I'll just give a few quick observations on each of these primaries, then move on, as there are some races that haven't been touched yet that should, and some overall general comments:
OhioOverall, turnout did not impress me from the Republican side either in Ohio or Indiana, but turnout is often a fickle thing in primaries and can be influenced by many things. What I am looking for is weakness or lack of enthusiasm in the incumbent, which shows potential general election weakness.
Nothing much to say in the Governor's races. The only really contested race was Rep primary, Treasurer of State, where Sherrill O'Brien edged out Jennette Bradley.
In the Senate race: I would normally say DeWine's 71% in a primary is not that great, but my general trust in Mason-Dixon polling outweighs that
for now.
In the House, the biggest upset occurred in the OH-18 Dem primary, where virtual unknown Dem Zach Space beat expected winner Joe Culver by a fairly sizable margin. This is Bob Ney's (R) seat. Space is to the left of Culver and because of the recognition factor and this, I would improve the GOP chances in the seat, even though Ney's 68% win tonight was not impressive.
In OH-06, Dem Charles Wilson won and pulled as many Write-in votes as the GOP primary candidates did combined. For this reason, the open seat will be moved over to lean Dem, maybe even further as time progresses. I still can't figure out why the guy couldn't get 50 people to sign his petition.
In OH-16, GOP incumbent Ralph Regula edged out challenger Matt Miller by a margin of only 55%-45%. I would rate his seat as more vulnerable, except his challenger is a non-entity, having raised $0.00 so far.
In OH-13, the Sherrod Brown open seat, Betty Sutton will meet Craig Foltin. Even though Foltin is the only Republican in the primary that I would even give a shot of having a chance here, Sutton is a good candidate for the district and will take advantage of the natural Dem lean of the CD (55-45). Likely Dem for now.
IndianaOverall comment: The GOP incumbents, except for Mike Pence and Dan Burton, did not put in especially good numbers tonight against no-names. Hostettler and Sodrel are already toss-ups and will stay so (Hostettler was not challenged). The CDs of Souder (IN-3) and Buyer (IN-4) are so Republican that I doubt it matters.
The one incumbent that I would push towards being more competitive is Chris Chocola (IN-2), who will be facing Joe Donnally again, whom he only defeated with 54% in 2004. He only got 70% in the primary tonight against a no-name. Lean Rep for now, but this one could be heading towards tossup fast.
North Carolina[/i]
Nothing really to note here, except that Nifong won re-election, Taylor (NC-11) got only 80%, which gets me closer towards pushing his contest to toss-up.
