Tuesday's state primaries will gauge voter unease

LOS ANGELES -- How angry are Americans?

People primed for change vote in 12 states Tuesday in contests that will decide the fate of two endangered Washington incumbents, a six-term congressman in South Carolina and a two-term senator in Arkansas, while setting the stage for some of the races that could determine the balance of power on Capitol Hill in the fall.

South Carolina Republican Rep. Bob Inglis, representing the 4th District in the Greenville-Spartanburg area, is trying to fend off primary challengers who have made the race a referendum on his 2008 vote to bail out up the nation's banking industry.

In an Arkansas runoff, Sen. Blanche Lincoln could fall to a fellow Democrat, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, who said "the only way to change Washington is to change who we send there."

The political strength of the tea party movement faces tests in several states, particularly in Nevada, where three Republicans are in a bruising fight for the chance to take on Democrat Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, in November.

Republicans in California could send two political neophytes, wealthy former business executives Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, into races to succeed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and challenge Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer.

In an election season overshadowed by the ailing economy and unhappiness with Washington, three longtime incumbents already have lost -- Sens. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, and Arlen Specter, D-Pa., and Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va.

A party-switcher new on the scene, Democrat-turned-Republican Rep. Parker Griffith of Alabama, stumbled last week as voters demanded ideological purity.

A Pew Research Center poll in April found that public confidence in government was at one of the lowest points in a half century.

Bennett has called the political atmosphere toxic, and races Tuesday will provide fresh evidence of how far people want to go to shake up statehouses and Washington.

"I've become frightened over what our government is doing," said Roxanne Blum, 57, a Republican from Pahrump, Nev.

She is alarmed by the soaring debt and has seen firsthand, through her work in the mortgage industry, the damage caused by Nevada's foreclosure rate that is the highest in the country.

Once excited by Reid's ascendancy in Washington leadership, she now sees him as out of touch with his economically troubled home state.

"When he comes here, he does lip service," she said.

Earlier congressional contests have shown that incumbency can be a yoke and that voter discontent is running through both parties, even though the Democrats who control Congress have the most at risk in November.

With President Barack Obama's popularity slipping, issues from the health care overhaul law to taxes are defining races.

Tea-party-backed Mike Lee, one of two Republicans who advanced to a June 22 primary for Bennett's Utah seat, said there's "a widespread feeling the federal government is growing, taxing, spending and borrowing way too much."

In the Arkansas runoff, Lincoln is suffering blowback from the right and left for her health care votes.

Unions backing her opponent have spent more than $5 million to defeat her.

In one ad, she acknowledges the frustration among voters, saying "I know you're angry at Washington."

In north Georgia, Tom Graves hopes his involvement with the Atlanta Tea Party Patriots will help him defeat Lee Hawkins, another conservative, in a runoff to fill a vacant House seat in a heavily Republican district.