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Meet the candidates: Winners of the congressional primaries in Kansas, Michigan and Missouri

By Avelino Maestas

If nothing else, this year's election cycle has shown that Americans are prepared to try something new. That hasn’t always translated into a win for primary challengers this year, but as Donna Edwards and Andy Harris showed in Maryland, sometimes party voters are more than willing to oust an incumbent.

In Michigan yesterday, it looked for a time as though voters might toss out another incumbent. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick barely survived a spirited race against Martha Scott and Mary Waters, edging out Waters by a 39.5 percent to 37.5 percent. Early returns had Waters in the lead, but in the end Kilpatrick was able to scrape by.

In Kansas, former Rep. Jim Ryun lost his bid for the Republican nomination to regain his seat from Democratic incumbent Rep. Nancy Boyda. Another former Congressman, Democrat Jim Slattery, is challenging Sen. Pat Roberts (R) come November.

The crowded field of candidates for Missouri’s 9th congressional district was narrowed to two: Democrat Judy Baker, a part-time non-profit director who also owns a consulting firm, will challenge Blaine Luetkemeyer (R), a small businessman and farmer, in the November election.

As part of Congresspedia's Wiki the Vote project, citizen journalists from around the country (and even some candidates!) have been logging information about the candidates' positions, biographies and records. A full list of the candidates and their professions are below, but you can also find them at their respective state portals via the Wiki the Vote project homepage. We need your help to find out more about these candidates, so if you know something about them please add it to their profile. (You can always contact one of the staff editors for help.)

Meet the candidates: Congressional primaries in Tennessee Thursday

A trio of House races in Tennessee will keep observers’ eyes locked on the state Friday as voters head to the polls in the state’s congressional primary elections. Of course, we’ve been tracking the races as part of our Wiki the Vote project, and Congresspedia readers like yourself are adding details to the project every day.

Rep. Steve Cohen (D), representing the 9th congressional district, has been under attack in his majority-black district. Challenger Nikki Tinker has hit Cohen hard in a recent campaign commercial by running the congressman’s picture beside an image of Ku Klux Klan founder Nathan Bedford Forest. The ad takes Cohen to task for his vote, while a Center City commissioner, against renaming a park that was named after Forest.

Cohen has countered the attack by highlighting his Jewish heritage, and his recent sponsorship of legislation in the House to apologize for slavery.

(Click through for more on the congressional primaries)

The Anthrax Cover-up

A New York Daily News headline following the September 2001 anthrax attacks

Bruce Edwards Ivins, a top anthrax researcher at the U.S. Government's biological weapons research laboratories, died of an apparent suicide last Tuesday, just as the Justice Department was about to charge him with responsibility for the September 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people in the United States. Glenn Greenwald has written an important piece for Salon.com in which he demonstrates, with copious evidence, that a major government scandal lurks behind the anthrax story.

Meet the candidates: Congressional primaries in Kansas, Michigan and Missouri Tuesday

By Congresspedia assistant editor Avelino Maestas

It must be August: Congress is no longer in session and the congressional primary season is again heating up. According to our calendar, there are primary elections every week from now until mid-September. Candidates in three states – Kansas, Michigan and Missouri - are on the ballot tomorrow.

As part of our Wiki the Vote project, our citizen-editors have been tallying all the races and building profiles of many of the candidates. We’ll have more on the winners Wednesday, but for now here are some of the more interesting races to watch:

Edelman Likes It Hot

Protesters outside Edelman's London officeOver the next week, campaigners from around the United Kingdom will converge on the site of a proposed expansion of the coal-fired Kingsnorth Power Station and participate in civil disobedience protests. The company behind the proposal, E.ON UK, a subsidiary of the German energy company E.ON, is so worried by the prospect of the planned civil disobedience campaign that it has hired the PR firm Edelman, to see if it can help ensure that the company's proposal retains government support.

Meet the candidates: Winners of the congressional primaries in Oklahoma

It was smooth sailing yesterday for most of Oklahoma’s congressional candidates, because they all cruised to primary election victories. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R) pulled in more than 80 percent of the vote among a field of four Republicans, easily securing the nomination. Democrat Andrew Rice, a state senator who entered politics in 2005, garnered 60 percent against Jim Rogers, a frequent candidate (with no online presence we could find).

Oklahoma's U.S. House delegation also had an easy run, even though Reps. John Sullivan (R) and Dan Boren were opposed in their primaries. Sullivan had more than 90 percent support among Republicans in the 1st congressional district, while Boren had more than 80 percent in the 2nd CD. The other three incumbents, Reps. Mary Fallin, Tom Cole and Frank Lucas, all Republicans, were unopposed.

As part of Congresspedia's Wiki the Vote project, citizen journalists from around the country (and even some candidates!) have been logging information about the candidates' positions, biographies and records. A full list of the candidates and their professions are below, but you can also find them at their respective state portals via the Wiki the Vote project homepage. We need your help to find out more about these candidates, so if you know something about them please add it to their profile. (You can always contact one of the staff editors for help.)

Congresspedia Preview: This Week in Congress (July 27 - Aug. 2, 2008)

President Bush this week is expected to sign a sweeping package of housing legislation aimed at providing some relief for the credit crisis that has stalled the economy. The Senate will continue to hammer away at energy legislation, and attempt to reduce Sen. Tom Coburn’s legislative stranglehold. Finally, we’ll be taking at look at Oklahoma, which is holding a congressional primary election tomorrow.

Follow through after the jump for more on legislation and the week’s committee hearings.

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