So far the primary season has been relatively boring, nothing really surprising has happened...well till yesterday. The three term GOP senator from Utah, Bill Bennett, was bucked by his party and won't even be able to run in the primary for the Republicans Senate nomination. Its pretty significant to think that a senator of his clout would not only be defeated in a crimson red state of Utah but that he lost before the race even started is pretty amazing. This is definitely starting to turn into a year of anti-incumbency or possible a year of conservative resurgence.
Bill Bennett was definitely an old school kind of politician, and thats probably why he has been washed away by this wave. He was more about getting things done and working out deals to advance things, and not so much in the overblown ideology of the current day. He was very conservative but he also was a pragmatic man and knew he was sent to Washington to get things done. He will definitely be a loss for the Senate in general because it takes another cool head and respected deal maker out of the body. Not to say his replacement won't be just as good, but there is definitely a "Dumbing down" effect. You can't just replace someone of that experience overnight or possible even in one term.
In Ohio, we probably would have had the same thing happen if Voinovich had decided to run for another term. He would have not survived a primary challenge this year, especially with a energized conservative movement in the Republican party. Voinovich has dug his own gave though he has been constantly seen as more of an opportunist than a principled player, which is not something you could say about Bennett.
Its possible we could begin to see more long term senators go, Specter seems to be in danger now. He switched parties to avoid a primary loss and now it looks like he might lose the Democratic Primary. Guess we will see what happens in a few days...
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