Buried in Tuesday’s defeat of nine-term incumbent Wayne Gilchrest is a message that should be heeded by incumbents everywhere. You must earn the support of the people you represent. When Gilchrest was first elected, incumbents were considered nearly unbeatable. But during the 18 years he served in Washington, the world changed and he failed to change with it. The change is not Fox News, YouTube and text messaging. They are symptoms of the change. The real change is that elected officials can be held more accountable. And if you forget this lesson, someone will remind you. ~Tom Blakely (Andy Harris’ campaign consultant)

Let’s be clear here–Gilchrest lost a three-way primary by nine points because of intra-party fratricide spurred on by the Club for Growth and pro-war Republicans.  In 2006 Gilchrest was re-elected with 68% of the vote in a bad year for Republicans, and the only thing that changed between then and now was his vote on withdrawal from Iraq.  The main issue where Gilchrest differed from his Republican constituents was the war, and the people who wept over the “purge” of Joe Lieberman in the Senate primary in ’06 had no problem with a similar litmus test on the other side of the aisle.  This must be one of the few times that an incumbent was voted out in a primary because he was on the popular side of an issue state- and nationwide.  There may have been local issues that have escaped the notice of outside observers, but I would trust Mr. Blakely’s assessment of this race about as much as I trust Dan Gerstein explaining the flaws of Ned Lamont.