WASHINGTON — The latest nationwide round of primaries demonstrated the persistence -- and limits -- of the ideological challenge faced by moderates in both parties during an age of intense political polarization.
In Rhode Island, moderate Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee defeated a challenge Tuesday from a much more conservative opponent -- a result that cheered GOP centrists, who have seen their influence wane within their party.
"We are very much alive, very much kicking and very much winning," said Sarah Chamberlain Resnick, executive director of the Republican Main Street Partnership, a group of GOP centrists that backed Chafee.
But elsewhere, centrists struggled in several of Tuesday's contests. Candidates identified with their party's ideological vanguard won a closely watched Republican House primary in Arizona and a Democratic House primary in New Hampshire. In Maryland, Democratic Rep. Albert R. Wynn held a narrow lead pending a final tally of uncounted ballots against a liberal challenger who denounced his vote for the Iraq war.
"Despite Chafee's success ... the trend toward increasing polarization continues," said Alan Abramowitz, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta. "That doesn't mean moderates can't survive -- but it's difficult."
Chafee survived not because of support from Republicans, but because he attracted a surge of independent voters to participate in the primary.
The week's flurry of closely contested races followed a nominating season in which an unusual number of incumbents confronted serious challenges -- a trend capped last month by the primary defeats of Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman in Connecticut and another moderate, Republican Rep. Joe Schwarz of Michigan.
Independent political analyst Rhodes Cook, in the new issue of his monthly newsletter, calculated that even before Tuesday's results, 23 House incumbents and three senators -- Lieberman and Republicans Mike DeWine of Ohio and Conrad Burns of Montana -- were held to 75% of the vote or less against primary challengers. Those are results that, in Cook's view, represent more than nuisance challenges to incumbents.
On Tuesday, Chafee was held below that threshold, winning 54% of the vote. And Wynn, even if he maintains his narrow advantage over liberal activist Donna Edwards in the Maryland House race, may end up with less than 50% of the vote.
