Spinning the 5th
From the Springfield News
Republicans, not surprisingly, said this was a victory for their message. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester, sent out a statement saying as much. But he also poured staff and money into the race, helping to raise at least $250,000 for Latta.
Weirauch, meanwhile, trying for the third time to win the district, got about $250,000 from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The AFL-CIO made 30,000 phone calls for her and Gov. Ted Strickland and Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama backed her.
So Latta’s decisive victory seemed to, for an instant, take some wind out of the Democrats’ sails, until they started spinning it.
Democrats said despite the solid Latta victory, Republicans were nonetheless “more vulnerable than ever in Ohio.” Chris Redfern, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, said “the GOP had to scramble to win a special election that should have been a cake walk.”
Ohio Republican Party Deputy Chairman Kevin DeWine, meanwhile, was all too happy to serve up some tasty crow to Strickland, pointing out that Weirauch actually did better in her 2006 race than in this one.
“Ted, Ted, Ted. This looks like a whole Latta votes against the governor and his so-called popularity,” DeWine said in a statement.
Bob Bennett, meanwhile, also got in a dig at Strickland, calling the results “a clear rejection of a popular governor who spent enormous political capital on this race.”
Not to be ignored
All this naval-gazing ignored a few facts. Weirauch did better against Gillmor in 2006 in part because neither side poured the resources into the 2006 race that they did into the special election. That year, you’ll remember, was toxic for Republicans everywhere, and Republicans were too busy scrambling to hold other districts to concentrate on Gillmor’s race.
