Tea party wins in Delaware

WASHINGTON - Virtually unknown a month ago, Christine O'Donnell rode a surge of support from tea party activists to victory in the Delaware Republican Senate primary Tuesday night in an upset as stunning as any other in a season of recession and political upheaval. A second insurgent led for the GOP nomination in New Hampshire.

O'Donnell defeated Rep. Mike Castle, a fixture in Delaware politics for a generation who campaigned with the strong backing of party officials in his state and in Washington.

Despite her win, O'Donnell will enter the fall campaign as an underdog to Chris Coons, a county executive who was unopposed for the Democratic nomination. Republican Party officials said in advance they would not come to her aid if she won the primary, and the state party chairman, Tom Ross, said recently she "could not be elected dogcatcher."

In New Hampshire, lawyer Ovide Lamontagne led former Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, 48 percent to 34 percent, with votes counted from 12 percent of the precincts.

A former chairman of the state Board of Education, he campaigned with the support of tea party activists, while Ayotte had a coalition of establishment Republicans, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and other conservatives.

Democratic New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch rolled to renomination for a fourth term, and he will face John Stephen, a former state health commissioner who won the GOP line on the ballot easily.

In New York, 40-year veteran Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel faced the voters for the first time since the House ethics committee accused him of 13 violations, most of them relating to his personal finances.

In all, five states chose nominees for the Senate, and six more had gubernatorial hopefuls on primary ballots. The winners had scant time to refocus their energies for midterm elections on Nov. 2.

So far this year, seven incumbent members of Congress have tasted defeat, four Republicans and three Democrats. And that does not include a lengthy list of GOP contenders who fell to tea party-supported challengers desp

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