The big news from yesterday’s slate of state primaries is Richard Lugar losing to Richard Mourdock.  This had been seen from a long time back, and all that one watched on Election Day was the size of the margin.  This result now sets up a race where the Republican would beat the Democrat by 30 points to one where the Republican will beat the Democrat by 15.   And while the positive signs with this one is that it heralds an age where incumbent politicos are forced to start be running around to make a perpetual case to their constituencies, and while I do have to wince and say “er… six terms is quite a while there, Lugar”… the implications for the present and future of this great nation can be seen when you shift through the subtext of Lugar’s two concession speeches.

The other big item for the big night of underwhelming returns.  This is worth noting.  At least I think so.  West Virginia’s Democratic Presidential Primary Results.  Results so far:

Barack Obama  70,348   57.57 percent
Keith Judd         51,840   42.43 percent

Famously, Obama got whupped by 44 percentage points by Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential primaries — just as everyone in the media was throwing away the facade and admitting that he was the certain nominee.   According to the campaign memoirs, when Obama looked at the campaign schedule and asked if he should go in, he was told flatly and bluntly “No.”  For the 2010 Senate race, Obama is sidelined and the Democratic operatives that came flying in was Bill Clinton (that sort of trick we saw through a swarth of the country — see also Kentucky).

It is one of those states I knew random no name person would win a hefty percentage of the vote against him.  And there it is.  Statistically we have a good perimeter to judge the pro-Hillary vote against the anti-Obama vote of 2008.

If we go ahead and discount a pro- Keith Judd contingency.

Who’s Keith Judd? He’s prisoner #11593-051, currently serving out a sentence for making threats at the University of New Mexico. In 2008, he caused a minor stir for making the Idaho primary ballot, confounding state officials, who thought they had rules preventing that sort of thing. Unbowed, he ran again this year, delivering FEC reports every quarter — although said reports are typically just essays containing his current worries about the Republic. From April

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58372028@N00/7162126418/in/photostream/

According to the inspiringly thorough VoteSmart, Judd’s criminal record is distracting us from an impressive resume. He’s credited as “Founder, World Peace Through Musical Communications Skills, 1963-present,” and “Member, Federation of Super Heroes, 1976-1982.”

It is worth comparing to previous results for the man:
4. Finished third in the 2008 Idaho Democratic primary with 734 votes, or 1.7 percent.
Might have done better, I suppose, if it weren’t for the fact that there aren’t any Democrats in Idaho (as there are in West Virginia.)

Notable too
8. Lists his religion as Rastafarian-Christian.
These are how things change.  It was highly notable when John F Kennedy won the West Virginia primary (through, um, corrupt vote buying, but never mind)  because it was a sign that America was ready to vote for a Catholic President.

So now we just do the delegate math.  Wikipedia has a handy chart for you to keep track… or they would, but it’s a very wobbly page in terms of its information.  An unfortunate belemish for wikipedia.

Randall Terry’s delegates were thrown off by a technicality.  John Wolfe Jr has one from doing well in Louisiana, though I haven’t been followed up on the attempt of his vanquished opponent in law-suiting it away by campaign improprieties.
Also notable, the near victory of Jim Rogers in Oklahoma — right up against but just short of the 15 percent threshold.  (I wish he had those 3 delegates that wikipedia says he has.)

I’ll continue to follow the exiting Democratic Primary race, which is now… right up there with how the Republican Primary has always been (ie: I knew and you knew Romney was the nominee, and we were just going through the motions there.)

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