Ohio's 2nd Congressional district had a special election yesterday to fill the seat vacated by Rep. Rob Portman who was appointed by President Bush to be a US trade representative.
The two candidates competing for the seat were Democrat Paul Hackett and Republican Jean Schmidt. Schmidt is a former state legislator who marches in lockstep with the president on the war.
Hackett is a US Marine reservist who just completed a seven-month tour of duty in Iraq, but has criticized President Bush on the war. Hackett was honorably discharged from the Marines in 1999, but volunteered for duty even though he opposed the US going into Iraq. Additionally, he has cited Bush's idiotic "bring 'em on" remark in 2003 as the "most incredibly stupid comment" he has ever heard a president make.
The district in question is solid Republican and voted 64% for Bush last November. Once the ballots were all counted, Schmidt won the seat with 52% of the vote to Hackett's 48%. However, the fact that Hackett almost pulled out a victory in such a "red" district is going to wake up GOP pollsters, and get them to ponder how vulnerable the House is to Democratic takeover in 2006.
Let the Republican rationalizing begin.
posted by Scott @ 12:50 PM
2 Comments:
The only reason he did so well is that he ran deceptive ads which protrayed him as a Republican.
I saw the ad in question, and you're right that it didn't bring up Hackett's initial opposition to the war. However, Hackett has maintained that the US shouldn't withdraw the troops until the country is stable which was really what the commercial was all about. Also, for voters in that district, there was plenty of coverage of Hackett's position on the war and to say that's the reason why the race was so close is to paint the electorate in that district as pretty uninformed on such a high profile race.
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