Originally published Tuesday, June 5, 2012 at 9:10 PM

Romney wins 5 primaries — to no one's surprise

Mitt Romney won primaries Tuesday in California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota as voters cast presidential ballots in...

SAN FRANCISCO — Mitt Romney won primaries Tuesday in California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota as voters cast presidential ballots in one of the biggest — and least consequential — days of the primary season.

Most of the political world was transfixed by the gubernatorial recall election in Wisconsin; all the drama drained from the presidential contest when Romney's chief rival quit the race in April and the former Massachusetts governor effectively claimed the GOP nomination. He clinched it last week by winning the Texas primary and will officially become the Republican standard-bearer at the party's nominating convention in Tampa, Fla., in late August.

Nearly 300 delegates were at stake in Tuesday's balloting, but with both nominations decided, there was little excitement about the contest and turnout was sparse.

In California, 24 names were on the primary ballot for the U.S. Senate. Under a new primary system, the top two choices would compete in the general election regardless of party affiliation. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein was expected to be one of the two.

Also on the ballot was an initiative to raise the state's cigarette tax, two local initiatives to crack down on public employee unions and two longtime incumbent U.S. representatives, Brad Sherman and Howard Berman, who were forced into the same legislative district by redistricting.

Early returns showed Californians divided on whether to slap an additional $1-per-pack tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products to fund cancer research.

With 5 percent of precincts reporting Tuesday, 53 percent of voters were approving Proposition 29.

The attempt to increase cigarettes taxes in the nation's most populous state has attracted nationwide attention, with tobacco companies helping to raise $50 million to quash the effort and celebrities like cycling legend Lance Armstrong urging voters to support it.

In other states:

NEW JERSEY

Senate: Republicans picked state Sen. Joe Kyrillos to challenge Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez in November. Menendez was unopposed in the party primary.

House: In the 10th Congressional District, Newark City Councilman Donald Payne Jr. won a special election to finish the term of his late father, Rep. Donald Payne, and to be the Democratic nominee in the November election. In the redrawn 9th Congressional District, Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell defeated fellow Democratic Rep. Steve Rothman. Pascrell was backed by former President Clinton while Rothman drew support from President Obama.

NEW MEXICO

Senate: Former Rep. Heather Wilson won the Republican primary to fill the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Jeff Bingaman. Rep. Martin Heinrich defeated state auditor Hector Balderas for the Democratic nomination.

House: A close race was expected in the Democratic primary for Albuquerque's 1st Congressional District, which was being vacated by Heinrich. In a three-way race were former Albuquerque Mayor Marty Chavez, state Sen. Eric Griego and Bernalillo County Commissioner Michelle Lujan Grisham. The winner would face former Republican state Rep. Janice Arnold-Jones.

SOUTH DAKOTA

House: In the Democratic primary for the state's only House seat, Matt Varilek, former economic-development director to Sen. Tim Johnson, defeated Jeff Barth, a retired telephone-company technician and county commissioner. Varilek opposes Republican Rep. Kristi Noem in the fall.

MONTANA

Senate: Rep. Denny Rehberg won the Republican primary to challenge Democratic Sen. Jon Tester. Rehberg faced token primary opposition, and Tester was unopposed.

Governor: Republicans hoping to retake the governor's mansion after eight years under Democrat Brian Schweitzer were choosing from a large field that includes former Rep. Rick Hill. Democrats nominated Attorney General Steve Bullock.

Clinton backpedals

on tax remark

WASHINGTON — Former President Clinton late Tuesday tried to walk back from comments he made earlier in the day in a CNBC interview that appeared to support extending the Bush-era income tax cuts — not allowed to expire at the end of the year as scheduled. He also described the country as being in a "recession."

President Obama and congressional Democrats want to end the tax cuts for high earners but preserve them for the middle class.

Last night, Clinton's office released a statement that said, in part: "President Clinton has said many times before, he supported extending all of the cuts in 2010 as part of the budget agreement, but does not believe the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans should be extended again.

"In the interview, he simply said that he doubted that a long-term agreement on spending cuts and revenues would be reached until after the election."

Romney email

possibly hacked

WASHINGTON — Authorities are investigating whether Mitt Romney's private email account was hacked.

On Tuesday, the website Gawker reported that an anonymous hacker had signed into Romney's personal Hotmail account.

Gawker reported the hacker guessed the answer to a security question about Romney's favorite pet in order to gain access to the account and change the password. The anonymous hacker told the website that Romney's account on DropBox, a file-sharing service, also was compromised.

Romney's campaign said "proper authorities are investigating this crime"

Campaign spokeswoman Gail Gitcho refused to comment further and would not say who was investigating. She also would not say whether Romney still uses the Hotmail account. The account was accepting email as recently as March 2012.

Paul backers

unhappy with GOP

TAMPA, Fla. — Ron Paul supporters are unhappy that Republican National Convention organizers aren't letting them throw a festival honoring the Texas congressman and presidential candidate the weekend before the gathering.

Spokesman Bryan Siemon said his group is organizing a three-day "PaulFest" at the Florida State Fairgrounds that would include music, comedians and speakers. But the Republicans control Tampa's public venues during the convention and haven't given PaulFest approval to use the fairgrounds.

Convention organizers say that they aren't blocking anyone and that a decision will be made within a few weeks.

Seattle Times news services

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