In Kansas, the successor to Republican Senator Sam Brownback will be decided tonight.  OK, technically that won't happen until November 2, but just as Brownback is a shoo-in to become governor, the GOP Senate nominee will be heavily favored to win the general.  That nominee will most likely be Congressman Jerry Moran.  He holds double-digit leads in the polls over another Kansas congressman, Todd Tiahrt. 

Up in Michigan, the gubernatorial primaries for both parties are too close to call, but the top three Republicans are all well-positioned to earn a statehouse takeover against the top two Democrats.  On the Democratic side, there are conflicting polling results that are quite stark.  A mid-July poll released by the Glengariff Group shows Virg Bernero, mayor of Lansing, 9 points ahead of Michigan State House Speaker Andy Dillon.  But, a more-recent EPIC-MRA poll gives Dillon an 8-point lead.

Finally, Roy Blunt and Robin Carnahan will officially begin their highly-anticipated head-to-head battle for the open Senate seat in Missouri.  I have been waiting for this primary to pass for months now so that I can initiate projection tracking on the race.  In fact, I'm looking forward to moving past preliminary projections on all these races and getting some hard numbers in the calculations.

After today, just 20 state primaries remain on the 2010 election calendar.  The last, Hawaii's, is on tap for September 18.



Filed under:  Kansas  KS Senate  Michigan  MI Governor  Missouri  MO Senate