Frozen-food tycoon Gordon Smith earned a second shot at the U.S. Senate by easily capturing Oregon's Republican primary, while high-tech entrepreneur Tom Bruggere had little trouble winning the Democratic contest.
In Arkansas, Attorney General Winston Bryant and state Sen. Lu Hardin topped a five-candidate field in Tuesday's Democratic Senate primary to advance to a June 11 runoff.The winner will face uncontested Republican Lt. Gov. Mike Huckabee in November, when Arkansas voters will elect only their fifth U.S. senator in more than half a century. They've never elected a Republican senator.
In January, Smith lost a special election by 18,000 votes, despite spending $2 million of his own money. Smith is president of the state Senate and a businessman.
The special election was called to replace Sen. Bob Packwood, who resigned after being accused of sexual and official misconduct. It was won by Ron Wyden, who became the first Democratic senator elected in Oregon since 1962.
On the eve of his loss to Wyden, Smith, 43, said he would not run for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Mark Hatfield. He changed his mind, and went on to win 79 percent of the vote Tuesday.
Bruggere, 50, a multimillionaire like Smith, won with 54 percent of the vote, while Harry Lonsdale, a businessman making his third bid for the Senate, got 24 percent. Three other candidates trailed.
Before cheering supporters Tuesday night, Smith offered to take Bruggere to lunch to talk about ways to keep the campaign focused on issues.
"I want us to get beyond this assassination of character. That has to end," he said.
Bruggere responded coolly. "I'm not optimistic that there is sincerity behind that," he said, noting that the National Republican Senatorial Committee ran TV ads criticizing layoffs at his former computer software company.
The Arkansas race will fill the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. David Pryor, first elected in 1978.