This week's primary schedule will not draw nearly the media attention that the May 18th primaries did, nor will they draw the attention that next week's "Super Tuesday" primaries inevitably will.
Political junkies, on the other hand, know better. There is no shortage of worthy and interesting battles heading up the action on Tuesday night, as voters go to the polls in three states: Alabama, Mississippi, and New Mexico.
ALABAMA
Alabama will get the bulk of the attention on Tuesday night, and deservedly so, with big-time battles both on the statewide and the Congressional level.
Alabama's marquee race in the 2010 election cycle is the battle to be elected the state's next Governor. Competitive primaries are on the menu on both the Republican and Democratic side.
The Democratic primary is a heads-up battle that has devolved into a fairly bloody campaign. Congressman Artur Davis is trying to follow Douglas Wilder as only the second African-American Southern Governor in the modern era. He is being challenged by state Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks.
Contrary to what might be expected in a Southern primary featuring a white Democrat versus an African-American Democrat, Davis is actually running to the right of Sparks. Race has largely been below the surface in the race, but came to the forefront at the last second, with an ad from Davis alleging lax enforcement against racial discrimination in Sparks' Ag Department. Davis, ironically, has some racial problems of his own, losing the endorsement of a handful of leading African-American political groups in the state to Sparks. That might have been owed partly to the high-profile snub of President Obama by Davis, who voted against the President's health care initiative. It was also owed, in part, to the snub of these groups by Davis, who may have been seeking some distance from the traditional African-American political power centers. Sparks has led in the late fundraising game, but Davis has held a modest lead in the public polling to date.
On the Republican side, there are more than a half-dozen Republicans vying for the nomination, but most of the attention has fallen on a quartet of GOP contenders. The most well-known of the foursome is Roy Moore, who became a household name seven years ago when he was removed from the Alabama Supreme Court for defying a judge's order to remove a monument to the Ten Commandments he erected. Not surprisingly, he is running a pretty strident anti-government campaign emanating from the far right. Of course, in the Alabama GOP, he is going to have some company out there on the far right. Indeed, the most well-funded man in the field, Bradley Byrne, got jumped earlier in the campaign for his possible acceptance of evolution. This, of course, led Byrne to denounce the ad, and reaffirm his faith in biblical literalism and inerrancy. That might not have even been the strangest moment of the campaign. That honor goes to Auburn grad Tim James (the son of 90s-era Gov. Fob James), who has had to beat down a mini-scandal where he allegedly criticized Alabama football coach Nick Saban. That compelled James to make the ultimate pander for an Auburn grad--wearing a "Saban Rules" baseball cap. Robert Bentley completes the quartet.
Other statewide races to keep an eye on are a Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate between William Barnes and Simone de Moore for the right to lose to Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, and an explosive race for Attorney General between Republican incumbent Troy King and challenger Luther Strange.
At the House level, there are a trio of districts that will have primaries worth watching. A quartet of Republlicans are taking aim at Democratic freshman Bobby Bright in AL-02. The establishment pick is Montgomery councilwoman Martha Roby, but she has company in the form of tea party activist Rick Barber and state Board of Education member Stephanie Bell. Meanwhile, there are interesting primaries on both sides of the aisle in AL-05. Newly-minted Republican incumbent Parker Griffith is getting shelled from the right by a pair of challengers: Les Phillip and Mo Brooks. Unless Griffith can pull a rabbit out of his hat, he can be in deep trouble. After all, Alabama is a runoff state, meaning that the anti-Parker Griffith vote will be allowed to be consolidated during the July 13th runoff. Therefore, if Griffith can't get to 50% on Tuesday, it is hard to imagine him doing so six weeks later. On the Democratic side, four candidates are battling for the right to reclaim this seat for the Democrats. The two most well-funded contenders going into the primary were Steve Taby and Taze Shepard. Finally, a runoff will almost certainly determine the Democratic successor to Artur Davis in AL-07. The three frontrunners are attorney Terri Sewell, Jefferson County Commissioner Sheila Smoot, and state legislator Earl Hilliard Jr., the son of the longtime former Congressman.
MISSISSIPPI
By way of comparison to active Alabama, Mississippi's primary night is a comparative snoozer. While there are primaries on tap in all four Congressional districts (no statewides are on the ballot), only one of them is drawing a lot of attention. That is the race in MS-01, in the state's northernmost counties. Republicans are convinced they can reclaim this district from Democrat Travis Childers, who claimed it in a special election in 2008. They have an interesting trio of leading candidates. Former Fox News analyst Angela McGlowan came into the race with a ton of hype, but has raised little money and is unlikely to be a big factor on Tuesday. The battle is essentially down to state Senator Alan Nunnelee, who was recruited to run by national Republicans. He is not a lock, however, as he is being pursued by local mayor Henry Ross, a favorite of the teabaggers. After the primary initially looked like a Nunnelee coronation, this race could well go to a June 22nd runoff, an outcome that Ross says would be owed to the Tea Party movement.
NEW MEXICO
With no Senate races on tap statewide this year, all eyes on Tuesday will be on the Republican Party's big battle to find a nominee to challenge Democrat Diane Denish in the race for Governor. The man with all the early hype was attorney Pete Domenici Jr, the son of the longtime former U.S. Senator. But his candidacy has been a non-starter, and he is no better than a distant third in the primary field. The race has become a two-candidate shootout between Dona Ana County (Las Cruces) District Attorney Susana Martinez and former state party chairman Allen Weh. Both of the frontrunners are topping off their warchests at the last minute. Martinez got a strong six-figure check from Swift Boat financier Bob Perry. Weh, meanwhile, cut his own check (to the tune of six hundred grand), which brings his investment in his own campaign up to the neighborhood of $1.6 million. Martinez has led the polling in the GOP primary over the final days, but there was a handful of undecideds to be claimed as they race to the line.
In the trio of House seats in the Land of Enchantment, the most competitive primary may well be in the least competitive district for the general election: NM-03. In that district, you get an intriguing contrast between Tom Mullins (an engineer who is a pretty standard-issue Republican) and Adam Kokesh, who is an acolyte of Ron Paul. Kokesh has raised more cash (perhaps not surprisingly), although a mid-February PPP poll (PDF file) showed Mullins to have more general election upside. Steve Pearce (NM-02) has a tea-party affiliated primary challenger, but should be safe.
If Pearce struggles at all, that might prove to be another telling sign of the lack of cohesion on the Republican side of the aisle.