Nice News Account
From CQ.com ($):
Freshman Michigan Republican Rep. Joe Schwarz was unseated Tuesday in his 7th District primary contest, making him the first Republican congressional incumbent to lose a bid for renomination this year.
The outcome was a personal victory for former state Rep. Tim Walberg, who won the nomination on his second try and now will be heavily favored for the general election in this Republican-leaning district.
And the defeat of Republican centrist Schwarz by conservative Walberg finally gives the Club for Growth — an aggressive national conservative political action organization that backed the challenger — a “RINO” for its trophy case after several near-misses.
Since its inception in 1999, the Club for Growth has advocated replacing centrist Republican incumbents — which it labels as RINOs, for Republicans in Name Only — with more conservative challengers.
Prior to Walberg’s success in Michigan Tuesday, the Club had come close several times: most prominently in 2004, when veteran moderate Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter fended off the Club-backed offensive of then-Rep. Patrick J. Toomey by just 51 percent to 49 percent. Toomey’s consolation prize was to take over as head of the Club for Growth following the 2004 election cycle.
