It was supremely ironic, that the state which signaled that the election was OVER, and we had somehow found the courage to elect Barack Obama as our 44th President, was Ohio! That was so lovely. And so where to start?
The landscape in the Buckeye state politically speaking was very different from 2004 in perhaps the most important office regarding elections. Instead of Attorney General Ken Blackwell who was the chair of the Bush re-election campaign in the state and who's deeply twisted and hypocritical religious values contorted his ability to possess even a smidgen of integrity, we have Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers. AG Rogers acted quickly and decisively to oppose Republican efforts to deny legitimate citizens of Ohio the right to vote. And the courts agreed with her position.
You can add to that an economic situation in this nation that has hit the lives of the working class in Ohio as hard as anywhere in this country. And I'd like to think that even the embarrassment of the opportinistic lieing sack of shit known as "Joe the Plumber" may have swayed a few reluctant undecideds to vote against the Republican ticket and their cynical, equally opportunistic tactics.
On the positive side, Obama's grassroots efforts on college campuses and effort to energize the "youth" vote clearly paid dividends in at least one Ohio county, Athens, the home of Ohio University and a southeastern county that voted for Obama to the tune of 66.5% over McCain.
Other notable trends included how resoundingly urban the support for Obama was. And in particular the strong support in Cincinnati. A support that gave Incumbent Republican representative Steve Chabot the boot in favor of Democratic challenger, Steve Dreihaus.
As good as the day was for Democrats in Ohio, it was not perfect. Two house seats remained in Republican hands that I personally supported change in. In her second attempt to unseat radically conservative wacko Jean Schmidt, Dr. Victoria Wulsin came up short. In the 15th district, bordering the western suburbs of Columbus, Mary Jo Kilroy, a long assumed successor to Deborah Price (who actually sited Kilroy's support in the district as a reason for not seeking re-election to a 10th term) ended the night 321 votes behind her Repulican challenger Steve Stivers. The ultimate end of this race may depend on a recount and provisional ballots, but from early on, this race was never suppose to be so close.
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