Alaska's Lisa Murkowski: No. 7 on list of ousted incumbents?

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) of Alaska could become the seventh congressional incumbent to lose a primary in 2010 if her too-close-to-call race with 'tea party' favorite Joe Miller stays in Mr. Miller's favor. The last time this many incumbents lost primaries was in 2002, when eight representatives and one senator lost before the general election. Here are the ousted incumbents, in the order they lost their primaries.

1. Sen. Robert Bennett (R) of Utah

Steve C. Wilson/AP/FILE
Sen. Robert Bennett (R) of Utah speaks at the state GOP convention May 8. Balloting at that event knocked him out of the race, as he failed to qualify for Republican primary in June.

The first casualty of the 2010 primary season, Senator Bennett also seemed like one of the most unlikely. He had high vote ratings from conservative-leaning advocacy groups like the US Chamber of Commerce, and he strolled to victory in 2004 with 69 percent of the vote.

But Utah’s Republican primary voters took exception to Bennett’s “yes” vote on the Troubled Asset Relief Program – the bank bailout – in 2008 and his partnership with liberal Sen. Ron Wyden (D) of Oregon on a health-care reform plan. (The Wyden-Bennett plan never even came to a vote.) At the Utah Republican convention on May 8, Bennett finished a distant third in the Senate balloting behind two political novices with “tea party” support, thus failing to qualify for the June primary.

Mike Lee, a former clerk for US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, won the Republican nomination over businessman Tim Bridgewater in the primary.

For No. 6 on the list, click right arrow

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