I agree with you for the most part. Bob Novak was on C-SPAN yesterday at a Q&A session in D.C. and an Ohioan asked about that race. Novak did say that Schmidt was not a good candidate and ran a poor campaign.
I thought there were three big things.
One was COAST (and to a lesser extent the other primary opponents) not going to bat for Schmidt in the general. I thought that hurt her. I don't know to what extent Brinkman was or was not involved in it, but by being affiliated with the group in the past, I suspect a good number of Republicans are not happy with him.
Second, the state of the Ohio GOP hurt Schmidt. I wonder what would have happened if Hackett had not talked about the war stuff and just focused on Taft, Householder, etc.
Third, I think this race should teach anyone a lesson. Even in a solid district like that, you can't underestimate your competition. I think some people thought it was in the bag after the primary. It was a mistake. Fortunately, Schmidt won. It's something for Republicans to learn from.
Brinkman has stepped back from COAST since being elected in 2000. I can tell you for sure that Brinkman does not call the shots at COAST anymore.
And before anyone thinks that I'm from COAST, I'll say that while I agreed with COAST's conclusions, that neither Schmidt nor Hackett deserved our support, I do not agree with the idea of boycotting elections. Voting is our duty, one that some people risk dying to undertake. In fact, we've lost some 2000 soldiers in just the past 3 years so that Afghanistan and Iraq could vote.
I did not vote for Schmidt. I didn't vote for Hackett either. But I sure wasn't going to fail to vote.