One of the interesting things about the Senate primaries so far is the amount of support candidates who got absolutely no attention are pulling on election day. In the Illinois Republican primary candidates other than Mark Kirk and Patrick Hughes got 24%. In the North Carolina Democratic one candidates other than Elaine Marshall, Cal Cunningham, and Kenneth Lewis got 19%. In the Indiana Republican contest candidates who weren't Dan Coats, Marlin Stutzman, and John Hostettler got 9%. And in the Illinois Democratic primary candidates below the top tier of Alexi Giannoulias, David Hoffman, and Cheryle Jackson pulled 8%.
Who cares? This trend has implications for next week's Democratic primary in Arkansas. Given the willingness of voters in past primaries to choose candidates with no chance of winning it seems more realistic that the third candidate in the race- D.C. Morrison- could pick up enough support to force a runoff in the race between Blanche Lincoln and Bill Halter. Morrison picked up 10% in one poll last month and if he can really get that at the polls next week and there's less than 10% separating the two front runners in the race it will keep either Lincoln or Halter from getting the 50% necessary to win the nomination outright.
We haven't been polling the Arkansas race so I don't know what the chances of those things happening are, but given the surprising support non serious candidates have been getting in other Senate primaries it would not be shocking to see Morrision hit double digits or close to it.
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