As Goes Ohio

WASHINGTON -- The results of Tuesday's special election in Ohio's Second Congressional District provide us with few clues as to how the 2006 race for control of Congress might shake out.
Republican Jean Schmidt defeated Democrat Paul Hackett to retain the seat in the Republican column. This should come as no surprise as this is a heavily Republican part of the world where George W. Bush received 64% just last year.
On the other hand, the Democrats pulled out all the stops to win the seat. Hackett is a Marine just back from Iraq who sometimes sounded like he was running against George W. Bush himself, rather than Jean Schmidt, so critical of the president was he (he openly called the president a "chicken hawk" on the stump). Hackett is tall, good-looking, and smart. Jim Carville and Max Cleland trekked to Ohio to help him raise money. The leftwing blogosphere, still chasing the idea that if they just hate George W. Bush enough they will eventually win something, helped Hackett raise tens of thousands of dollars.
Moreover, Ohio was the scene of the crime; the state Karl Rove "stole" in order to maintain his death clutch on America and deliver putrid Democracy to half-naked savages overseas. Add a trumped-up rare coins scandal which shrouds the GOP in Ohio and suddenly the race looked competitive.
And Hackett made it close. Schmidt won with only 52% of the vote compared to 48% for Hackett. And yet, despite the Democrat nominee's relatively high vote count in this Republican district, his loss should come as further discouraging news to national Democrats who hope beyond all hope to take back the House of Representatives someday.
A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO, I posited on this site that even accounting for an anti-Republican tidal wave in 2006, the Democrats would be hard pressed to reclaim the U.S. Senate. A confluence of limited competitive seats, expensive media markets, and fundraising realities make it nearly impossible for Harry Reid to win a majority. The challenges ar...