OH-2 election

[KevinTheOmnivore]

So has anybody followed this special election in ohio? Paul Hackett, a recent veteran home from Iraq, ran against a Rupublican in the GOP-friendly 2nd district of Ohio.

He did very well considering he lost. The Ohio GOP was happy with the win, despite hoping they'd "bury" him for his comments against Bush's Iraq policy.

Whether it was necessary or not, both sides took this race very seriously. Both sides raised a ton of cash over it, and the GOP even had Bush do an ad in favor of the Republican lady.

Folks like Newt Gingrich think the Republicans need to take this as a warning sign of potential things to come in 2006. Mid-cycle elections tend to be poor for second-term incumbents in the White House, and the blogosphere is spending a lot of cash in a lot of traditionally Republican districts, with groups like Dean's DFA trying to pick the "right" kind of "progressive" candidates to run.

This guy Hackett has the right stuff, he's military, so he has cred. to add to his criticism. Supposedly he didn't use the label "Democrat" all that often, but why should he when the House DCCC hardly did a thing for him? He'll probably run again in 2006, and he could win.

Maybe this is a sign of things to come, I guess we'll see.