Primary post-mortem

Many things come to mind looking at the results of yesterday's elections and the months leading up to the election.

First, let me thank the also-rans for making the effort. Particularly, Bill Pierce and David Smith for taking on the daunting task of challenging an incumbent U.S. senator. Both men made considerable personal sacrifice of both time and financial resources. Each entered this campaign realizing it was an up hill battle, but cared enough to make the effort. I'm sure supporters of both men wish the other had not run. In the end Mike DeWine had far greater name recognition than his challengers and neither Smith nor Pierce had the financial backing necessary to get their message out.

Next, in the Ohio 2nd District we learned a key difference between Ohio and New York. You might be able to show up in New York, pretend to be a New Yorker and win elective office, but in Ohio we prefer Ohioans to represent us. Bob McEwen was gone too long to be able to fool enough people to vote for him. Hopefully, this will be the last we hear of McEwen running in Ohio elections. There has to be an opening in Virginia for him somewhere.

Surprisingly, Kay Rogers won the nomination to run again for her current position as Butler County Auditor despite many allegations of misconduct and abuse of office. I just don't get it. Nationwide, Dems are planning on running a campaign based on allegations of a "culture of corruption" and we provide them a stick to beat us with by running a candidate currently under investigation.

Republicans in Ohio have chosen Mike DeWine to run in November. That leave Ohio's conservative voters with a difficult decision. Do we go with the lesser of two evils and vote DeWine in November? Do we ignore the race because we are so displeased with DeWine? The fact that the Democrat candidate, Sherrod Brown, is an extreme liberal doesn't necessarily make my decision any easier. Right now, when the senate fails to accomplish anything the media tells us repeatedly that the Republicans have a 55-45 advantage. Tell you what, go ask Bill Frist if he has 55 reliable votes. I hope no one believes this primary challenge will convince DeWine to straighten up. No, it will be just the opposite. To him a victory in November will validate his past actions and will give him 6 years of job security to ignore his constituents with impunity.

Lastly, a true fiscal and social conservative won the Republican nomination for governor. Ken Blackwell has many fine attributes, but most impressive to me is his consistency in his position on the issues. There is nothing inherently wrong with reexamining your position and modifying your stance. However, far too many politicians change their position in an obvious act of political calculation. I have a strong sense that Ken Blackwell would rather not win than win by being dishonest. This will easily become the nastiest race in the state with large amounts of funding coming from outside the state. Nationally, Democrats are terrified of losing their virtual monopoly on the minority vote and realize black Republicans winning major offices will greatly influence the next generation. Politicians are at their worst when scared of losing power. Democrats who understand math realize the last two presidential elections would not have been close if they had not gotten nearly 90% of the black vote. If November ushers in a Senator Steele, Governor Blackwell and Governor Swann more people may recognize that political decisions should not be determined by race.