Wednesday, September 13, 2006

State Legislative Dem Primaries

As you all undoubtedly know, Montgomery's returns are imcomplete right now, so take the following as a preliminary summary of the state of play rather than definitive.

District 14: All three incumbents romp to renomination.

District 15: No contest here. The general election is the main event.

District 16: Reggie Oldak came on strong but it looks as if Marilyn Goldwater will hold on to her seat in the House of Delegates. The other two delegate incumbents are far ahead.

District 17: The two incumbents easily won renomination to the House. Jim Gilchrist and Ryan Spiegel are battling it out for the third slot with Gilchrist in the lead by 375 votes.

District 18: The two incumbents lead the pack with Jane Lawton in a solid first place followed by Ana Sol Gutierrez with Jeff Waldstreicher and Dan Farrington in third and fourth. Dan trails Jeff by 396 votes and Jeff trails Ana by 264 votes. Jane's lead over Ana is currently 1246 votes. Dana Beyer is in fifth and trails Dan by 627 votes.

District 19: Mike Lennett is cruising to victory in the Senate race over the two delegates. In the delegate race, Roger Manno leads followed by incumbent Hank Heller, Ben Kramer, Paul Griffin and Alec Stone. Manno leads Heller by 818 who leads Kramer by 1242 who leads Griffin by 238 who leads Stone by 252.

District 20: This district has the two of the three losing incumbents in the County. Jamie Raskin beat longtime incumbent Sen. Ida Ruben by a 2-1 margin. Incumbent Del. Gareth Murray appears to turn in the worst performance of any incumbent in the county by far. He not only lost but came in last place. Heather Mizeur leads the delegate race and is 642 votes ahead of incumbent Del. Sheila Hixson who is just 37 votes ahead of Tom Hucker. Klein trails Hucker by 891 votes.

District 39: Saqib Ali crushed incumbent Del. Joan Stern. Ali's impressive campaign and history of bridge building combined with Stern's unpopularity with her colleagues clearly allowed Ali to overcome any bias against a Muslim candidate.