General News Mississippi Senate primary heads to runoff, other primary results

In a very close race last night, Thad Cochran and Chris McDaniel are headed to a runoff, it appears, as the ugliest primary election in the nation is about to get uglier.

McDaniel led Cochran 49.5%-48.9% with 99.7% of precincts reporting. However, Mississippi law declares a runoff is needed if no candidate wins a simple majority of 50% +1. This was a race that saw Chris McDaniel's buddies get arrested for sneaking into a nursing home to take pictures of Cochran's wife with dementia, and is viewed as the Tea Party's last stand.

In Iowa, Joni Ernst easily won the GOP nomination, and drew both laughter and criticism for bragging about castrating pigs as a child and shooting a copy of the Affordable Care Act, and calling Sandy Hook and the Aurora, Colorado shootings "accidents."

Meanwhile in California, Jerry Brown easily sailed to first place in the Jungle Primary with hardly any campaigning. He won 54.5% of the vote, and the battle for second place was between two Republicans: establishment Republican Neel Kashkari, and ultra-conservative, gun-toting, Alex Jones wannabe former Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, who in 2010 was arrested at Sacramento International Airport for trying to sneak a gun past the security checkpoint.

Republicans all over California feared disaster for the GOP if Donnelly won the nomination, as the LA Times put it, "Donnelly picked up where Pete Wilson left off, with his targeting of Hispanics and Latinos in his anti-illegal immigration rhetoric, and later opposition to affirmative action."

Kashkari (Cash-carry) came in second place with 19% of the vote and Donnelly won 14.8%, who I personally was hoping would win, as the debates between those two would be perfect SNL material. California is a Safe D for the Governor's race, and it was widely viewed that Kashkari and Donnelly were simply fighting for the right to lose to Jerry Brown.

Meanwhile in the Land of Enchantment, Gary King won the Democratic nomination for Governor in a plurality with a crowded field. The current Attorney General of New Mexico won with 35% of the vote. He's more than likely to lose to popular incumbent Republican Governor Susana Martinez.