Ed Markey, Gabriel Gomez have early leads in Massachusetts’ U.S. Senate special primary

Vot­ing in Mass­a­chu­setts’ spe­cial elec­tion to deter­mine who will rep­re­sent the Demo­c­ra­t­ic and Repub­li­can par­ties in the race to suc­ceed Sen­a­tor John Ker­ry has end­ed, and the results are begin­ning to trick­le in.

As of just before 5:45 PM Pacif­ic, with around one-fourth of precincts report­ing, U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Ed Markey and for­mer Navy SEAL Gabriel Gomez led their respec­tive chal­lengers for the Demo­c­ra­t­ic and Repub­li­can nom­i­na­tions. Each had been con­sid­ered his par­ty’s fron­trun­ner, so these results aren’t too surprising.

Here are the numbers:

MA-Sen­ate — Demo­c­ra­t­ic Spe­cial Primary
April 30, 2013 — Results as of 05:41PM Pacific
56 of 2172 Precincts Report­ing — 26%

Ed Markey: 58% (74,623 votes)
Stephen Lynch: 42% (53,766 votes)

MA-Sen­ate — Repub­li­can Spe­cial Primary
April 30th, 2013 — Results as of 05:42PM Pacific
538 of 2172 Precincts Report­ing — 25%

Gabriel Gomez: 52% (26,782 votes)
Mike Sul­li­van: 35% (18,056 votes)
Dan Winslow: 13% (6,652 votes)

Results are com­ing in at a steady pace, so it’s like­ly these num­bers will be out­dat­ed by the time many NPI Advo­cate read­ers see this post.

How­ev­er, it’s always nice to have a snapshot.

Ed Markey’s lead stood at 61% ear­li­er when few­er votes had been tal­lied and report­ed. It has since shrunk, but not by that much. Gomez has been in the low fifties for a while. His clos­est chal­lenger is Mike Sul­li­van, but he’s pulling in enough votes that third-place fin­ish­er Dan Winslow can’t be called a spoiler.

Democ­rats Ed Markey and Stephen Lynch, as many read­ers may know, are both mem­bers of Mass­a­chu­setts’ U.S. House del­e­ga­tion. Markey is con­sid­ered to be more pro­gres­sive and has a stronger vot­ing record, accord­ing to ProgressivePunch.

The Boston Globe report­ed that turnout for this elec­tion was fair­ly low, with polling places not see­ing much activ­i­ty. Elec­tion fatigue may be par­ty to blame — last year’s elec­tions dom­i­nat­ed air­waves and mail­box­es for a pret­ty long time.

UPDATE, 6:20 PM: The Asso­ci­at­ed Press and major news out­lets are pro­ject­ing that Markey and Gomez are the win­ners of their respec­tive pri­maries. With more than 70% of bal­lots now count­ed, it’s evi­dent that their oppo­nents aren’t going to close the gap. It will be Markey vs. Gomez from now until June 25th.