Big-ticket primary races dominated the media coverage this week, but there were several under-the-radar results we at the DLCC found interesting.

• Dennis Nolan Defeated: Wouldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Which is to say, if Republican State Senator Dennis Nolan of Nevada hadn’t been caught on tape telling a witness in a sexual assault case that it would be “very financially beneficial” to change her story, and if he hadn’t then posted intimate details about the victim’s sexual history on his campaign website, he might still be the Republican nominee for Nevada SD-09. We still think he should resign.
  
  

• Board Member Karen Bass Nominated for Congress: DLCC Board Member and California Assembly Speaker Emeritus Karen Bass was nominated to succeed Diane Watson in the 33rd Congressional District last night. We wish her the best of luck this November.
  
  

• Veto-Proof Majority Possible in Nevada?: With only 21 members in the Nevada Senate, the 12-member Democratic caucus is in a unique position. They’re only two seats away from losing control of the chamber, but they’re also just two seats away from a veto-proof 2/3 majority. Earlier in the cycle, the former seemed possble, but now (especially with Nolan’s loss above) prognosticators are growing more bullish about the latter. And with Democrats already commanding a 2/3 majority in the State Assembly, the Las Vegas Sun is suggesting that the targeted State Senate races are even more important than this year’s gubernatorial election.
  
  

• Parties Split California Special Elections: A traditionally-Democratic Assembly seat (AD-43) and a traditionally-Republican Senate seat (SD-37) were both filled in special elections last night. Each party’s winning candidate pulled a comfortable 58% of the vote. Congratulations to Assemblyperson-Elect Mike Gatto, who won Assembly District 43 for the Democrats.

Virginia’s 26th Delegate District is an inhospitable place for Democrats. Based in Rockingham County and Harrisonburg, it typically gives statewide Republican candidates between 60%-70% of its votes. But local issues and candidate recruiting have made next week’s special election here a potential sleeper race for Democratic candidate Kai Degner.

First, Degner has proven to be a formidable candidate. He has high name-recognition as the popular Mayor of Harrisonburg, the district’s population anchor, and he’s been an effective fundraiser – outraising Republican nominee Tony Wilt $108,000 to $96,000. He'll have enough resources to run a solid campaign and an effective Get Out the Vote operation in the compressed special election time-frame.

Meanwhile, Republican Tony Wilt is stumbling to the finish line in this race. He supports a controversial method of retrieving natural gas from shale deposits in the area, known as hydrofracking. According to the Harrisonburg Daily News-Record, “Hydrofracking involves high water pressure and a mixture of chemicals to break the rock apart,” releasing natural gas.

Local landowners are concerned that the process would contaminate the underground aquifers they rely on for water, and there are additional concerns that companies could use eminent domain to force residents to give up their property for infrastructure like pipelines. Despite these concerns, Wilt failed to disclose his own family’s financial interest in shale energy development before making it a campaign issue, leaving many to question where his loyalties really lie.

Degner still has a tough hill to climb in this race, but with his advantages as a candidate, strong engagement by Democratic organizations in Virginia, and the unique weaknesses Tony Wilt brings to this campaign, no one should be shocked if Kai Degner pulls off the upset this Tuesday - June 15th.

Virginia Democrats continued their rebound last night by keeping control of the vacant 41st Delegate district in a Fairfax County special election. Like the special Senate election in January, most observers gave Republicans the edge in this race, coming so soon after the 2009 gubernatorial race. But Democrat Eileen Filler-Corn leads unofficial returns by 42 votes over Republican Kerry Bolognese:

Education was the issue that dominated this race. Filler-Corn clearly struck a chord with voters with her message of fighting back against devastating cuts to Fairfax County schools proposed by Republicans in the legislature -- cuts that would lay off hundreds of teachers and support staff in a rapidly-growing county.

Congratulations to DLCC Board member and Virginia House Minority Leader Ward Armstrong and the Virginia House Caucus for running a great campaign.

Something unprecedented happened over the weekend in Virginia when a Republican former Delegate, who served in the legislature for over 30 years, endorsed the Democratic candidate he once defeated in one of his re-election campaigns:

Former Republican delegate James H. Dillard II, who served as Virginia's 41st District House delegate from 1972 to 2005, endorsed Eileen Filler-Corn, a Democratic lobbyist who served as an adviser to two former Virginia Democratic governors.

Dillard defeated Filler-Corn in 1999 in a hotly contested race for the 41st House District, which is in Fairfax County and includes the areas of Burke, Fairfax Station and Springfield.

The 41st House seat opened up again when Sen. David W. Marsden (D-Fairfax), who succeeded Dillard in 2005, defeated Republican Stephen M. "Steve" Hunt by 324 votes in a Senate special election in mid-January. He resigned his House seat a day later.

Filler-Corn is now the Democratic nominee in the special election to fill Sen. Marsden’s House seat, to be held March 2nd.

Cross-party endorsements are rare but not unheard-of, especially in state politics. But none of us can ever remember a situation like this happening before. In a statement announcing the endorsement, Dillard praised Filler-Corn for her honesty, civic commitment, and her strong support for Virginia’s public schools:

“As a Republican I am willing to cross party lines to support a moderate who cares strongly about providing excellent educational opportunities for our children in our public schools and institutions of higher learning. Unlike her opponent, who believes we spend 'excessive' amounts on public education, Eileen will fight to get our fair share of education dollars…”

For more information about Eileen Filler-Corn or to help with her campaign, visit eileenfordelegate.com.

Democrat Terry Mills won a special election last night to capture the formerly Republican 24th State House seat in central Kentucky. With all counties reporting, Mills leads in unofficial returns by 54.4%to 46.6%, or a margin of 489 votes:

Of the four Republican legislative seats contested in Kentucky special elections since 2008, Kentucky Democrats have now picked up three of them – all in districts which supported John McCain by enormous margins.

Last night’s victory was a true regional showdown. Mills and Republican nominee Leo Johnson both carried their respective home countries (Marion and Casey) by wide margins, but Mills was clearly able to excite more of his supporters than Johnson.

Mills’ showing is especially impressive because Marion County went for John McCain in 2008, and it supported the Republican candidate by a 2-1 margin in a State Senate special election just two months ago. Last night, it supported the Democrat Mills by nearly 8-1.

Congratulations to the Mills campaign and the Kentucky Democratic party!

Earlier this year, Democrats won a major victory in the 37th State Senate District of Virginia when Dave Marsden defeated Republican Steve Hunt. The seat was left open when Republican Ken Cuccinelli was elected Attorney General in the fall.

Heading into Election Day, most observers were predicting a Republican victory. Instead the seat became the first legislative district in the country to change hands in 2010. Democrats, led by Majority Leader Richard Saslaw -- a DLCC Board Member -- clearly ran a great campaign, particularly in terms of field.

But an innovative tactic employed by the Democratic Caucus may have also been a factor -- in the days before the election, the district was saturated with Internet advertising:

The caucus spent $15,000 on a brief Web ad campaign, a significant expense considering it was targeted to a small region and ran for only about a week leading before election day on January 12. [Marsden Campaign Manager Mark] Henson suggested the ads helped Marsden eke out the win. "Online advertising contributed to that perfect storm that let us pull off this upset," he said, also stressing the importance of all campaign components. Henson said, "I'm definitely more likely now to dedicate more resources toward online advertising."

Majority Leader Saslaw was a key advocate for employing the online ads, pushing the Caucus to pay for the spending as a in-kind contribution to the campaign. In total, the $15,000 buy generated almost 8 million Web impressions.

The first state legislative seat to change parties in a special election this year went to Democrat Dave Marsden of Virginia, who scored an election-night upset over Republican Steve Hunt to win the 37th Senate District in Fairfax County. The seat was left open when Republican Ken Cuccinelli was elected Attorney General in the fall.

The Marsden Campaign’s impressive get-out-the-vote operation reveals itself in the district vote totals. Not only did Marsden win the early vote by more than 2-1 (providing just a few more votes than his total margin of victory), but turnout in his best-performing district was a full 9 points higher than in Steve Hunt’s best district.

Though 2010 is still young, this victory could turn out to be the most important special election all year. It gives Virginia Democrats a welcome shot of energy after a disappointing 2009 campaign, and it solidifies Democratic control of the State Senate ahead of redistricting. The Democratic margin there will now be 22-18, making it unlikely that any unforeseen events could flip control to the Republicans.

Congratulations to DLCC Board member and Virginia Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw and his political staff for running a great campaign.

Minnesota Republicans began 2010 on an ugly note when they nominated Mike Parry as their candidate to replace former Republican Sen. Dick Day, who resigned to become a lobbyist. After winning the nomination, Parry immediately scrambled to delete dozens of racist and otherwise bizarre comments from his twitter account, including this gem from our title:

"read the exclusive on Mr O in Newsweek. He is a Power Hungry Arrogant Black Man"

The excellent state-level blog MN Progressive Project took screen-captures of most of the deleted tweets, and the site’s publishers are promising to release more of them as the New Year unfolds. Bluestem Prairie is also covering the story.

The district itself is the conservative, largely rural 26th Senate District in southern Minnesota, which voted narrowly for McCain in 2008 despite the McCain Campaign largely abandoning the state near the end.

Still, Minnesota voters take pride in their open-mindedness and political independence – two ideals they can uphold by rejecting Mike Parry and his racist comments. The Democratic candidate in the race is atomic physicist and university professor Jason Engbrecht.

Kentucky Democrats and nominee Jodie Haydon are wasting no time at all in a crucial special election in central Kentucky, where Republican State Senator Dan Kelly resigned to accept a judicial appointment. (We noted the typical, classless response from Kelly’s Republican colleagues at the time.)

Haydon was first out of the gate last week with a powerful biographical ad, noting his local roots and sterling record of service:

Meanwhile, an independent group has chimed in with their own biographical ad praising Haydon, as well as a new spot hammering Republican nominee Jimmy Higdon for his anti-family voting record in the legislature. The group helpfully posted both ads to YouTube, for all to see.

Neither Higdon nor the Republican Party of Kentucky, as best we can tell, has joined the media fight with ads of their own - perhaps a consequence of poor fundraising by Higdon. Democrat Jodie Haydon outraised the Republican nominee nearly 4-1 in the opening campaign finance period, $64,855 to $16,405. Higdon also has about $16,000 left from his last State House campaign, but he’ll need to do much better if he expects to keep pace with Haydon.

The importance of this race cannot be overstated. The Republican-controlled Senate has been the chief roadblock to Democratic Governor Steve Beshear’s deficit reduction and job creation efforts, and a Haydon win in the conservative-leaning 14th District would give the chamber 18 Democrats, 19 Republicans, and an independent who caucuses with the Republicans. If Haydon can pull it off, rumors are already flying that Gov. Beshear would cross the aisle again and name another Republican Senator to his cabinet, setting up a final showdown for control of the chamber.

This week, Kentucky’s Republican Senate President attacked Democratic Governor Steve Beshear… for appointing too many Republican judges. It all started when Gov. Beshear reached across the aisle and nominated Republican Senate Majority Leader Dan Kelly to a vacant judgeship. Rather than congratulating their colleague on his success, Republican leaders threw a temper tantrum:

Beshear said he named Kelly because he was the most qualified of three finalists selected Friday by the nominating commission. (…)

But Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, released a statement that called the move “just another play in the governor’s full-court press to enable gambling interests to influence elections.”

There you have it. In this political era, it’s almost expected that Republican legislators will behave obnoxiously toward their Democratic counterparts. But in Kentucky, apparently, they’ll be equally obnoxious toward their fellow Republicans just to take a cheap shot at a Democratic governor.

How utterly classless – with that kind of reaction, it’s no surprise Kelly took the judgeship instead of sticking with the Senate Republicans. He probably made the right call.

Kelly’s seat will be filled by a special election on December 8th, along with Democrat Robin Webb’s House seat (left vacant after Webb won another special Senate election). Kentucky Democrats have already won two Republican Senate seats in special elections this year, and the party is optimistic about its chances in Kelly’s 14th District. A victory would cut the Republican margin to 19-18-1, with one Independent caucusing with Republicans.