Walshe: Another Strong Primary Night for Palin

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Shushannah Walshe at The Daily Beast on Sarah Palin's excellent primary night:

Sarah Palin had another successful primary night on Tuesday with conservative activist Christine O’Donnell’s stunning victory in Delaware. The surprise win, much like Palin endorsee Joe Miller’s big victory over incumbent Lisa Murkowski in Alaska’s Senate GOP primary last month, has political observers reeling. With 53 percent of the vote, O’Donnell beat Mike Castle, a popular 20-year veteran of the small state’s only House seat and a two-term governor.

After initially meeting with O’Donnell at the Restoring Honor rally with Glenn Beck on Aug. 28, Palin endorsed her last week. In backing the insurgent candidate, the former governor joined the Tea Party Express, which, as in Alaska, had been raising money and canvassing for O’Donnell for weeks. Palin also recorded a last-minute robo-call expressing her support for her newest “Mama Grizzly,” her nickname for the female candidates she backed.

Palin “got behind us war-weary folks, and gave us a boost of encouragement when we needed it,” O’Donnell said. “And she was a vote against the politics of personal destruction.”

Until Palin’s endorsement, O’Donnell was thought not to stand a chance against Castle, but a poll released Sunday by Public Policy Polling sounded the warning alarm when it had O’Donnell up three points.

In front of screaming supporters, O’Donnell thanked Palin in her speech Tuesday night.

“Thank you, Gov. Palin, for your endorsement. Because she got behind us war-weary folks, and gave us a boost of encouragement when we needed it,” O’Donnell said. “And she was a vote against the politics of personal destruction.”

O’Donnell might have been Palin’s biggest win, but it wasn’t her only one: former FBI agent and combat veteran Michael Grimm sailed to victory in the NY-13 GOP primary for the House seat representing Staten Island and part of Brooklyn. In Wisconsin, Sean Duffy, former district attorney and star of MTV’s The Real World, beat his challenger in his primary in that state’s 7th Congressional District. And in the NY-2 House race, businessman John Gomez was uncontested and did not face a GOP primary.

There was at least one loss for Palin: In Maryland, Brian Murphy lost his primary against former Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr...

You can read the rest here.

- JP