Bad news in special elections in Ohio & Virginia (link)

[Greenwood]

See, this is what I am talking about. Forgive me for being pissed, but I am. We have a chance to knock the GOP on its back but we fail. Yes, it was a bit of an uphill climb but it was a disappointing night. I was up until 2:15 watching returns. Go to bed pissed. Folks can voice optimism and say the tide is turning, etc., etc., etc. but I am telling you that all that means squat unless people act.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/12/statusquo_on_tuesday_is_good_n.html

[cali]

1. oh please. what are you suggesting? that the dem candidates

didn't do their damndest? the Ohio race was in a very strongly puke district. Don't know enough about the VA race, but this seems like a ridiculous thing to get pissed about.

[beachmom]

2. Solid R district in Virginia, too. n/t

[flashl]

3. Part of the 'game'

"Democrats can take pleasure that they forced Republicans to spend heavily to defend a solidly Republican district."

[Bitwit1234]

4. Unless they moved 2/3 of the residents out of the district

in Virginia there is no way in the world they would have won that district. No democrat has a chance. Only republicans and I mean republicans live there. Upper upper la de dah.

[paulk]

5. the article doesn't give the vote tally

The Republicans won that Ohio district with over 60% of the vote in 2006 - considering that, if the vote was closer this time around, that has to be seen as good news for the Democrats. At the very least we forced them to spend a lot of money (money they're short of - heading into 2008, defending a seat that should have been a shoo-in for them.

[zbdent]

6. 55% to 45% this time around

[LiberalFighter]

8. There you go... from a 20 point margin down to 10 points

The question is whether it should be a different Democratic candidate or the same. They have run the same candidate 3 times in a row in that district. 3 times might be the limit where the public starts to sleep and not pay attention.

[LiberalFighter]

7. You can't judge this as failure based on two districts that are predominantly Repug

There could be other factors that made it impossible to win in the Ohio 5th. Such as the candidate might be conceived as a loser and the voters didn't want to touch her. It could be their campaign staff didn't have the expertise. It could be the DNC didn't provide the right resources. It could be they didn't use the media or the right media. Here in Indiana there were lots of Latta ads on tv but not one for his opponent. Possibly if they had bought time in the Ft Wayne IN market it might had made a difference. I don't even recall one time during past elections where a Democratic candidate from that district had any time in this area.

I don't expect us to win here in the IN 3rd but I sure as hell am still going to do everything I can to help their campaign and other campaigns. There are other races next year that have good odds of us winning and increasing the margin in both the Senate and House. We may not be able to increase our House seats here in Indiana but Ohio and others might be able to. Just that the Gilmore seat was more difficult. My first thought in Illinois for Hastert's seat is that will be difficult but then again we might be able to pull that one out and that WOULD be a major victory. That I believe will also be a special election.

This year we had just city elections. We knocked the local GOP on their asses with help from within their own party. We won the mayor's office again with a different candidate which hadn't been done before. Usually, with no incumbent the party not in office wins the office. We beat out a long time city council member in a strong Republican district although we lost in a different district. The cause of the loss in that district probably had more to do with the incumbent not running and the primary winner pulling out and us having to start from scratch with a new candidate. The local GOP which once was considered the premier county party in the state is mostly in shambles now with animosity between factions that I doubt will be easy to heal. Their mayoral candidate is still awaiting a trial for charges brought by a grand jury. Once he is convicted it should take him out of the picture for any future political ambition he might have. Once convicted of a felon in this state they cannot run for any elected office.

We have tools available that will help tremendously in 2008. We haven't even begin to scratch the surface yet with the tools on hand. I am sure that at the most any states in play will be utilized by the presidential candidate and hopefully the other federal elections too.

We do need to be better organized from Presidential campaigns on down. Writing letters to the editor to support the candidates and to challenge and rebut the opposition.

[Blue Diadem]

11. Latta's Father had the district for 30 yrs.

Former Ohio congressman's son elected to fill dad's old seat

http://www.wtol.com/global/story.asp?s=7483075

snip:
Latta's father, Delbert, held the conservative and traditionally Republican 5th District seat from 1959 until 1989
-------------------------------------------
I thought it was an odd headline, but then this district is predominately rural/small towns. They don't like change and often go by familiar names. The negativity in our local paper's opinion page towards Robin was largely that she was inexperienced, new, etc.

[Renew Deal]

9. My understanding was that those were bad districts for Dems.

And a win would have been a miracle.

[underpants]

10. Va1 has been Republican forever

as long as I have been around

[KingFlorez]

12. These are not swing districts

These are safe Republican districts, it wasn't like there was ever much of a chance.