Early reports on Tuesday primaries in Missouri, Kansas and Michigan all had essentially the same theme: Where is everyone? Granted, voter turnout for primaries isn’t expected to match the grand standard of presidential elections, but the tales trickling in were still uninspiring. “It was a ghost town in Farmington Hills Precinct 4,” one Michigan voter wrote. “The line was only four people deep.” A similar story from the Kansas City Star election blog: “Reports of light voting are coming in from both sides of the state line … Kansas City election officials report 5,000 voters by 12:30 – a good number, but only if you forget that it’s only 2 percent of registered voters.”
In 2006, midterm voter turnout for the general election topped 40%, a slight increase from the last midterm election. Missouri and Michigan were in the top range for turnout-by-state, with 50% and 52.1%, respectively, while Kansas clocked in with just 43.6%. (Mississippi was lowest at 29.4% and Minnesota was highest at 60%. Presumably the swampy summer heat was turning the Southerners into molasses, while the Northerners embraced the opportunity to travel out of the house sans snowshoes.)
But Kansan voters, particularly Republican ones, should have the hottest fire under their feet on primary day. In the land of sunflowers and prairie dogs, Republicans outnumber Democrats two-to-one, which often makes July’s GOP primary winner a near-lock for victory in November. Case in point: the Senate seat up for grabs has been held by a Republican since 1932 — i.e., the days when Joan Rivers was in utero. With Sen. Sam Brownback giving up his spot to go gubernatorial, Congressman Todd Tiahrt–who, despite the troubling lack of vowels in his name, managed to get the Sarah Palin stamp–squared off against fellow congressman Jerry Moran, who joined Rep. Michelle Bachmann’s caucus. Moran pulled through with the win, 160,000 to 140,000 votes, showing again that neither Tea Party-backing nor the wave of the Alaskan wand are infallibles.
Other Kansas highlights including the primary success of Democrat Stephene Moore, a nurse and the wife of retiring Rep. Dennis Moore, who seems set to face Kevin Yoder (the expected winner out of nine GOP hopefuls) in her attempt to be the first wife to survive a living member of Congress. And Brownback predictably won his gubernatorial primary, with a more-than-healthy 82% of the vote.
In the neighboring state of Missouri, voters weighed in on Proposition C, the first state challenge to the individual mandate contained in the new health-care reform law. Although the vote was more about political bragging rights than anything, given that the courts will have to decide on whether the referendum can trump federal law, the anti-“Obamacare” contingent got a big win. Only 29% voted that the state have to comply with the federal mandate, while 71% percent voted to exempt the Show-Me state. (As per the nickname, they clearly don’t take things lying down.) The amount of voters casting a ballot for this — nigh 1 million — by far dwarfed the amount coming out to have a say in any other contest, by a margin of hundreds of thousands.
Other Missouri highlights: veteran Rep. Ike Skelton won his primary in Missouri’s Fourth District, though the tough part will be keeping his seat in November. His opponent, state Rep. Vicky Hartzler, emerged from a field of nine candidates, though Ike must like that she’ll be damaged a bit from all the infighting that led up the primary. Rep. Roy Blunt and Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, the two political-family candidates expected to win their senate primaries, did so, both with more than 70% of the vote. It should be a fiery match up, like two families in The Godfather going to the mattresses — though Carnahan should be concerned that she racked up far fewer votes (265,000) than Blunt (410,000).
In Michigan, voters weeded out hordes and hordes of candidates; many state races had more than 10 people going head-to-head. Democrat Gary McDowell still doesn’t have a GOP rival decided in the fight over retiring Rep. Bart Stupak’s seat. (Two of the six Republicans got 38% of the vote.) But Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick, weighed down the scandal suffered by son Kwame, the former mayor of Detroit, became the fourth sitting House member to be ousted in a primary, losing to state legislator Hansen Clarke. And in his bid for the GOP gubernatorial nod, newcomer Rick Snyder–a venture capitalist and former CEO–topped the state’s attorney general and a sitting House member, Pete Hoekstra.