Polls have just closed in Massachusetts, where voters are selecting nominees for the Senate special election prompted by John Kerry's confirmation as Secretary of State earlier this year. On the Democratic side, the choice is between Reps. Ed Markey and Stephen Lynch, while Republicans have three candidates to pick from: former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan, businessman Gabriel Gomez, and state Rep. Dan Winslow. (The general election will take place on June 25.)
Results: AP (statewide) | AP (by town) | Boston Globe
5:09 PM PT: Here's the nice thing about having a deep archive of past liveblogs: We can get a sense of when to expect results. In the 2009 special primary, the first returns started coming in at about 8:15pm ET and the AP called the race for Martha Coakley by 9 o'clock. (There wasn't a competitive GOP primary.) So hopefully a quick night.
5:12 PM PT: And just like that, we're off. The first few precincts have just shown up—less than 1% of the total.
5:24 PM PT: Now we're up to 3% reporting. Markey starts off with an early 63-37 lead, in part due to strength in Boston's western suburbs and the region known as MetroWest. Gomez leads Sullivan 52-35 with Winslow a distant third.
5:33 PM PT: 10% in, Markey 61-39; Gomez 52-36.
5:40 PM PT: 16% reporting both Markey and Gomez's leads are holding steady: 60-40 for the former, 53-35 for the latter.
5:48 PM PT: So far, Lynch is winning his home CD of MA-08 by 69-31, but Markey is winning all other CDs with 53%+.
5:50 PM PT: Everett (100% in), was 74-23 for Hillary Clinton in her 2008 primary against Barack Obama, now 53-47 Markey. That's big because Markey's results have been closely correlated with Obama's, but if he's winning Clinton turf, then he's winning where Lynch would have had to do well in order to prevail.
5:53 PM PT: Markey's also kicking ass in sparsely (comparatively speaking) populated western portion of the state. In MA-01, which covers much of W. MA, he leads 66-34 at the moment.
5:55 PM PT: Overall, it's 57-43 Markey with 39% reporting.
6:00 PM PT: The AP has just called the GOP primary for Gabriel Gomez. Democrats had tried to ratfuck on behalf of Sullivan, who was the most conservative candidate in the race, but apparently the effort was to no avail.
6:01 PM PT: With 51% now reporting, Markey's lead is stable at 57-43. Let's put it this way: Simple math says that Lynch would have to win the remaining votes by the same margin—57-43—to pull into a tie. Can't see how that happens.
6:09 PM PT: And there's the AP's checkmark. Ed Markey beats Stephen Lynch in the Democratic primary. He'll take on Gabriel Gomez in the June general election. The winner will have to run again in 2014 for the full six-year term.
6:18 PM PT: By the way, assuming this margin holds, it's another big win for PPP. Their final poll had Markey up by 14. At the moment, he's winning by... 14.
7:58 PM PT (jeffmd):
As you can see in this map, Markey (in blue) did very well in Western Mass, as well as the affluent suburbs west of the city. They form the core of MA-04 and MA-05, where Markey got 67 and 73 percent, respectively. Lynch did particularly strongly south of the city, in the towns in his district (in the MA-08 towns excluding Boston, he pulled 70%). Markey did pick off two towns, Cohasset and Hingham, both of which are rather affluent. Markey also did well on the North Shore, as well as Cape Cod and the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.