Schumer-backed Senate Candidate Prevails In Kentucky

Health care executive Bruce Lunsford will be the Democrats' nominee against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in November after dispatching six other Democrats to win tonight's Democratic Senate primary in Kentucky.

Lunsford handily defeated businessman Greg Fischer 51 percent to 34 percent to win the Democratic nomination. Lunsford was the preferred choice of Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Chuck Schumer, who liked his ability to partially self-finance a race against McConnell.

McConnell reported $7.7 million cash-on-hand at the end of March, and is one of the best-financed incumbents. He already has aired several television ads in preparation for his re-election bid.

"Kentuckians who want to change the direction the country is headed will have a chance to do so in November by electing Bruce Lunsford," Schumer said in a statement. "Bruce is an outstanding candidate, and as the Democratic Party's nominee for Senate, I know he will run a campaign that will make Kentucky proud."

In the only seriously contested House race, Democratic state senator David Boswell won the party nomination and will challenge GOP state senator Brett Guthrie in the race to succeed retiring Rep. Ron Lewis (R-Ky.) Lewis' Bowling Green-area district is heavily Republican, giving President Bush 65 percent of the vote in 2004.

And former GOP Rep. Anne Northup officially is the party's nominee against freshman Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) in what will be a closely-watched rematch of the 2006 campaign.