PoliticsNC’s primary winners and losers

by | May 7, 2014 | 2014 Elections, Editor's Blog, NC Politics | 3 comments

Big Winners

Thom Tillis was obviously the big winner last night. He can now quit worrying about his right flank and start focusing on the general election. 

The GOP establishment spent millions beating back the Tea Party. They now have their candidate in place and the smoldering remains of the wacky insurgency that led the Republican wave in 2010 but has caused them heartburn ever since. 

Robin Hudson faced almost $1 million in attack ads and came out with the highest vote-total. Many observers thought the ads were enough to bring her down but, instead  they brought out bipartisan outrage. 

Alma Adams won the crowded primary in NC-12 outright to become Mel Watts successor. She will have token GOP opposition, but constituents now know where to address their complaints.

Clay Aiken seemed to be fading at the end of the race but he appears to have squeaked by and is now ready give Renee Ellmers a run for her money. 

Walter Jones, Jr. faced a primary from his right that looked like it might be successful early in the night but he held on to win another day and continue to confound his fellow Republicans in the House.

Cecil Brockman beat former state Representative Earl Jones to succeed his former boss Marcus Brandon, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in NC-12. Way to go, Cecil!

Big Losers

The Tea Party couldn’t garner enough forces to hold Thom Tillis under 40%. They’ve never been as strong in North Carolina as they have been in other states but their influence took an even bigger hit last night. They couldn’t even take out Walter Jones, Jr. much less Tillis.

Mark Harris never could quite get it together. He had flashes of momentum in early April but couldn’t sustain it. Harris needed to be bold but he was cautious and it cost him. He came in a distant third.

Justice For All, a dark money group trying to buy the North Carolina Supreme Court, wasted almost $1 million on ads that were over-the-top. At the end of the day, nobody believes a sitting Supreme Court Justice coddles pedophiles. Glad you pissed away your money with stupid consultants. 

Keith Crisco spent almost $500,000 of his own money in NC-02 but lost to Clay Aiken by less than 400 votes. Even though the margin is small it appears to be too large to ask for a recount. He ran a good campaign but not enough to overcome the name recognition and celebrity of Aiken. 

Earl Jones has now lost three elections in a row. He was unseated by Marcus Brandon in 2010, lost a rematch in 2012 and lost to newcomer Cecil Brockman last night by 18 points. 

The State Board of Elections website proved once again that the new Republican regime in Raleigh can’t get anything right. They apparently posted early vote totals as final totals leaving everyone wondering how the turnout was so low and the results were so fast. Twitter had a ball with it. Everyone was confused and several people speculated that Aldona Wos had taken over SBOE, too.

3 Comments

  1. BattleDem

    Art Pope attempts to buy another election but ends up breaking the BOE web site.

  2. Thomas Ricks

    So how about the big braggarts that insisted their teajadist candidate was going to win? Be assured, you’ll be reminded when you cite facts about your claims earlier this week.

  3. HunterC

    The situation with the State Board of Elections web site needs to be reported on weekly.

    It will get another small test with some July runoffs, but no one in NC of any party should stand for this nonsense — much less in November.

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