WASHINGTON (AP) Tuesday's primary elections are the best evidence yet that Republicans are avoiding previous mistakes and improving their chances of controlling the Senate during President Barack Obama's final two years in office. Republican voters again chose solidly conservative nominees while rejecting the most extreme and outlandish types who led the party to painful losses for Senate seats in 2010 and 2012. The simple way to view this year's results, thus far, is to say "establishment" Republicans are outperforming tea party insurgents. That's largely true. But it blurs the extent to which nearly all Republican candidates including some who have been in Congress for decades have shifted rightward to stay in step with ardently conservative voters who helped create the small government, anti-tax tea party in 2009 and still dominate Republican primaries. The differences between tea party and non-tea party Republicans are shrinking. Often it's merely tone and experience that separate them. Tone and experience matter, however, and in Tuesday's primaries voters chose the less bombastic and unpredictable conservatives in most cases. In Kentucky, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell easily dispatched tea party challenger Matt Bevin. As a 30-year senator and party leader, McConnell is about as establishment as they … Continue reading →

WASHINGTON - Tuesday's elections are the best evidence yet that Republicans are avoiding previous mistakes and improving their chances of controlling the Senate during President Barack Obama's final two years in office. GOP voters again chose solidly conservative nominees while rejecting the most extreme and outlandish types who led the party to painful losses in 2010 and 2012. The simple way to view this year's results, thus far, is to say "establishment" Republicans are outperforming tea party insurgents. That's largely true. But it blurs the extent to which nearly all Republican candidates including some who have been in Congress for decades have shifted rightward to stay in step with ardently conservative voters who helped create the tea party in 2009 and still dominate GOP primaries. The differences between tea party and non-tea party Republicans are shrinking. Often it's merely tone and experience that separate them. Tone and experience matter, however, and Tuesday's GOP voters chose the less bombastic and unpredictable conservatives in most cases. In Kentucky, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell easily dispatched tea party challenger Matt Bevin. As a 30-year senator and party leader, McConnell is about as establishment as they come. He has predicted that he and other … Continue reading →