Primaries were a bad thing for GOP

The strong numbers Ron Johnson's been posting in Wisconsin polls this week are reflective of a broader trend: the Republican Senate candidates who didn't have to go through bruising primaries this year are much more popular than the ones who did. Johnson has the best favorability numbers of any GOP contender we've polled on in the last couple months at a +12 spread (46/34).

With the exception of Rand Paul the other five Republican candidates with positive favorability numbers also avoided serious primary opposition. John Raese in West Virginia has the second strongest numbers at 41/35 (+6.) The other three are folks strongly favored to win Senate races even though their states went for Barack Obama in 2008- Marco Rubio in Florida, Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania, and Rob Portman in Ohio.

On the other end of the popularity spectrum are the five nominees who had arguably the most competitive primaries. Christine O'Donnell is the least popular followed by Ken Buck, Sharron Angle, Joe Miller, and Kelly Ayotte. There's no doubt Republican chances looked better in Delaware, Nevada, Alaska, and New Hampshire before the tough primary contests and the verdict is still out on Colorado.

Contested primaries aren't always a bad thing but when you look at which GOP candidates voters like this year and which ones they don't it's pretty clear they were indeed a bad thing for Republicans at least this time around.

Here are the favorability numbers:

Candidate	State	Favorability	Spread
Ron Johnson	Wisconsin	46/34	+12
John Raese	West Virginia	41/35	+6
Rand Paul	Kentucky	45/40	+5
Marco Rubio	Florida	40/37	+3
Pat Toomey	Pennsylvania	36/33	+3
Rob Portman	Ohio	29/28	+1
Roy Blunt	Missouri	41/42	-1
Dino Rossi	Washington	43/48	-5
Carly Fiorina	California	34/42	-8
Mark Kirk	Illinois	26/34	-8
Kelly Ayotte	New Hampshire	35/47	-12
Joe Miller	Alaska	36/52	-16
Sharron Angle	Nevada	36/52	-16
Ken Buck	Colorado	26/46	-20
Christine O’Donnell	Delaware	29/50	-21