Voters in four states'Indiana, North Carolina, West Virginia and Wisconsin'head to the polls today to vote in a wide variety of primaries. While there aren't any interesting races at the federal or statewide level in West Virginia, the other three states feature a number of key nominating contests, which we've written up below:
' IN-Sen (R): So it's come down to this: If six-term Republican Sen. Richard Lugar manages to survive his primary challenge from state Treasurer Richard Mourdock tonight, it will be considered in most circles to be a legitimate surprise. Most of the recent polling has shifted dramatically in Mourdock's favor (including a Howey Politics/DePauw University poll released on Friday that had Mourdock up by 10 points on Lugar).
So how did we get here? Mourdock can credit a combination of outside spending on his behalf (from the likes of the NRA and the proto-teabaggers at the Club for Growth), nagging issues surrounding Lugar's residency in the state (he hasn't lived in Indiana since 1977), and a Lugar campaign that simply hasn't done a competent job of focusing on issues that connect with the Republican base. (As admirable of a goal as it is, Lugar's repeated attempts to tout his initiatives against the proliferation of nuclear weapons just isn't the kind of issue that appeals to the tea-stained tribal instincts of the modern Republican primary voter.) Perhaps most tellingly, one of the only third-party groups left in Lugar's corner, the American Action Network, suspended its expenditures on Lugar's behalf with less than two weeks to go before primary day, explaining that they've decided to "let this race play out." If that isn't a sign that Dick Lugar himself is played out, I don't know what else could be. (James L)
The rest of our analysis is below the fold, but first, here's our Google Maps overlay of Indiana's new congressional districts, to help you follow along (you can click on a district to see its number):
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