Raese defeated a crowded field of Republicans and becomes
part of the GOP quest to dismantle the Democratic Senate majority as high
unemployment and the slow economic recovery take a toll on their political
prospects this fall.
In Louisiana, scandal-tainted Republican US Sen. David Vitter
easily beat two little-known challengers and will meet Democratic Rep. Charlie
Melancon, who won his party's primary, in November.
Vitter survived a 2007 prostitution scandal after 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 have already engaged in
attacks.
"There is a clear choice in this election, and as we
educate voters about my positive plans for putting Louisiana first and contrast
it with David Vitter's hostility toward women, veterans and Louisiana families,
I know we'll win," Melancon said.
Vitter said in a statement that Melancon was too liberal.
"Louisiana voters will get to choose between the
current Obama policies of endless bailouts, failed stimulus, massive debt, and
government-dominated health care, represented by Charlie Melancon, or the
common sense conservative alternatives I've been advocating," he said.
The
primary in West Virginia was hastily called after Byrd, a 92-year-old Democrat
elected to a record ninth term in 2006, died June 28.
