Republican Are Facing Divisive Primaries

[Nonno]

"WASHINGTON — Kelly Ayotte, the former attorney general of New Hampshire, was on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, reaping the benefits of being a favored Republican Senate candidate. She collected checks at a series of fund-raisers, including a reception that drew Senate Republican leaders eager for her to join them as a colleague in 2011.

ack in New Hampshire, Ovide Lamontange, one potential Republican rival to Ms. Ayotte, was reaping the benefits of not being in Washington, hosting scores of supporters at a Manchester club and collecting canned and dry goods in a food drive.

The contrast was no accident. In New Hampshire, Florida, Colorado and other states, the push by Republicans in Washington to identify preferred Senate candidates has stirred resentment and touched off competition from those not impressed by the Washington seal of approval.

“When folks in Washington say, ‘This is our candidate, get in line,’ I think people are going to want to take a look first,” said Jim Merrill, an adviser to Mr. Lamontagne, who won the state’s Republican gubernatorial primary in 1996 in an upset before losing the general election.

Democrats have their own problems when it comes to Senate races, with potentially divisive primaries looming in Pennsylvania, Colorado and elsewhere. And the Obama administration discovered the perils of meddling in state politics when its efforts to sideline Gov. David A. Paterson of New York provoked a backlash in recent days.

But the pushback on national Republicans is striking because it comes at a time when many in the party believe the political environment is rapidly improving for them and after party strategists were initially keen on the early effort to single out Senate choices.Yet in Florida, former House Speaker Marco Rubio has refused to abandon his quest for the Republican Senate nomination despite the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s quick blessing of the candidacy of Gov. Charlie Crist. And the perception that the national party was going to meddle in the Colorado primary on behalf of Jane Norton, the former lieutenant governor, upset folks there."

More at source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/us...wt&twt=nytimes