Rhode Island, Arizona primary races in spotlight

An embattled Senate incumbent in Rhode Island and an open House seat in Arizona gave Republican primary voters a choice Tuesday between moderates and conservatives, as both parties watched the races with eyes on the larger fight for control of Congress.\nThe last big day of primaries before the November elections also brought Democratic contests for the Senate in Maryland and a House seat in Minnesota. In all, nine states and the District of Columbia voted, with the other states including Delaware, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and Wisconsin.\nRhode Island received the most attention, with a conservative challenger -- Cranston, R.I., Mayor Steve Laffey -- posing a substantial threat to moderate Republican incumbent Lincoln Chafee.\nChafee won support from the Republican establishment, even though he has consistently bucked the Bush administration and the GOP-led Congress on the environment and abortion and was the lone Republican to vote against the use of military force in Iraq.\nBut if he loses the primary, polls show Democratic nominee Sheldon Whitehouse, a former attorney general, would be the likely winner in the fall. With Democrats hopeful they can gain the six seats needed to win control in the Senate, that makes the seat critical.\nPolls a month before the primary showed the two Republicans running even.\nThe House race in Arizona for a seat left open by retiring moderate GOP Rep. Jim Kolbe also has drawn national money and interest. Eleven major-party candidates for the seat that stretches from Tucson to the Mexican border were entered in the party primaries.\nNational GOP leaders angered Republican candidates when they jumped into the race to support state Rep. Steve Huffman, a moderate who in a recent poll was trailing a former state lawmaker, Randy Graf.\nParty officials have expressed concerns Graf might be too conservative to win the seat in November.\nThe two leading Democratic contenders are former state legislator Gabrielle Giffords and former local television anchor Patty Weiss.\nIn Maryland, Democrats decided between Rep. Ben Cardin and Kweisi Mfume, former head of the NAACP, for a Senate candidate to fill Paul Sarbanes' seat. The winner will face GOP Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, who -- if he wins -- will be the lone black Republican in the Senate.\nIn Minnesota, Democrats were picking among four candidates for a House seat in a district that includes Minneapolis. The party backed state legislator Keith Ellison, who will be Congress' first Muslim member if he wins. But Ellison found himself in a tough, four-way battle.\nElsewhere:\n--District of Columbia voters choose between city council member Adrian M. Fenty and longtime council Chairwoman Linda W. Cropp in the mayoral primary. In heavily Democratic Washington, the primary is tantamount to the general election.\n--New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer looked to be coasting to a primary win for governor against Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi. Spitzer is expected to easily win in the fall. And one-term Sen. Hillary Clinton faced a long shot anti-war candidate in the primary.\n--Also in New York, the Democratic primary for attorney general pits former federal Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo -- son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo -- against Mark Green, the former New York City public advocate.