Party Poopers

It's hard out there for SEN candidates in competitive primaries. As intra-party slugfests start to heat up, candidates from both parties are tacking away from the center. Could their base-centric appeals come back to haunt them next fall?

-- In CT, Simmons (R) now says he was "wrong" to support EFCA and cap & trade in the House. (IL's Kirk pulled a similar switcheroo on cap & trade). In NV, Lowden (R) has trod carefully around the Ensign and Gibbons flaps, continuing to support her state's scandal-plagued GOPers. In NH, Ayotte (R) declines to say whether her GOPism hews more closely to SC's DeMint or ME's Snowe.

-- And then, of course, there's FL's Crist (R), who embraced Pres. Obama's stimulus plan in Jan. but this week ran a radio ad slamming Obama's "same tired answers for every problem: To spend more of your money." (And that was before a new Q poll showed Rubio (R) cutting Crist's 29-point lead in half).

-- Dems are not immune. After his party switch, and Sestak's entry in the Dem primary, PA's Specter switched positions on EFCA. And in IL, Jackson is drawing strong support from black Reps. Rush and Davis, a sign that frontrunner Giannoulias could face a racial split before, and after, the Feb. 2 primary.