Patrick Leahy Wins Renomination for Senate in Vermont

Vermont's Democratic voters, unimpressed with anti-incumbent sentiment in other parts of the country, chose Sen. Patrick Leahy to run for a seventh term Tuesday night. In a tight three-way contest for governor, state senator Peter Shumlin claimed victory but his margin was only about 200 votes.

Leahy, 70, easily defeated Navy veteran Daniel Freilich and will be a strong favorite against Republican Len Britton in the November election. The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee was in the national spotlight as he successfully shepherded President Obama's Supreme Court nominees Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor through the Senate confirmation process.

In the Vermont Democratic governor's primary, Shumlin, the state Senate president pro tem, held a narrow lead over Doug Racine, Deb Markowitz and two other candidates. "It appears that we have own," he told the Associated Press. But Racine and Markowitz had not conceded by mid-day. Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie is the GOP's nominee to succeed Republican Gov. Jim Douglas, who is retiring.

In the state's lone U.S. House seat, incumbent Rep. Peter Welch (D) gets Republican Paul Beaudry, a talk show host, in the fall campaign for Congress.