Bites the dust

For those keeping score at home, U.S. Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., has become the first House incumbent voted out of office, beaten in Tuesday’s primary by a state senator who questioned Mollohan’s ethics and his vote for Obamacare. Running as a conservative Democrat, Michael Oliverio got 56 percent of the vote to Mollohan’s 44 percent. He’ll face former state Republican chairman David McKinley this fall. McKinley said Mollohan’s defeat was a referendum on President Barack Obama. “People just didn’t like what was happening in Washington,” McKinley said. “It’s clear this is not the agenda they wanted. This wasn’t the change they envisioned.” Coupled with Republican Sen. Robert Bennett’s defeat in Utah’s primary, the heavy gale warnings clearly are up for incumbents — especially those associated with big spending and big government.