The mistake our national party made here

[dsc]

I fully understand why in a typical election year we would spend no money on a race like tonights. Money isn't unlimited, we have to make decisions about which districts to spend money in and which ones not to.

In special elections, that isn't nearly as big an issue. We lost this race tonight by 4 percentage points, or 4,004 votes out of 114,186 votes cast. Would 500k have gotten us 4,005 more votes? Truthfully, I don't know. But I would rather us be asking if we spent too much to get that last needed vote than that question. We should have ponied up the money.

After all, she wasn't the only scandal tainted candidate who was running on the Republican side. DeWine's son lost the primary in large part to his nasty divorce. Anything can happen in an election like this. We should have ponied up the money.

[Erika]

1. She lost to an Iraq vet

If she indeed lost.

[wli]

2. look at that last county; we need the FBI in there ASAP

There's no way this was a clean election.

[Dr Fate]

3. They ignore the base, no matter how often we are right.

I hope they are watching & learning how to do it.

[Al-CIAda]

4. Evening Dr., keep poking. nt

:thumbsup: :patriot:

[Carolab]

5. THEY STOLE IT AGAIN.

What's up with people? The machines in Clermont County crashed?

We have heard about these machines crashing at the 11th hour enough, haven't we?

Hackett was leading and then, oops, crash! in the same county where Judge Connelly supposed whupped Kerry's ass in November?

C'mon, what will it take for people to see the light???

[sandnsea]

6. Truth is, unity works

Hackett took alot of positions that would cause difficulties in a national campaign, including supporting winning in Iraq.

What mattered is he wasn't fighting Democrats calling him a warmonger, waffler, and worse. No Democrats repeating Schmidt's talking points or demanding Hackett answer the accusations against his record. Unified support, one message, national people like Carville, Glenn & Cleland. Excitement.

When Democrats support their candidates, Democrats win. (Or come close) And when local Democrats start supporting the national party, the DNC, then the national party will win.

That goes for the DLC and the left. Hillary was right. There has to be a ceasefire and one platform going forward.

That's what really happened in this campaign. REAL unity.

[dsc]

7. To illustrate my point a little more

Of the five counties which lie entirely in the second district Scioto had the lowest turnout in comparision to 2004. 7563 people turned out tonight while 35086 turned out in 2004. That is 21.6%. This also happened to be Hackett's best county. Clermont, which was Schmidt's best county, had the best turnout in comparision to 2004. 29759 tonight vs 78836 in 2004. That is 37.7%. Had Scioto's turnout been as high Hackett would have had 3672 more votes while Schmidt would have had 1991 a net difference of 1681 votes. Not enough to win but close to enough to half the difference and that was in one county.