One More Down

As expected, Tuesday night's election results brought down another sitting member of Congress, as Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) became the third member of the House, along with two Senators, to be booted in this election year.

While very few people in Washington really thought Inglis would win, the depth of his defeat was frankly stunning, as Inglis lost 71-29%.  That's not a typo.  A sitting member of Congress can't get one out of three votes from a district where he was re-elected less than two years ago.

Inglis couldn't even get 20% of the vote in Spartanburg County.  He did only marginally better in Greenville County, getting 36%.  It was a big time butt whipping.

This was the second tour of duty for Inglis in the Congress.  He was a Congressman from 1993-1999 and won his seat back in 2004, winning the GOP primary with 85% of the vote.

So, in six years, Inglis goes from landslide winner with 85% to a loser who can't even get one third of the vote in a two-person runoff election.

While Inglis has taken a lot of flak for his 2008 vote for the Wall Street Bailout, he does get some props for his initial decision to leave the Congress - he promised to serve no more than three consecutive terms, and when his time was up, he did not run for re-election.

Other than Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), who did the same after he served six years in the House, most every single lawmaker that I have watched in the last 30 years who talks a big game about term limits always seems to find a way around their pledge to only serve a certain number of years.

But over the years, Inglis went from the Reformer to The Problem.  

The winner of the race, Spartanburg County Solicitor Trey Gowdy, will be heavily favored to keep the seat for the GOP in November.

In other races of Congressional interest, Republican Tim Scott won the GOP runoff in South Carolina's 1st district, easily defeating Paul Thurmond, the son of Sen. Strom Thurmond by a 68-32% margin.

Scott will also be the favorite in November.  Backed by some tea party activists, Scott would be the first black Republican in the Congress since Rep. J.C. Watts (R-OK) left the House after the 2002 elections.

The irony of a black man with strong Tea Party support defeating a Thurmond is frankly, just crazy, considering the history of that state.  South Carolina has not had a black Republican Congressman in more than a century - probably back to Reconstruction.

Finally, we should also note the size of the win in the South Carolina Governor's runoff on the GOP side, as Nikki Haley defeated another GOP Congressman, Rep. Gresham Barrett, 65-35%.

Haley easily won the major counties of the Palmetto State, running up huge margins in Charleston County (76-24%), Horry County around Myrtle Beach (74-26%) and even Richland County around the state capital of Columbia 61-39%, where Haley had lagged in the primary.

She will be the clear favorite in November.

The idea that an Indian-American Sikh would easily win the GOP Governor's runoff and a black man would beat a Thurmond shows that times have changed in the Palmetto State.

Meanwhile, the only other Congressman that seemed to be on unstable ground yesterday won easily in his primary, as Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT) cruised in Utah's second district.

Matheson had been given a wake up call at his state party's convention in May, where his opponent won 45% of the votes.

But at the ballot box, it wasn't even close, as Matheson bested Claudia Wright by a 68-32 margin.

Finally, two Senate primaries from last night deserve mention.  In Utah, Mike Lee defeated Tim Bridgewater in the GOP Primary, which was basically a race to replace ousted Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT).

That race had split Republicans nationally, but the GOP has such an advantage in Utah that it probably won't matter in November.

Another closely watched Senate race was in North Carolina, where Secretary of State Elaine Marshall won a Democratic Party runoff over Cal Cunningham.

What was interesting about this race was that Cunningham had the support of national Democrats, led by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

That didn't matter one bit to Marshall, who cruised to an easy win, 60-40%.  She will now take on Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) in November, who will be favored to win re-election.

Election 2010 now takes a bit of a break - there is nothing big on the radar screen again until the July 20 primaries in Georgia.

As expected, Tuesday night's election results brought down another sitting member of Congress, as Rep. Bob Inglis (R-SC) became the third member of the House, along with two Senators, to be booted in this election year. While very few people in Washington really thought Inglis would win, the depth of ...