Please use this as an open thread to discuss the primary results – Virginia and national, if you wish – as they come in tonight. Personally, I’m crossing my fingers for Bill Halter over Blanche Lincoln, plus the craziest, most far-right-wing, and hopefully least electable Republicans in every one of their contests. For instance, go Sharron Angle in Nevada!
UPDATE 7:33 pm: Rob Wittman is annihilating Catherine Crabill, 89%-11%, with 47% of precincts reporting in. Wittman is the winner.
In the 11th CD, Keith Fimian is out to a 65%-35% lead over Pat Herrity, but with only 9.5% of precincts reporting.
In the 8th CD, with 35% of precincts reporting, it’s Matthew Berry with a slight lead (52%-48%) over Patrick Murray.
In the 5th CD, with 33% of precincts reporting, Robert Hurt leads at 40% of the vote, followed by Jim McKelvey at 31%, Mike McPadden at 11%, Ken Boyd at 10%, Feda Morton at 5%.
UPDATE 7:37 pm: In the 2nd CD, with 26% of precincts reporting, it’s Scott Rigell at 40%, Bert Mizusawa at 29%, Ben Loyola at 19%. Looking pretty good for Rigell so far.
UPDATE 7:43 pm: With 53% of precincts reporting in the 5th CD, Robert Hurt is pulling away (46%) over Jim McKelvey (28%) and everyone else under 10%. I think it’s fair to say that Hurt will win this one. If only the tea partiers could have united around 1 candidate; united they stand, divided they fall?
UPDATE 7:48 pm: Wow, Pat Herrity is getting walloped by Keith Fimian with 25% of precincts reporting — 62% Fimian, 38% Herrity. It looks like NLS nailed the call of Fimian over Herrity. Also, turnout appears on track to surpass Leslie Byrne’s key number of 30,000. We’ll see.
UPDATE 7:52 pm: Scott Rigell is extending his lead in the 2nd CD with 37% of precincts reporting. Currently Rigell 41%, Loyola 23%, Mizusawa 21%. This one appears to be pretty much in the bag for Rigell.
UPDATE 7:55 pm: Marc Ambinder tweets, “More evidence the Tea Party can’t organize its way out of a bag, politically: easy win for establishment candidate in VA 05….”
UPDATE 7:56 pm: With 40% of precincts reporting in the 11th, Fimian is winning easily over Herrity, 62%-38%. Big win for Vincent Harris of Too Conservative; he was Fimian’s netroots guy on this one.
UPDATE 8:04 pm: With Hurt’s win in the 5th CD, the question is whether – and how many – independent candidates, “tea party” or otherwise, there will be. Seems like Hurt winning makes it more likely, but we’ll have to see.
UPDATE 8:07 pm: With 58% of precincts, it’s now Fimian 61%-Herrity 39%. What happened to Pat Herrity?!? He’s certainly no Jack Herrity!
UPDATE 8:15 pm: In the 8th CD, with 74% of precincts reporting, Patrick Murray leads Matthew Berry by just 16 votes. Most exciting race of the night so far!
UPDATE 8:21 pm: Keith Fimian tweets, “WTOP has called me the winner of the election! Link coming soon.”
UPDATE 8:24 pm: “Joe” the “Plumber”‘s pick in the 5th CD, Laurence Verga, ends up with just over 2% of the vote. Now that’s some plumbing power! Heh.
UPDATE 8:31 pm: With 90% of the vote counted in the 8th CD, Patrick Murray now leads by 307 votes. He’s probably got it.
UPDATE 8:53 pm: Turnout in the 11th CD is over Leslie Byrne’s magic number of 30,000, meaning that Keith Fimian has a shot this November. Not a good one, mind you, but a shot nonetheless! Also, it looks like Patrick Murray will be the Republican sacrificial lamb nominee against Jim Moran.
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