1. Elaine Marshall
Former state Sen. Cal Cunningham looked to be closing the gap in the North Carolina Democratic Senate primary, and he had the national party behind him, at least in spirit. But Marshall came away with a nine-point edge, 36-27, and polling shows she enters their June 22 runoff with a significant edge. A recent Public Policy Polling (D) poll shows she would take 51 percent of the vote from candidates who didn’t make the runoff, while Cunningham would take 27 percent.
Now it will be up to Cunningham to raise big money and drown Marshall in advertising. Despite not raising much money, she is proving to be no pushover. The runoff is June 22.
2. NRCC
It wasn’t pretty, and in fact, it was downright ugly in many cases, but the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) got its chosen candidates through on Tuesday. In Indiana, state Rep. Jackie Walorski, Dr. Larry Bucshon and attorney Todd Young all won. In North Carolina, Iraq veteran Ilario Pantano and businessman Jeff Miller both appear to have avoided runoffs. And in Ohio, state Sen. Bob Gibbs’s apparent narrow victory in Rep. Zack Space’s (D-Ohio) district (there could be a recount) gave the NRCC a sweep there.
Pennsylvania Senate candidate Pat Toomey (R) is leaving the campaign trail to spend more time with his growing family.
Toomey's wife Kris gave birth to a baby boy late last night, his campaign announced Wednesday.
Duncan Olin Toomey, the couple's third child, weighed in at 7 pounds, 2 ounces. Both mother and baby are doing well, the Toomey camp said.
The former congressman canceled all his campaign events for Wednesday and "will be taking a short respite from the campaign trail to spend some time with his wife and three children."
Toomey, in a statement: "Kris and I are very grateful for all the well wishes we've received from so many people and look forward to being back on the campaign trail soon."
The Pennsylvania primary is May 18 but Toomey is expected to win the GOP nod handily.
Senate candidate Marco Rubio (R) gets the official nod from former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), both Democrats pledge to keep running a "clean" campaign in North Carolina and is Tea Party turnout in Ohio a sign of things to come?
Man in the shadows
Jeb Bush came out of the shadows to offer his public support to Marco Rubio for the first time Wednesday. The two will campaign together Friday night at the Pasco County Reagan Day Dinner, according to the Rubio camp. Bush's statement didn't mention Gov. Charlie Crist by name, but it did take a tacit swipe at the now Independent Senate candidate. "You can trust that [Rubio's] principles will not change every time the political winds shift direction," Bush said.
Keep it clean
Secretary of State Elaine Marshall overcame a lack of funding and the death of her husband from cancer in November to pull out a 10-point lead over former state Sen. Cal Cunningham in North Carolina's Democratic primary Tuesday.
In an interview with the Raleigh News & Observer, Marshall called her 10-point lead "significant" and said having a runoff "would be contrary to a united party." But she did not call for Cunningham to drop out.
"For the last year he has run a clean campaign. If he decides to continue this campaign for another seven weeks we will beat him again with a larger margin than we did tonight," she said. Marshall added, "I wasn't planning on taking a vacation anyway."
Cunningham said he spoke with his rival Tuesday night. "I told her I hope we can continue to conduct this campaign in the same manner that we conducted it so far," he said.
Last call for Tea?
The Columbus Dispatchwrites, "Tea Party's bark louder than its bite in targeted Republican races for state auditor and secretary of state. In the contest for auditor, the Ohio GOP-endorsed candidate, Delaware County Prosecutor Dave Yost, handily defeated Dayton-area state Rep. Seth Morgan, who relied on Tea Party rallies and Internet outreach to appeal to Republican voters."
Here's one snapshot of turnout in Ohio's primary: In Clermont County, elections officials had projected turnout of at least 30 percent on account of the interest of those involved with the tea-party movement.
"I was hoping for 35 percent because the Tea Party had really spurred people's interest in getting involved," said Judy Miller, director of the Board of Elections, said Tuesday night. "We had a lot more people running for Central Committee. We thought there would be a lot more voters."
Businessman Jim Renacci, a top GOP recruit, has survived a primary scare and will face Rep. John Boccieri (D-Ohio) in November.
Renacci faced former Ashland County Commissioner Matt Miller, a meagerly funded candidate who had nonetheless taken 42 percent of the vote in each of the past two primaries in the district. Miller turned in a similar performance this time, but Renacci led him 49-41 with 75 percent of precincts in. The race has been called for Renacci.
Renacci has achieved the second step of the NRCC's Young Guns program for top challengers, and his strong fundraising has made him a candidate the party has heralded as someone who could lead the GOP back to the majority.
Another member of the Young Guns program, Ohio state Sen. Bob Gibbs, was struggling with his primary in the nearby 18th district. Gibbs trailed 2008 nominee Fred Dailey 21.6 percent to 21.2 percent with 93 percent of precincts reporting in Rep. Zack Space's (D-Ohio) district. The primary may require a recount.
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