The brief skinny: Paul Hackett is a soldier returned from Iraq, running for office in Ohio’s 2nd District, running as a Democrat. And saying some very not nice things about The Leader. Very not nice. He is opposed by Ms. Jean Schmidt, who says some kinda mean things about Mr. Hackett (not as mean as what Mr. Limbaugh had to say, but thats another matter…). Ms Schmidt appears to be running on a platform of I Love The Leader! Mr. Hacketts platform: The Leader Bites It!
The polls are closing, the results will be coming in, and people who give a rats ass are invited to gloat and/or opine.
OH-2 is just to strongly republican for Hackett to win, but the big suprise will that he will lose by single digit percentage points. A blue waltzed into a red and almost pulled it off. I think it will ultimately send a message to the extreme right wing of the party that maybe they aren’t as invincible as they think they are. Hopefully a centrist movement grows out of it.
If you’re alleging a Swift Boat style smear campaign against this guy, can you provide evidence of it? Defamatory statements, that kind of thing? Rjung’s link is incredibly vague.
I just took a look at preliminary results. As of 8:59 pm EDT and with 84% of the precincts reported the total vote was 15,207 votes cast out of 60,900 registered voters. With a clear difference between the two candidates 3 out of 4 voters didn’t bother to show up. Pitiful.
Of course, the worthless shitbag also calls McCain a pussy (boy, them RW talkers sure love their veterans - or at least claim to around election time) and whines about how the Democrats were being bullies with the whole Bolton deal.
Rush calling a guy fresh back from Fellujah a “Staff Puke” is pretty damn disgusting. When I read about that and the attempted smears, I contributed 20 bucks to Hackett’s campaign.
As of an hour ago, neck and neck, 52% to 48% in favor of Shmidt.
Now, I had heard vague mentions that this was a very conservative district, and any Dem contender wasn’t considered much of a threat. Anybody got any good background on this? I could go looking for it if I weren’t so lazy and easily…ooooh! shiny!
No Democrat has received more than 37% of the vote in that district since 1974. Even if Hackett loses, the narrowness of the race should send chills down the spines of the Republican leadership.
[off topic completely]
Looking at the map of the district reminded me that Portsmouth, Ohio has some really nice murals on the floodwall. Well worth seeing if you’re in the area.
