In two races in which the incumbents won handily this week - state Controller Donna Jones by 56.5 percent to challenger Todd Hatfield's 43.5 percent, and Idaho Supreme Court Justice Roger Burdick by 58.4 percent to challenger John Bradbury's 41.6 percent - a look at county-by-county results shows pockets of strong support for the challengers. Hatfield beat Jones in 9 of Idaho's 44 counties - Adams, Bannock, Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, Kootenai, Latah, Shoshone and Valley - with his strongest showing 61 percent in Benewah and 60 percent on his home turf in Valley County.

Bradbury, a 2nd District judge from Grangeville, beat Burdick in 12 counties, including Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, Clearwater, Custer, Franklin, Idaho, Kootenai, Latah, Nez Perce, Oneida and Shoshone. Bradbury garnered a whopping 79 percent of the vote in Clearwater County, and 75 percent in Nez Perce County, and exceeded 60 percent in Benewah, Idaho, Latah and Shoshone counties.

Granted, there are various factors at play - Bradbury appears to have strong support on his home turf, where he's been an elected district judge for the past seven years, and in rural counties, for whom he's advocated more court services; and Hatfield apparently picked up support in timber counties with his appeal for small logging companies to get more state timber contracts. But both were running against well-established, mainstream incumbents...