Aug 10, 2010

Voters head to polls in Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia and Minnesota

By MANDEL NGAN, AFP/Getty ImagesIt's another Tuesday in August and that means heat, humidity and . . . voting!

Polls are open in four states, stretching from the Atlantic Coast to the Rocky Mountains. The day's big dramas:

•In Connecticut, can former World Wrestling exec Linda McMahon smack down two challengers in the GOP Senate primary: Peter Schiff, a wealthy financier, and Rob Simmons, a seasoned pol backed by many of the state's editorial boards?
•In Colorado, will President Obama's candidate, Sen. Michael Bennet, become the seventh incumbent member of Congress ousted in a primary? And can "Tea Party" favorite Ken Buck knock off former lieutenant governor Jane Norton for the GOP Senate nomination?
•In Georgia, will Sarah Palin's candidate, Karen Handel, win the GOP gubernatorial nomination in a runoff with former Rep. Nathan Deal?
In the other state that's voting today, Minnesota, two millionaires, former senator Mark Dayton and former state representative Matt Entenza, are battling state House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

The Colorado Senate primaries will set up what's expected to be one of the most hard-fought contests of the midterm election.

On the Democratic side, former state House speaker Andrew Romanoff has put his own home on the line, mortgating it to fund his campaign against Bennet. Romanoff also has the support of former president Bill Clinton. Not so coincidentally, Romanoff supported now Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in her 2008 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Obama, the winner of that contest, just last week laid on a last-minute "appearance" at a telephonic town hall meeting to boost Bennet's chances.

Though the incumbent, Bennet has never won an election statewide: Gov. Bill Ritter appointed him to the Senate last year to replace Ken Salazar, a Democrat who left to become Obama's Interior secretary.

Meanwhile, at a gathering of Tea Party activists in Washington on Monday, FreedomWorks vice president Rob Jordan said his organization is targeting Norton in today's primary and that Buck would better represent the group's ideals of limited government and less taxes.

In Connecticut, the latest Quinnipiac Poll showed close races between Republicans Mike Fedele and Tom Foley and Democrats Ned Lamont and Dan Malloy for their parties' gubernatorial nominations.

The poll showed McMahon opening a wide lead for the GOP Senate nomination. A number of Nutmeg State newspapers, such as the Hartford Courant, are urging readers to vote instead for Simmons, a former member of Congress who semi-shutdown his campaign after McMahon won the endorsement of GOP activists at a party convention earlier this year, then recently reignited it.

All three candidates are vying to oppose Democrat Richard Blumenthal, the state's attorney general, for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Chris Dodd. In today's paper, USA TODAY's John Fritze discusses how Blumenthal survived a controversy over his military service record and how he's been portraying it on the campaign trail.

For a comprehensive look at how the elections are shaping up, complete with our latest handicapping, check out USA TODAY's interactive political map.

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