Round One: Lee, Bridgewater, Bennett | Buzz Blog
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Round One: Lee, Bridgewater, Bennett

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Bob Bennet survives first round, but has a fight in second.---

After the first round of voting in the U.S. Senate race, Mike Lee was leading -- as expected. Tim Bridgewater is second, and Bennett is third. But only 100 votes separate them, and 21 percent of the voters went for one of the other candidates. Primarily, those others went to Cherilyn Eagar, who got a surprising 15 percent.

Now, the top three go through a second round, with the top two going to a third round unless somebody gets 60 percent. Right now, two schools of thought exist:

1. Lee has lost support, peaking early, and Eagar's votes swing to Bridgewater. If Bridgewater gets those votes plus Bennett's votes in third round, he could find himself the nominee.

 2. Many Lee supporters actually voted for Eagar, hoping to use the momentum from her speech to knock out Bennett. Now, they return home. In that case, we're probably headed for a primary because Bridgewater and Bennett supporters probably go, primarily, to the other.


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