Few surprises cropped up Tuesday as a smattering of North Carolina voters had the final say in five closely contested runoff elections.

Democrats opted to nominate Secretary of State Elaine Marshall to try and topple first-term Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr in November. Marshall bested former state senator and Iraq war veteran Cal Cunningham in the runoff.

In the 8th Congressional District, Republicans voted in droves for former sportscaster Harold Johnson rather than irascible Raeford businessman Tim D’Annunzio. Republicans also nominated U.S. Navy veteran Bill Randall in the 13th Congressional District and Beaufort County businessman Greg Dority in the 12th.

Meanwhile, Democrats chose physician Eric Mansfield rather than retired social services worker Lula Crenshaw as their nominee in state Senate District 21.

Marshall’s big win

Marshall won a first primary in May with 36 percent of the vote to Cunningham’s 27 percent. Yesterday, she bumped her margin of victory by 11-percentage points, winning over Cunningham 60-40 percent.

Marshall has the most political experience of the two — she’s been elected to statewide office four times — but Cunningham had gained the attention, and funding, of national party leaders.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spent more than $100,000 to aid Cunningham’s campaign. Marshall’s campaign stash came almost exclusively from inside North Carolina.

With Marshall’s victory, there won’t be as much interest from Democratic fundraisers outside the state, said Thomas Eamon, a political science professor at East Carolina University. It’s also unlikely that she’ll best Burr unless a major scandal erupts, he said.

“If it were a year like 2008, then that might introduce a whole new set of factors,” Eamon said. “Burr has the tremendous money advantage. He’s also had the advantage of not having lost touch in the way” that former U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole did in 2008.

A recent survey by the Democratic group Public Policy Polling had Burr leading Marshall 46-39 percent. The same firm had the two candidates statistically tied a month before.

D’Annunzio out

Johnson benefited from weeks of negative publicity about D’Annunzio and a rash of foot-in-mouth moments pulled off by D’Annunzio himself. The tussle was characterized by lawsuits, scorching attack ads, and an unusual intervention by GOP party bosses.

D’Annunzio won the first primary in May by five-percentage points, but Johnson smashed him in yesterday’s rematch, taking home 62 percent to D’Annunzio’s 38 percent.

The results were far beyond a mid-June survey by Public Policy Polling that had Johnson leading his opponent by just 10-percentage points. D’Annunzio lost despite spending $1.4 million — most of it his own money — on the race, about 10 times what Johnson spent. D’Annunzio conceded but refused to endorse Johnson.

Johnson will now face freshman Democratic Rep. Larry Kissell in November, a match up that political experts say bodes well for Republicans.

“I’m sure that if Kissell had his druthers he would rather go up against D’Annunzio than Johnson,” said N.C. State University political science professor Andrew Taylor.

GOP long odds

In a surprise win, Randall will face Brad Miller, a four-term Democrat, as Republicans’ nominee in the 13th Congressional District. Randall won 59 percent of the vote to Reeves’ 41 percent.

In the weeks leading up to the runoff, Randall had to stave off accusations of plagiarism from his opponent and backtrack on remarks suggesting that BP and the federal government colluded on the Gulf Coast oil spill.

In the 12th, Dority staged an upset by taking in about 100 more votes than Cumbie. The two tied in the first primary.

Republicans face an uphill battle in both districts. Miller has represented the 13th since its creation following the 2000 census, and he handily won re-election the last two cycles. Similarly, Watt has represented the 12th since the early 1990s. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans there three-to-one.

Eager Dems

In a midterm election season that’s been dominated by Republicans keen on running for office, state Senate District 21 was a rare exception. Five Democrats filed to replace retiring seven-term Democrat Larry Shaw, compared to one Republican.

Mansfield and Crenshaw were neck-and-neck in the May primary, but Mansfield walked to an easy victory Tuesday night by securing 64 percent of the vote to Crenshaw’s 36 percent.

“Eric Mansfield leveraged his financial advantage and support from a diverse array of statewide organizations into a runoff victory over Lula Crenshaw. His apparently broad coalition of support was too much for Crenshaw to overcome,” said John Rustin, executive director of the North Carolina Free Enterprise Foundation, a pro-business research group.

The district is strongly Democrat. President Barack Obama, U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, and Gov. Bev Perdue — all Democrats — won the district in 2008 by nearly 70 percent of the vote each.

David N. Bass is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.