Headlines for Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Alaska Senate primary too close to call
Primary results are still coming in for several races around the country.  The most important and surprising of the undecided races is the Republican Senate race in Alaska.  There, Sarah Palin-backed Joe Miller holds a 2000 vote lead over incumbent Lisa Murkowski, with 98% of the precincts counted.  But elections officials say the final results could take up to a week to determine, mainly because thousands of absentee ballots remain to be counted.

There also is a virtual three-way tie in Vermont’s Democratic gubernatorial primary.  The seat is currently held by a Republican.

Self-financed Rick Scott wins Florida GOP gubernatorial primary
Campaign funding is a perennial issue in politics and this year a number of high-profile self-financed candidates have seen victory - namely in California and Connecticut.  In Florida’s primary yesterday: mixed results.  Self-financed outsider candidate Rick Scott won the Republican nomination for Governor over a long-time party insider.  But a wealthy Democratic challenger for the state’s US Senate seat lost.  From WMNF Community Radio in Tampa,  Seán Kinane reports for FSRN.

Florida’s Attorney General Bill McCollum had the support of virtually the entire Florida Republican Party establishment.  McCollum served in Congress for twenty years beginning with the election of Ronald Reagan and was a House Manager of President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial.  But that wasn’t enough for McCollum to beat a former health care executive Rick Scott, who bashed the Attorney General for being a career politician throughout the campaign and during his victory speech last night.

“I want to thank every Floridian who went to the polls and cast their vote to end politics as usual in Tallahassee and turn our state around.”

Scott spent more than four-times as much as McCollum during the campaign.  Scott will face Democratic nominee Alex Sink and 9 alternative party and non-party candidates in November.

On the Democratic side, the self-financed candidate for US Senate lost his race.  Representative Kendrick Meek beat billionaire Jeff Greene, who spent $20 million of his own money on his campaign.  Meek’s biggest challengers in November will be Republican Marco Rubio and Governor Charlie Crist, who is running as an independent.  Seán Kinane, FSRN, Tampa.

Hispanic alienation a factor in Bill McCollum’s defeat?
Money may not be the only factor playing into Rick Scott’s defeat of Bill McCollum.  In the final weeks of the campaign, McCollum changed his previously moderate stance and proposed an Arizona-style immigration law for Florida.  Fernand Amandi of the research firm Bendixen & Amandi says this may have alienated Republican Hispanic voters.

“The county with the biggest number of Hispanic Republicans, of course being Miami-Dade County, under-preformed at a level when you look at how the rest of the state preformed.  In Dade County, you had less than 17% turnout, versus the rest of the state where the average was about 21%.”

The immigration issue could also come into play in Arizona, where a large Latino population resides.  There, John McCain defended his seat against Tea Party candidate JD Hayworth.  Arturo Vargas is Executive Director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.  He says Arizona’s new immigration law could usher in a new prominence for Latino voters in the state.

“There are a vast number of efforts being put on the ground to register Latinos and to make sure Latinos show up to the polls in November.  SB 1070 is serving as a rallying cry for the AZ community, which in past elections has not performed as well in terms of turnout as other electorates in other states – such as California and Florida or Texas.”

Vargas says his organization conducted a recent poll of Latino voters in four states, and for the first time in at least 25 years, immigration was given as the voters’ most important issue.

Indian government denies mining permit to Vedanta Group
In a victory for India’s local tribal people, the government has refused to grant UK-based Vedanta Group approval to mine bauxite in the Indian state of Orissa.  FSRN’s Bismillah Geelani reports.

Officials suspect intentional gassing at Kabul girls’ school
Dozens of girls in Afghanistan have been hospitalized, in what could be a case of intentional poisoning at their school.  According to Al Jazeera, officials believe fundamentalists groups like the Taliban have been gassing girl’s schools in order to discourage attendance.  An investigation is underway.