Any Ohio Freepers have insight? I thought Schmidt was pretty liberal. Did the voters send DeWhine a message at the expense of his son?
Schmidt is not liberal, she is a pro2a, and former president of Cincinnati Right to Life. We had some good candidates of which she was probably the all around best.
The only downside was that she did support a 1 penny temporary sales tax increase that was also supported by the majority of the republican controlled house. That didn't sit well with club for growth, but that is pretty much the only hint of her being a RINO. Everything else about her screams traditional republican conservative. She will be a solid party vote in congress.
Exactly, who is Schmidt, and the next two vote getters?
Not being from Ohio, I've only heard of the election in the context of a referendum on DeWhine...but if the kid finished fourth it sounds like despite whatever outside media hype the election had to do more with local issues and grass-roots activism
Actually there were several good conservatives running in the race; trouble is there were so many candidates. I actually walked and visited Repub voters one day for Brinkman.
Schmidt is a good conservative and pro life but a little shrill. On the other hand, McEwen is a polished pol who got caught up in the check kitting scandal years back and was booted out; he did not deserve to win. Brinkman is a very conservative state rep; almost a consitutionalist.
I would have preferred Brinkman, but Schmidt will do. Big news is that little philandering RINO Pat DeWine got his as kicked; so it was a great day.
It was a very low turnout (as expected); but I believe it was the last minute TV spots Monday night and Tuesday that clinched it for Schmidt. It seemed she saved her resources to the last minute for some well place TV spots. I did not think she would be the winner. I thought it would be between McEwen and Brinkman.
Schmidt is a moderate, claiming to be a Conservative. Pat DeWine is a non-Conservative, claiming to be a Conservative. He lost ground throughout the race because he insisted on smearing the legitimate Conservatives (Brinkman and McEwen). DeWine's father, who is a moderate Republican Senator was a non-factor, except that he raised an enormous amount of money for his son. Since Pat used it to make himself look bad, I suppose you can say to that extent he was a factor.
The result is very much of a mixed bag. Pat DeWine ran a dispicable campaign and got what he deserved. In it, he ran smears that hurt better men, who still greatly out-polled Pat. I have never seen a candidate supported by the Hamilton County Republican organization poll only 12% of the vote--not in any contest in my lifetime. This was no slap at the Senator, but there are some very, very red, local faces.