Let The Lawsuits Begin
Captain Ed
In Ohio's second Congressional district, the GOP has apparently held the seat against a well-funded challenge from a Democrat who recently returned from Iraq. Jean Schmidt beat Paul Hackett by four points and 3,500 votes, a margin that in ordinary circumstances would suggest that recounts would be pointless. However, given the high profile assigned to this race by Democratic activists trying their best to elect an anti-war veteran to Congress, Ohio's voters should expect more of the same hysterical charges of election stealing that we saw after the 2004 election.
Barbara Boxer will be warming her voice up for the morning talk shows after her first cup of coffee, I presume.
Lori at Polipundit has followed this story much more closely than I have, for reasons which I'll cover in a moment. She says that the media will spin this as a loss for Bush, even though she sees it as a win, or a hold at the least. Perhaps. However, Hackett did come a lot closer than Kerry did in 2004 in this same district (Bush 64-36); the Democratic full-court press had its effect. I'm not sure anyone could make a case for anything better than a draw here.
In the end, it doesn't matter much, because in 2006 this district simply won't get the national attention it drew here. The Democrats will not have the resources to dedicate to this one single seat that they did in an off year special election. Without the overwhelming focus on this rock-solid conservative seat, it will revert to a fairly easy GOP race next year -- especially if the Democrats foul the atmosphere with a slew of pointless lawsuits.
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