News from tonight's primaries:

In Connecticut's Fourth District, Orange to Blue candidate Jim Himes administered a severe electoral beating to his primary opponent, Lee Whitnum.

How severe?

Himes won 87% to 13%. Granted, Whitnum was an exceptionally weak opponent, but still, a 74-point win is not bad.

In Colorado's Second District - perhaps the one of most interest to Democrats, as the Democratic primary here will determine the next Representative from a safe Democratic district - Jared Polis leads Joan Fitz-Gerald by just under 1,400 votes, with just 30% of the vote counted. Polis has 43% of the vote, to Fitz-Gerald's 39%.

The third candidate, Will Shafroth, trails with 18% and is pretty much done.

In the Fifth District, widely loathed GOP incumbent Doug Lamborn has apparently lived to fight another year. Lamborn picked up 46% of the vote in his reelection bid (it's an R+16 district, so the Republican primary usually is the election here).

His two rivals, Jeff Crank and Bentley Rayburn, have 29% and 26%, respectively, with 58% of the vote in.

Meanwhile in the Sixth District, Tom Tancredo's old stomping grounds, 93% of the vote is in, and it appears that Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman has fended off fellow Republican Wil Armstrong (son of former Sen. Bill Armstrong) to win the nomination (and almost certainly win election).

This has two side effects. First, the next Colorado Secretary of State will be a Democrat, appointed by Democratic Governor Bill Ritter.

Second, Coffman has been mentioned as a potential U.S. Senate candidate for 2010, against Democratic incumbent Sen. Ken Salazar. A loss here would have neatly ended such talk, but Coffman's victory makes a future Senate run a bit more likely. With a statewide electoral pedigree, it would seem the GOP could come up with worse candidates than Coffman.

At 10:35 pm with more than 60% of precincts reporting in the Democratic primary for Connecticut's 4th Congressional District, OrangetoBlue candidate Jim Himes appears well on his way to a resounding victory with 90% of the vote in this primary election.

Jim Himes will now set his sights on the general election race for the 4th C.D. seat currently held by Rep. Christopher Shays.

Congressman Shays, a 20-year incumbent, is the last remaining Republican U.S. House member from New England.

Just a quick glimpse of dedicated people working hard for the Himes campaign  in Connecticut ~

Do we look worried?

In CT-04, we're lucky. We get to vote for a great candidate twice. The More half the equation is November 4th; the Better half is today, August 12th, primary day.

I'd be proud to support Jim Himes no matter where he was running (or against whom), but against Loony Lee Whitnum in this primary (and Both Ways Shays in the general!), it's twice as nice and twice as important. Two years ago we helped put Ned Lamont over the top; now let's give his good friend and one of his earliest supporters as resounding a victory as possible.

Jim would certainly be More--here's why he's Better. He left Wall Street to work for a non-profit foundation that builds affordable and green housing, has been an active Democrat (including Town Chair), and is running a people-centric campaign, the kind we've argued Dems should run. Most recently, he showed his true colors in soundly condemning the FISA "compromise" and would have made Connecticut's House delegation unanimous in opposition.

More below the fold...

(Jim, Mary, Emma, and Linley Himes voting this morning in CT-04.)

It's finally here: primary day in CT-04! Orange to Blue candidate Jim Himes is taking on "Hedge Fund Mistress" author Lee Whitnum in what is shaping up to be a very low-turnout contest for the Democratic nomination to take on Chris Shays in November.

There's a primary today.  It's a nuisance, top to bottom, pitting a candidate who has been vetted every which way and fervently supported by every legitimate body in the district and state against a person who has been trying to pre-empt and subvert the process at every turn and who espouses views that in many cases are very little short of bizarre, and whose personality has been described in similar words (and worse).  So why should it even matter that people show up and vote for Jim Himes today?

Oh, I suppose Gallup thought the headline was something else, but

A fairly large proportion of voters (35%) are unsure whether their member of Congress is a Democrat or a Republican. But among those who are aware, the data suggest that Democratic members might be a little safer this year than Republicans.

Now let that be a lesson to those of you who think the public really lives and dies on which way the Gallup tracker points to today.

But we know not everyone is paying attention.

[Pew: In the past week] Did you follow news about candidates for the 2008 presidential election very closely, fairly closely, not too closely or not at all closely?

30% very closely
34% fairly closely
21% not too closely
15% not closely at all
less than 1% don't know/refused

Or, to put it another way as pollster.com's Mark Blumenthal does:

These data paint a clear picture for me: Most Americans are paying far less attention to news about the campaign than most journalists, pundits and readers of this site. If we assume that all Americans are following the campaign as a jury follows a trial, we are in error.

In other news, voters are unhappy, the sun rises in the east, and the GOP candidate is running a negative campaign. And more Gallup:

In a year when approval of Congress has reached a new low, just 36% of U.S. registered voters say most members of Congress deserve re-election. This is among the lowest ratings Gallup has measured in a recent presidential or congressional election year.

But, as usual, MY congressman is okay, it's YOUR congressman who is screwing the country.

Fifty-seven percent of registered voters say the U.S. representative from their own congressional district deserves to be re-elected. That, too, is on the low end of what Gallup has measured historically for one's own member, slightly higher than the 1994 (54%) and 2006 (54%) readings, and somewhat better still than the all-time low of 48% in 1992.

Frankly, it's much more interesting that a third of the public can't tell which party their own rascal congressperson belongs to. I wonder if they live in districts where the Republican pretends to be a Democrat, at least at election time.

Progresssive columnist Sarah Littman, whose essays are carried in Greenwich Time and Stamford Advocate (both publicatins owned by Hearst Newspapers), was fired by publisher John Dunster on Thursday for having written a column critical of Loony Lee Whitnum while having held a "meet-and-greet" for Jim Himes last year.  According to Littman, Dunster maintains that criticizing Loony Lee while having held a "meet-and-greet" for Jim Himes last year "compromises the integrity of the paper".  

What's the truth?  This is a right-wing rag that has been shilling for Whitnum for months.  In virtually every article about Jim Himes, Greenwich Time's political reporter Neil Vigdor has been boosting Whitnum's candidacy, covering up her whacky utterances and essentially portraying Whitnum as a courageous fighter against the Democratic machine.

But this appears to have been nothing but a pretext.  

(Cross Posted at NM FBIHOPand Democracy for New Mexico)

Last weekend I attended Netroots Nation with many of you. It was my first time at Netroots Nation, and I really enjoyed meeting with people from my state and across the country.

New Mexico was well-represented at Netroots Nation. I sat with Barb and Mary Ellen, of Democracy for New Mexico, and Matt of New Mexico FBIHOP during Howard Dean's keynote. Elizabeth Winters put together a great panel on Saturday where Martin Heinrich, Pete McCloskey, Denise Fort and I discussed emerging issues in New Mexico and the West. I also ran into friends from Taos.

Republican congressman Chris Shays (CT-04) has been permitted to host the annual picinic of the Connecticut Returned Peace Corps Volunteers Association (CT RPCV) at his house in Bridgeport next weekend, a politicization of the Peace Corps that I believe is blatantly wrong.  The RPVC organization is an official affiliate of the national organization, which is in turn a non-profit, non-political 501(c)3.  CT RPCV president Maureen Shanley has stated that official Peace Corps business will be conducted at Shays' house during the picnic.  Peace Corps recruiters have been invited to come from New York, and prospective Peace Corps volunteers have also been invited.  Holding an official Peace Corps meeting at the home of a partisan  elected politician, even when it is a  meeting of returned Peace Corps Volunteers, especially just a few short weeks before that politician stands for re-election, constitues a blatant, ompletely unacceptable politicization of the Peace Corps.  

The last remaining Republican from New England in the House of Representatives is Chris Shays from Connecticut's 4th Congressional District.  He is being challenged this historic year by a bright, young, aggressive Democratic candidate -- Jim Himes.

The last two congressional contests in CT-04 have been very close, but Republican Shays has prevailed by slim margins both times.

We say, "Not this time!"

You can meet Jim Himes and voice your views at a series of town meetings  called 17 towns in 17 days.

more after the break

(Cross-posted from the Himes blog. I am the Online Communications Director for Jim Himes for Congress)

The Himes campaign released its July Quarterly fundraising numbers yesterday. Here's the press release:

Faux moderate and Bush Neocon Chris Shays (Rep-CT's 4th district) will appear on John Dankosky's "Where We Live" live call-in show tomorrow morning (Friday, July 11) on Connecticut public radio's WNPR.  In Fairfield County, it is carried on 88.5 FM.  Please call in or email your questions for Both Ways Shays.  If you live or are travelling outside Connecticut, please send in your pointed questions by email.

Call during the Show:

(860) 275-7266

Or email questions and comments to:

wherewelive@wnpr.org

You have to get on the phone early, because Dankosky actually doesn't take many calls from listeners.  Shays is opposed by a great progressive Democrat- former Rhodes Scholar and Harvard grad Jim Himes.

Given what happened yesterday, I feel it's important I repost my earlier diary on who are the GOOD Democratic challengers when it comes to FISA.  I'll try to corral all their statements into this diary, so you can see who the "good guys" are.

First, let's start off with the current House and Senate members who voted against this bill.  (For the Senate, I'm only including those who voted against cloture yesterday for the bill.)  They do deserve credit, as it's their jobs on the line.

Follow me below the fold to see the dozens of Democratic challengers who are standing up for the Constitution, and are against this FISA bill and retroactive immunity.

Hello, Daily Kos!

Today is the last day of the quarter, and as you can imagine, things are hectic in the office here in Norwalk as we work to beat the 2nd quarter FEC deadline at midnight tonight.

But I wanted to make sure to take a few minutes today to thank the Daily Kos community so much for your support this quarter. Over 430 of you have contributed to our campaign through the Orange to Blue ActBlue page. All of us here at the campaign have been energized by your support, and you should know that your enthusiasm online has been matched on the ground in Connecticut.

Despite the hot and humid weather, hundreds of supporters joined Orange-to-Blue candidate Jim Himes yesterday for all or part of the 22-mile walk across the Fourth Congressional district from Greenwich to Bridgeport. Here are some more of the sights and sounds of the day (see part 1 here) - including a few words from DFA Chair Jim Dean at the stop in Fairfield:

Elected officials, bloggers, and reporters all joined the walk for stretches as well. The Greenwich Time was along for the start of the walk:

(I am the Online Communications Director for Jim Himes for Congress.)

Here in Connecticut, we're just about halfway through with Orange-to-Blue candidate Jim Himes' day-long, 22-mile, "Walk in a New Direction" from Greenwich to Bridgeport, and I just popped in our Norwalk office to upload some sights and sounds. Here's Jim at a stop this morning talking about why we're all walking 22 miles in the blazing sun today:

Contribute here to help us reach our goal of $22,000 online before the end of the quarter Monday night!

Some people know how to to put the "fun" in "fundraiser."  Orange to Blue candidateJim Himes held an event at a minor-league ballpark in CT-04 to raise a few dollars and raise his visibility in the district.  I thought it was a great idea and a great excuse to bring my 2-year-old out to a game.