But Kansan voters, particularly Republican ones, should have the hottest fire under their feet on primary day. In the land of sunflowers and prairie dogs, Republicans outnumber Democrats two-to-one, which often makes July's GOP primary winner a near-lock for victory in November. Case in point: the Senate seat up for grabs has been held by a Republican since 1932 -- i.e., the days when Joan Rivers was in utero. With Sen. Sam Brownback giving up his spot to go gubernatorial, Congressman Todd Tiahrt--who, despite the troubling lack of vowels in his name, managed to get the Sarah Palin stamp--squared off against fellow congressman Jerry Moran, who joined Rep. Michelle Bachmann's caucus. Moran pulled through with the win, 160,000 to 140,000 votes, showing again that neither Tea Party-backing nor the wave of the Alaskan wand are infallibles.

Other Kansas highlights including the primary success of Democrat Stephene Moore, a nurse and the wife of retiring Rep. Dennis Moore, who seems set to face Kevin Yoder (the expected winner out of nine GOP hopefuls) in her attempt to be the first wife to survive a living member of Congress. And Brownback predictably won his gubernatorial primary, with a more-than-healthy 82% of the vote.

In the neighboring state of Missouri, voters weighed in on Proposition C, the first state challenge to the individual mandate contained in the new health-care reform law. Although the vote was more about political bragging rights than anything, given that the courts will have to decide on whether the referendum can trump federal law, the anti-“Obamacare” contingent got a big win. Only 29% voted that the state have to comply with the federal mandate, while 71% percent voted to exempt the Show-Me state. (As per the nickname, they clearly don't take things lying down.) The amount of voters casting a ballot for this -- nigh 1 million -- by far dwarfed the amount coming out to have a say in any other contest, by a margin of hundreds of thousands.

Other Missouri highlights: veteran Rep. Ike Skelton won his primary in Missouri's Fourth District, though the tough part will be keeping his seat in November. His opponent, state Rep. Vicky Hartzler, emerged from a field of nine candidates, though Ike must like that she'll be damaged a bit from all the infighting that led up the primary. Rep. Roy Blunt and Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, the two political-family candidates expected to win their senate primaries, did so, both with more than 70% of the vote. It should be a fiery match up, like two families in The Godfather going to the mattresses -- though Carnahan should be concerned that she racked up far fewer votes (265,000) than Blunt (410,000)

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http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2010/08/04/heartland-primary-watch/?xid=rss-topstories#ixzz0vfdwi72J