A REPUBLICAN who spent a record $81 million on her campaign triumphed to win the nomination for the governorship of California, in what proved a good night for women in US primary elections.
Meg Whitman, a former eBay chief executive, beat off a crowded field to secure the nomination that will pit her against Democrat Jerry Brown.
Her spending broke records in California. She took 64 per cent of the vote while her nearest rival, another Silicon Valley multimillionaire, who spent $20 million-plus, took 26 per cent.
Another Republican woman, Carly Fiorina, won the race to stand as a Republican Senate candidate in California.
In a separate poll, Californians have backed a decision to overhaul the electoral system, discarding separate Republican and Democratic primaries in favour of a unified system.
In other results, the anti-establishment Tea Party movement made some gains, including its candidate Sharron Angle winning the Republican nomination in Nevada. Ms Angle will take on the Democratic Senate leader, Harry Reid, in November.
Democrats accuse the Tea Party of being too conservative for mainstream Americans, a theme the Senate leader is likely to repeat many times before the November vote. Mr Reid’s campaign team was buoyed by the result, seeing the nomination of an ultra-conservative as a boost to its candidate’s chances.
The anti-incumbency mood that has been the dominant feature of US politics this year stalled elsewhere.
The Democratic senator in Arkansas, Blanche Lincoln, survived both voter anger over her support for bank bailouts, healthcare legislation and a multimillion-dollar anti-incumbent campaign.
Ms Lincoln, a moderate Democrat, narrowly defeated the state’s lieutenant governor, Bill Halter, after most political analysts had written her off.
The primaries saw Americans voting in 11 states to select their candidates for the mid-term elections in November, with the results transforming the traditional white male public face of the Republican Party.
Ms Lincoln’s win defied a “throw-the-bums-out” mood sweeping the US as recession-weary voters register their disapproval with the economic record of both parties in Washington in recent years.
“I have heard your message,” Ms Lincoln told a victory rally in Little Rock. “Washington needs to work for us in Arkansas.”
She survived a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign paid for by unions and liberal groups who alleged she had lost touch with her home state, although polling suggests the Democrat will ultimately lose her seat in the November vote.
An Indian-American woman, Nikki Haley, appears the most likely next governor of South Carolina, meanwhile, after surviving allegations about her personal life to win the party’s primary vote.
She fell short of the 50 per cent needed to avoid a runoff, although she is favourite to win that secondary contest on June 22nd.
In Nevada, the incumbent Republican governor, Jim Gibbons, lost to Hispanic candidate Brian Sandoval.
Susana Martinez, the first Hispanic woman candidate for governor by either party, was selected as Republican nominee in New Mexico.
The anti-incumbent wave claimed another victim when Republicans voted to oust Jim Gibbons, the Republican governor of Nevada. – (Guardian service)