Rubio Wins in Florida
The New York Times writes:
The Tea Party captured its first big victories when Marco Rubio won a United States Senate seat in Florida and Rand Paul won his Senate bid in Kentucky. The victories seemed to be a precursor of big gains in Congress for the Republican Party.
In Indiana, former Senator Dan Coats, a Republican who served in the House from 1981 to 1989 and in the Senate for a decade from 1989 to 1999, won the seat long held by Evan Bayh, a Democrat who is retiring. Mr. Coats beat Representative Brad Ellsworth.
And in another sign of Republican strength, in Ohio, the Republican Rob Portman, a former United States representative and budget director for President George W. Bush, won the Senate seat being vacated by George V. Voinovich, a retiring Republican. Mr. Portman defeated the Democratic lieutenant governor, Lee Fisher.
While Mr. Portman’s victory did not represent a pick up for Republicans, it signaled that the party was running strong in a battleground state that had been the focus of intense campaigning in recent days by Democratic leaders.
While Tea Party-backed candidates captured high-profile victories with the Rubio and Paul victories in Florida and Kentucky, one of their candidates, Christine O'Donnell, went down to defeat in Delaware, where Christopher Coons won the Senate seat long held by Joseph R. Biden Jr.
The early results, and surveys of voters outside polling places, signaled that the elections would recalibrate the balance of power in Washington and in state houses across the nation, as voters distressed over the lingering economic woes, seemed eager to rebuke President Obama and his fellow Democrats. Preliminary surveys of voters showed an electorate broadly concerned about the economy and a wide majority saying that the country was seriously on the wrong track. Most voters also said they disapprove of the way President Obama and members of Congress are doing their jobs.
