Early Returns

Linda McMahon will wrestle Richard Blumenthal in Connecticut in November. In Colorado, Ken Buck narrowly leads Jane Norton, while appointed Democratic incumbent Michael Bennet appears to be holding off Andrew Romanoff.
Here in Minnesota, Mark Dayton is locked in a surprisingly tight race with Margaret Kelliher, the DFL endorsed candidate for Governor. With 30 percent of precincts reporting, Kelliher holds a 15,000-vote lead over Dayton, with Matt Entenza, the other rich guy in the race, having conceded. Everyone I know thought Dayton would succeed in buying the nomination. He may yet; most Republicans hope so. Tom Emmer cruised to victory as the GOP nominee, essentially unopposed.
I can see why Entenza lost. Somehow my wife and I got on a list of Entenza supporters; Loree reports that she fielded six phone calls from the Entenza campaign today, urging her to go to the polls. Her repeated assurances that she would never under any circumstances vote in a DFL primary, let alone for Mr. Entenza, had no apparent effect.
Paul, meanwhile, went to the Washington Nationals game tonight to see phenom Stephen Strasburg. Unfortunately, Strasburg, returning from the DL, was pretty well shelled by the Marlins and the Nats lost 8-2. On the brighter side, the Minnesota Twins unloaded five home runs on the White Sox–remarkable for them, perennially a slap-hitting team–and won 12-6 to retake first place in the American League Central. The Twins have come back from what seemed like the dead at around the All-Star break. So never let anyone tell you the news is all bad!
UPDATE: With 76% of precincts reporting, the Minneapolis Star Tribune says it is 41-40, Kelliher over Dayton. I have mixed feelings about this: as a citizen, one can hardly root for a candidate as meritless as Mark Dayton. On the other hand, he is likely easier to beat than Kelliher, and she is neither smarter nor less crazily left-wing than Dayton. It could be a long night.

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