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 In New Hampshire and Delaware, voters picked Republican
challengers to Democratic incumbents in the U.S. Senate as
Republicans look to regain a majority in that chamber.
Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley and Rhode Island state
Treasurer Gina Raimondo won competitive primaries, with Coakley
going on to face Republican businessman Charlie Baker and Raimondo
up against Cranston Mayor Allan Fung.
"What we need now is a strong economy that we build on our terms
that works for us. All of us," Coakley said in her acceptance
speech, vowing to phase in universal pre-kindergarten across the
state's public school system.
"We want an economy where there is equal opportunity," she said.
Coakley's rival, Baker, also focused his acceptance speech on
economic issues, contending he would be a steadier hand.
"We have a detailed plan to create jobs from one end of the
Commonwealth to the other. They don't," Baker said.
"We have a plan to restore fiscal discipline and keep taxes low.
They don't."
Some Massachusetts Democrats had expressed wariness about Coakley's
chances in November after her stunning 2010 loss to Scott Brown in a
race to fill the U.S. Senate seat made available by the death of
Edward Kennedy.
Coakley's main rival was state Treasurer Steve Grossman. Some of
Grossman's supporters had told pollsters they would vote Republican
if their candidate lost the primary.
Grossman asked his supporters to put the race behind them and
support their party.
"I hope every one of you will do everything you can to make sure
Martha Coakley becomes the next governor of Massachusetts," Grossman
said in his concession speech.
While Massachusetts has a reputation for liberal politics, its
voters have elected only one Democratic governor in the past two
decades, the incumbent Deval Patrick, who decided not to seek a
third term.
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Coakley could become the first woman elected governor of
Massachusetts but the second to hold the office. Republican Jane
Swift became acting governor in 2001 when Paul Cellucci resigned to
take a post as U.S. ambassador to Canada. Coakley's former rival,
Brown, was on the ballot on Tuesday in neighboring New Hampshire,
where he won the Republican nomination to run for the U.S. Senate,
seeking to unseat Democratic incumbent Jeanne Shaheen.
Also in New Hampshire, Republican businessman Walt Havenstein beat
Tea Party activist Andrew Hemingway for the Republican nomination to
take on Governor Maggie Hassan.
In Delaware, businessman Kevin Wade won the Republican nomination to
take on Democratic U.S. Senator Chris Coons in November.
In New York, Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo held off a long-shot
primary challenge by Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham University law
professor and former Occupy Wall Street activist.
In Congressional primaries, Massachusetts Democrat John Tierney, who
had held his seat since 1997, was bested by Iraq war veteran Seth
Moulton.
(Reporting by Scott Malone; Additional reporting by Svea
Herbst-Bayliss in Providence, Rhode Island and Barbara Goldberg in
New York; Editing by Grant McCool, Will Dunham and Paul Tait)
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