Secretary of State Elaine Marshall (D) handily defeated former state Sen. Cal Cunningham (D) in the Democratic Senate runoff by a 60-40 margin yesterday.
Marshall beat Cunningham by nine points after the first round of voting back in May, and received a boost from African-American voters after third-place finished Kenneth Lewis (D), who is black, endorsed her. She also received support from grassroots organizations like MoveOn.org and Democracy for America down the stretch.
This is pretty embarrassing for the DSCC, who actively recruited Cunningham to run (even though he refused a few times) after Marshall was already in the race, and spent nearly $80,000 on his behalf.
Still, they wasted no time in making nice with Marshall. "She is a proven reformer who has taken on the special interests in her state, and has cracked down on lobbyist activity, insurance company abuses and excess on Wall Street," said DSCC Chairman Bob Menendez. "Voters will face a choice between a Democrat who has focused on creating jobs and the needs of North Carolina's middle class and a Republican who puts partisanship ahead of doing what's right."
Marshall appears to be the stronger general election candidate going forward. She's been elected statewide as secretary of state four times and can now claim some outsider cred as having run against two DSCC hand-picked rivals: Cunningham this year and Erskine Bowles (D) in 2002.
However, she has not been a prolific fundraiser so far, which could be a problem because her opponent, Sen. Richard Burr (R), already has a massive $5.3 million warchest at his disposal. If Marshall can get North Carolina Democrats excited and give this election more of an anti-incumbent theme rather than an anti-Democrat one, she might actually have a shot.
In the 8th congressional district, national Republicans can sigh a little easier. Former sportscaster Harold Johnson (R) smoked self-funding businessman Tim D'Annunzio (R) 61% to 39% in the GOP runoff. D'Annunzio, to say the least, has a very checkered past and would not have been a viable general election candidate.
Members of the House GOP leadership actually formally weighed into this race, endorsing Johnson shortly after the first round of voting in May. He will now go on to face freshman Rep. Larry Kissell (D) in the general election, who seems fairly vulnerable--especially given his lackluster fundraising thus far.
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