Super Tuesday: House Edition features big races across country

More than a dozen competitive primaries will conclude this week in Congress’s version of Super Tuesday.

The stakes are big in two-high profile Senate primaries in New Jersey and New Mexico, but the balance of Congress will be tested in some vital GOP House primaries in Alabama, California, New Jersey and New Mexico.

{mosads}Republicans face a pair of hotly contested open-seat primaries in all four states, with seven of the eight seats currently held by retiring GOPers and the eighth in a Republican-friendly Alabama district. All but one are considered top Democratic takeover opportunities.

The only House incumbent at risk for reelection is Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa), who is enduring a challenge from the left from former state Rep. Ed Fallon.

Boswell polled ahead by 24 points in April, but Fallon has raised significant money, and Boswell and his allies have made it clear they have taken the primary seriously. Late last week, Boswell’s campaign rolled out an endorsement by former Vice President Al Gore.

The biggest House primaries will take place in the districts of retiring Reps. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), Jim Saxton (R-N.J.) and Mike Ferguson (R-N.J.) and Senate candidate Heather Wilson (R-N.M.).

California

Doolittle’s retirement preceded the most expensive primary in the country, between former Rep. Doug Ose (R-Calif.) and his GOP rival, state Sen. Tom McClintock. McClintock began the race with a huge lead in the polls, but Ose has spent nearly $3 million of his own money in his bid to return to Congress.

The winner faces retired Air Force Lt. Col. Charlie Brown (D), who nearly defeated Doolittle in 2006. Ose has a more centrist record and gobs of cash, while McClintock has a proven ability to motivate the conservative base.

Brown on Monday released a Benenson Strategy Group poll showing him leading Ose by four points, 38-34, and McClintock by two, 42-40.

Another big House race in California is for retiring Rep. Duncan Hunter’s (R) seat, where the son is trying to replace the father. Hunter’s son, Iraq veteran Duncan D. Hunter, leads the GOP field. In a poll released in mid-May by an independent firm, Hunter led Santee City Councilman Brian Jones and businessman Bob Watkins with 79 percent of the vote.

New Jersey

In New Jersey, Ocean County Freeholder Jack Kelly will attempt to play spoiler to Medford Township Mayor Chris Myers in Saxton’s district. Myers has the support of Saxton and two of three counties in the district.

The field for Ferguson’s seat is wider and the battle for the GOP nomination is led by state Sen. Leonard Lance and Kate Whitman, the daughter of former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman.

The winners of those two races will try to hold battleground districts against state Sen. John Adler (D) and state Rep. Linda Stender (D), respectively, who are both unopposed.

New Mexico

Wilson’s district is a perpetual target, and national Republicans hope Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White can withstand a primary against state Sen. Joe Carraro.

The favorite in the Democratic primary is Albuquerque City Councilman Martin Heinrich, who polled a 34-23 lead over former Secretary of State Rebecca Vigil-Giron in a late May Albuquerque Journal poll.

Wilson deftly held the seat for years amid tough challenges in a district that, like the New Jersey seats, is nearly evenly split between the parties.

Her fellow Senate candidates, Reps. Steve Pearce (R) and Tom Udall (D), feature competitive primaries on both sides for their seats, though Udall’s seat is expected to go to the winner of the Democratic primary.

In that race, Public Regulation Commissioner Ben Ray Lujan has been weathering harsh attacks from several of his opponents, but his main foe appears to be businessman Don Wiviott, who has self-funded his bid.

Lujan has been endorsed by Gov. Bill Richardson (D), who also endorsed former Lea County Commissioner Harry Teague in Pearce’s district.

Teague released a Winning Connections poll in mid-May showing him leading Dona Ana County Commissioner Bill McCamley 36-14, while McCamley had a poll in March showing McCamley leading 43-22. Teague has far outspent McCamley down the stretch thanks to $770,000 of his own money.

The winner will face on the GOP side retired banker Aubrey Dunn, real estate broker Earl Greer, former Hobbs Mayor Monty Newman, daycare owner Greg Sowards or restaurant owner Ed Tinsley, who lost a primary to Pearce in 2002.

Alabama

Other primaries being held Tuesday include the races to succeed two Alabama congressmen.

Much like New Jersey, Democrats already have their presumptive candidates in place in Alabama, while the GOP faces contested primaries.

In retiring Rep. Bud Cramer’s (D) district, state Sen. Parker Griffith is a near lock to face the winner of a GOP race led by businessman Wayne Parker and attorney Cheryl Baswell Guthrie.

Parker narrowly lost to Cramer in 1994, but Griffith polled a 48-32 lead in an early head-to-head survey.

For retiring Rep. Terry Everett’s (R) seat, Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright is expected to prevail in the Democratic primary and face one of four well-funded GOP candidates. State Reps. Jay Love and Harri Anne Smith were early favorites, but oral surgeon Craig Schmidtke and bsusinessman David Woods have run well-financed campaigns as well.

Other races to watch

In other races of note Tuesday: blind rabbi Dennis Shulman and attorney Camille Abate will battle for the right to face Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.); a trio of GOP candidates will battle in freshman Rep. David Loebsack’s (D-Iowa) district; and the GOP will learn who its Senate nominees will be in challenges to Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Tim Johnson (D-S.D.).

That trio of Senate races began the cycle as GOP targets but never drew big-name candidates.

The GOP tried to get a top candidate against Johnson, but Gov. Mike Rounds and businessman Steve Kirby both passed.

State Rep. Joel Dykstra has raised $250,000 for that race, while no other GOP candidate in the three Senate races pulled in more than $100,000 through mid-May.

Both Harkin and Baucus seem to be in relatively safe seats, according to political analysts.