Dark Bilious Vapors

Well, I can dream, anyway. But the truth is, the voters of Ohio's Second Congressional District came damn close to telling the GOP to drop dead.

I've mentioned Paul Hackett earlier. He's the Marine Reserve major, Iraq war veteran who was running for the Congressional seat in the Second District in Ohio.

Nope. He didn't win. But he came damn close. In a district where the Democratic candidate polls maybe, 30-40%, Major Hackett polled about 48%. The GOP candidate, Jeanne Schmidt, who should have won in a 60% (or more)-40% (or less) landslide, won by only 4 percentage points. I think Steve Gilliard said it best:

This is a GOP district which went 62-35 for Bush last year, now, nine months later, a well-known long time GOP legislator running in the Ohio GOP heartland, barely eeked out a win, in a district which hasn't sent a Democrat to Congress in 25 years.

...

Understand this: yesterday, thousands of Bush-supporting, longtime Republicans went into the booth and voted for a Democrat who attacked the President. A pro-choice moderate against the head of the local pro-life outfit.

These are people who haven't voted Democratic since 1980.

No, Paul Hackett didn't get elected to Congress yesterday. But he received 48.2 percent of the vote in a district where the Democratic candidate received only half that in the last four elections.

The formula is simple. Paul Hackett didn't apologize for being a Democrat, didn't hold back from criticizing a president who has failed to lead in Iraq and at home, and took a strong Democratic message into the heart of a Republican stronghold.

Len on 08.03.05 @ 08:05 PM CST