Kilpatrick survives primary, opponent doesn’t concede

Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (Mich.) appears to be headed for a seventh term after eking out a victory Tuesday over former state Rep. Mary Waters and state Sen. Martha Scott in a tough Democratic primary.

The incumbent was leading with 39 percent of the vote, trailed by Waters at 36 percent and Scott at 25 percent, with 99 percent of precincts reporting.

{mosads}Kilpatrick declared victory, though Waters was not yet conceding, according to local reports.

The Kilpatrick campaign sweated out the returns Tuesday, as preliminary results, which sources indicate largely reflected the anti-Kilpatrick Detroit suburbs, showed her trailing both Waters and Scott.

But as the night wore on, returns from Kilpatrick’s base in Detroit proper looked to propel the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to a narrow victory.

Kilpatrick had drawn the challenges after her son, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, was indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges earlier this year. The upstart campaigns by Waters and Scott had sought to capitalize on the family association, with the Waters campaign in particular going on the attack with an ad showing Kilpatrick vociferously defending her embattled son.

Kilpatrick was boosted by a substantial fundraising advantage, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on the race to their tens of thousands. Kilpatrick had also been able to bring in party heavy-hitters such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to help campaign.

The lawmaker secured a crucial endorsement late last week from the Detroit Free Press — the same paper that broke the story leading to her son’s indictments.

Kilpatrick would again be the Democratic nominee in Michigan’s 13th district this November, a safe district which has been represented in Congress by a Democrat since 1949.