Jean Schmidt/Paul Hackett win 2nd District Primaries

I've discussed the race to replace Rob Portman as Representative of Ohio's 2nd Congressional District. Well, the primary was yesterday and Jean Schmidt won the Republican primary and Paul Hackett won on the Democrat half of the ticket. Schmidt's political career was widely assumed to be over after she lost a primary race last year for a state senate seat. Obviously, local voters gave a second look. Bizzyblog has a round up of winners and losers. I disagree with him on one point.

Winners (at least for the next 7 weeks): District Democrats. Yes, they were outvoted 3-1, and yes they have an uphill fight, but they managed to nominate a candidate who isn’t a raving MoveOn “Bush is the source of all evil” moonbat. Given the state of the national Democrat party, that’s an accomplishment. District Dems won’t have to explain away somebody’s nuttiness for the next 7 weeks.

Hackett may not express some of the looniness of the left as vocally as Dean and others but if you look at his positions on issues, he is right in line with the moonbats. He just knows that excessive rhetoric won't play well in this part of the country. He emphasizes his military service to cover for his opposition to the War on Terror. I think he will run a strong campaign and I suspect this will be a closer race than some are expecting.

Separately, Pat DeWine who came into this race as a prohibitive favorite has to wonder how much his father's recent actions weakened his chances. And Mike DeWine has to wonder if yesterday is a harbinger of what he can expect next year when he is up for reelection.