Putting Steele and Kaine to the Truth-O-Meter

The election results in Kentucky and Hawaii were a big topic on ABC’s This Week on May 23, 2010, and — no surprise! — the Republican and Democratic chairmen read the tea leaves differently.

We checked a claim from each:

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine claimed that the Democratic candidates in the Kentucky Senate primary each got more votes than Republican nominee Rand Paul, which Kaine suggested was a sign of Democratic strength in the fall election. We rated that Half True.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said the victory of a Republican in a special election in Hawaii was a good sign, noting that Hawaii had a strong history of rel-electing incumbents. We checked the history for Hawaiian incumbents and found Steele was right. He earned a True.