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Beshear victorious in Ky.; voting problems in Gillmor’s district |
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By Aaron Blake
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Posted: 11/06/07 10:26 PM [ET] |
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Democrat Steve Beshear (D) rode to a convincing win over incumbent Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R) in Kentucky on Tuesday night, while malfunctioning voting machines have marred the special primary in the race for the late Rep. Paul Gillmor’s (R-Ohio) seat.
Beshear led 59-41 with 99.9 percent of precincts reporting in a race Democrats have pitched as a harbinger for 2008 in a state formerly dominated by their party. Beshear was the favorite in the race in the wake of ethics investigations into Fletcher and his aides.
In Ohio, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner ordered polls to stay open an extra hour and a half, until 9 p.m., in Putnam County after “intermittent failures” on its voting machines.
Results in the race were slow coming in more than an hour after that extended poll closing.
The machines’ manufacturer, Election Systems and Software, Inc., is the same company involved in the ongoing controversy over the results in 2006 in Florida’s 13th district.
In Kentucky, Democrats said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is in trouble in his 2008 reelection bid after Fletcher’s loss even though they have not settled on a challenger.
“Mitch McConnell threw his personal reputation and his supposedly invincible political organization behind Ernie Fletcher, and Kentucky voters overwhelmingly rejected him today,” said a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Matthew Miller. “Kentuckians showed they are fed up with the McConnell-Fletcher status quo and everything it stands for in Washington and in Frankfort.”
Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan said the governor’s race represented a “unique” set of circumstances, and he focused on GOP wins in other races.
“Voters in Kentucky will continue to support lower taxes, limited government, strong national defense, and individual responsibility,” Duncan said. “Our success today, including the re-election of Secretary of State Trey Grayson and Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer, made it very clear that the Commonwealth is and will remain a Republican state.”
In other elections, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) was reelected as expected, and Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl (D) survived a surprisingly tough challenge in a heavily Democratic city.
Rep. Tom Davis's (R-Va.) wife, Jeannemarie Devolites Davis, was trailing J. Chapman Peterson in her bitterly contested state Senate reelection race 56-44 percent with over 80 percent of the precincts reporting.
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