CHARLESTON, W.Va. Popular Gov. Joe Manchin easily won the Democratic nomination Saturday in the race to fill the Senate seat vacated by the late Robert C. Byrd. A crowded field of 10 Republicans were vying for the chance to take on Manchin in November, with a wealthy businessman and a former U.S. House candidate among the best-known GOP contenders.
In Louisiana, meanwhile, scandal-tainted Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter appeared poised for an easy primary victory over two little-known challengers. He has already been more focused on his likely November matchup with Democratic U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, who also had two primary opponents.
In West Virginia, the hastily called primary for the remaining two years of Byrds term attracted a crowded field of Republicans, three Democrats and a Mountain Party hopeful. Manchin appointed a former top aide, Carte Goodwin, to hold the seat until after the November election.
Byrd, a 92-year-old Democrat elected to a record ninth term in 2006, died June 28. The state Legislature decided on a primary date about two weeks later and gave candidates just four days to register and about a month to campaign.
Manchins support from coal and utility industries � which have provided more than a quarter of the $1.2 million he has raised since declaring his candidacy last month � may help him overcome national GOP attempts to paint him as a liberal who will side with President Barack Obamas administration.
Obama lost West Virginia in 2008, and his energy and environmental policies are deemed anti-coal in the nations second-largest coal producing state.
On the Republican side, replacing Byrd has become part of the GOP quest to dismantle the Democratic Senate majority, which Democrats are clinging to as high unemployment and the slow economic recovery take a toll on their political prospects this fall. They desperately need to hold the Senate seat in West Virginia, a state that Republican nominee John McCain won handily in 2008 with 56 percent of the vote.
Wealthy businessman John Raese and recent U.S. House candidate Mac Warner are the best known of the GO P hopefuls. The 60-year-old Raese, who lost to Byrd in 2006, has been pumping money into a television and radio ad campaign to bolster his name recognition and to declare he wont be a rubber stamp for Obamas agenda.
Raese and Warner were competing with a pool of unknowns including a cement contractor, a certified public accountant, a substitute teachers aide, a gas company supervisor, a lawyer and a few retirees.
In Louisiana, Vitter has already survived a 2007 prostitution scandal. He admitted an unspecified "serious sin" after his phone number appeared in the records of a Washington prostitution ring.
He has also shrugged off fresh questions about his judgment in allowing an aide to remain on his staff for more than two years after a violent attack on a woman police identified as his ex-girlfriend. With little competition from his own party, he and Melancon are engaged in a war of attack ads.
The campaign manager for Vitters best-known primary opponent, retired state Supreme Court Justice Chet Traylor, says Republicans encouraged Traylor to get into the race because they feared another scandal was lurking. But Vitter appeared strong against him and little-known Republican Nick Accardo.
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Associated Press Writer Kevin McGill in New Orleans contributed to this report.
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