Low-Interest Primary Election Claims Three Incumbent Republican State Lawmakers

State Sen. John Waterman (R) has been toppled in Indiana's Senate District 39 race by businessman Eric Bassler in today's primary election. He is the only incumbent Senate candidate of either party to lose his bid for re-nomination. There were several tight races on the Republican side in the House, which have claimed two incumbents. Challenger Curt Nisly easily routed incumbent State Rep. Rebecca Kubacki in House District 22. In House District 83, State Rep. Kathy Heuer lost to challenger Christopher Judy. Both Kubacki and Heuer had faced criticism by their Republican challengers for voting against a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages.

We're sorry to report that the ethically-challenged State Rep. Eric Turner, sponsor of the controversial same-sex marriage, has narrowly defeated his Republican challenger, Parvin Gillim. State Rep. Bob Behning survived a strong challenge from Michael Scott, and State Rep. Milo Smith, another strong proponent of the same-sex marriage, won by a comfortable margin over Ryan Lauer. Also, State Rep. Bob Morris survived one of the closest races tonight after eking out a victory over Michael Barranda. All incumbent congressional candidates of both parties easily won re-nomination as expected.

All in all, it was a pretty uneventful primary election in Indiana that drew very little interest from voters as was reflected by the pathetic turnout in today's election. Fewer than 10% of the registered voters in the state's largest county, Marion, where there were very few contested races of note bothered to vote today given the absence of any meaningful choices. Democratic voters outnumbered Republican voters in Marion County by a 55-44% margin.