Mississippi U.S. Senate candidate Chris McDaniel (R) walked into a buzzsaw during a radio interview regarding the blogger who was arrested for filming Sen. Thad Cochran’s (R-MS) bedridden wife.

First Read: “It’s quite possible McDaniel and his campaign had nothing to do with the blogger, but McDaniel’s statements and body language are striking.”

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A former aide to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) described an aggressive effort “to cultivate Fort Lee’s mayor for at least a year and a half before lanes were closed at the George Washington Bridge in an act of political retribution,” the New York Times reports.

“The description of the efforts to woo the mayor seemed to run contrary to the governor’s statement after the lane closings exploded into a scandal in January that Mayor Mark Sokolich had never been on his ‘radar screen.'”

A new Quinnipiac poll in New York finds Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) crushing challenger Rob Astorino (R), 57% to 28%.

“In 2014, the tea party insurrection is starting to look more like the Boston massacre,” Politico reports.

“In state after state this primary season, entrenched politicians are proving that incumbency counts for something after all, leveraging the stature and financial firepower that comes with high office to demolish challengers from the activist right. In three states Tuesday night, long-serving lawmakers rolled over tea party opponents.”

Washington Post: “After years of intraparty turmoil that cost Republicans key races, voters this year are coalescing around the GOP’s strongest candidates ahead of November’s general election, when control of the Senate during President Obama’s final two years in office will be up for grabs.”

The Hill: “One of the biggest winners of the night was the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who saw all of their major endorsed candidates in Georgia, Kentucky, Idaho, Pennsylvania and Oregon net big wins.”

Monica Wehby (R) handily defeated Jason Conger (R) in the Oregon Republican race for the U.S. Senate as she survived the personal controversy that dogged the last days of her primary race, the Oregonian reports.

In her victory speech, Wehby thanked Republican voters for seeing through “all the negativity” and said, “I do have a message for those national Democrats who were willing to shred my family for their own political gain: People are tired of your dirty tricks.”

Roll Call: “Still, the opposition research on Wehby is already flying, and she will have to deal with some image issues straight out of the gate in a state already challenging for Republicans statewide.”

David Perdue (R) and Jack Kingston (R) advanced to the runoff for the Republican Senate nomination in Georgia, Roll Call reports. The winner will face Michelle Nunn (D) in the general election.

“The runoff will serve as a continuation of the skirmish already underway between Kingston and Perdue, who regularly touted his position as the only candidate among the top five to never hold public office. Perdue grouped his four top opponents in early ads that portrayed them as crying babies. Kingston pushed back in the final week with an ad showing Perdue as a greedy toddler, prompting another Perdue ad, calling Kingston ‘desperate.'”

Bloomberg: “The two Republicans will spend the next eight weeks competing against each other in what promises to be a tough and expensive campaign, instead of focusing their fire on Nunn.”

Tom Wolf (D), “the wealthy small-town businessman who sold himself as an outsider, cruised to the Democratic nomination for Pennsylvania governor Tuesday, dispatching three rivals after a dominant television advertising campaign,” the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “With nearly 70 percent of the vote counted, the first-time candidate appeared to be on a track to finish first in every one of the state’s 67 counties, capturing three of every five Democratic votes, more than three times the tally of his closest competitor.”

Allentown Morning Call: “Numerous polls showed Wolf enjoying double-digit leads built largely on TV spots that started in January. For many voters the ads introduced
and defined Wolf, a relative unknown compared to at least two of his opponents, as a successful small-town businessman who drives a Jeep, cares for his family and shares profits with employees. While polls repeatedly showed voters embracing those ads, Schwartz and McCord stayed off the air for more than two months, despite having millions of
dollars each at their disposal. In effect they conceded the air wars to Wolf.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Alison Lundergan Grimes (D) emerged victorious from their respective primaries in Kentucky Tuesday night, “setting up a bruising battle this fall as Grimes tries to deny McConnell a sixth term,” the Lexington Herald Leader reports.

“The primary winners used their victory speeches to outline the cases they will take to Kentuckians beginning Wednesday, as Grimes vies to become the state’s first female senator and McConnell hopes to claim the title of majority leader in the Senate.”

Brendan Boyle (D) “easily defeated three other Democrats Tuesday night, including former Rep. Marjorie Margolies (D), to win an open-seat primary in Pennsylvania’s 13th District,” Roll Call reports.

“Margolies started the race as the odds-on favorite to succeed Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz, who ran for governor. Margolies’ name was still familiar to voters in the district thanks to her one term in Congress in the early 1990s, and she had ties to the Clinton dynasty as former first daughter Chelsea Clinton’s mother-in-law — making her appear to be a near lock for the nomination.”

Businessweek looks at efforts by companies to encourage their employees to vote for establishment Republicans.

“The aim of the corporate coalition is to avoid the nomination of untested candidates who could hurt Republican chances of taking control of the Senate away from the Democrats in November, as happened in the 2010 and 2012 elections. Republicans need a net gain of six seats to retake the chamber. It’s also a mission to boost candidates who are better steeped in and more supportive of the business community’s agenda, including ensuring that the nation doesn’t default on its debt.”