Posted on 04/16/2007 7:19:02 PM PDT by dalight
Victoria Wulsin, whose effort to unseat Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) fell short by fewer than 3,000 votes last year, announced Monday she would challenge the second-term GOP lawmaker again in 2008.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
This will also cause any Republican who was thinking about taking a pot shot at Jean think long and hard. It would take an incredible pile of money to win; and, they would incur the wrath of folks who want to keep this seat by wasting time and money playing out this loser of a game.
One of these days she's going to say something so stupid she won't be able to recover, and then that'll cost the GOP the seat. In 2006, the GOP made the mistake of renominating a bunch of stupid, incompetent incumbents -- guys like Don Sherwood and Bob Ney. Let's not make the mistake again with Schmidt.
Surely they can find someone else that is not just Republican in name only.
She did have the cajones to go after Murtha...
That wins her some credit in my eyes.
Schmidt is indeed imperiling a district that should be safe. She’s included with Barbara Cubin (who nearly lost Wyoming of all places) and John Doolittle. Use the primary and use it often.
Does it take like anything to have someone say that? Like perhaps a fact? Anyway, anyone to the right of Jean is unelectable. We have already tried it.
The more likely challengers will be either Phil Heimlich and or Tom Brinkman. Both would lose to Wulsin, but its very unlikely that anyone can win in the primary against Jean. This has been proven twice.
The district will renominate but at what cost in treasure expended and damage done is another question. A primary challenge would help Wulsin considerably and perhaps cost the district.
The Ohio Party Chairman, Bennett, should have resigned in disgrace after the nightmare of 2006 that was entirely his fault but he still sits in place and cannot even hold his own minor political seat securely.
But what will be will be. Jean will always win the primary. Its a structural fact of the district. But this sort of crap charge and the viciousness that goes with it is what Wulsin needs.
Anyone watching what is happening in Washington has to think twice about turning over another Ohio district to these people.
Congresswoman Schmidt, shouldn’t you be prepping for committee right now?
I just don't know if she is, but she had better be thinking about it seriously about now.
Comparing Schmidt to Sherwood and Ney is way over-the-top. Sherwood played “choke-a-bitch” with his mistress in a hotel room (Republicans don’t get away with that) and Ney was sentenced to 30 months in prison and didn’t run for reelection.
Bennett may have played a part in what happened in Ohio, but to say it’s entirely his fault is a bit much. Did you forget about Taft, who should’ve resigned a year earlier ? The entire RINO establishment in Ohio played a part in the debacle, along with the awful situation nationwide. At least we only lost just the 1 House seat (as opposed to the 7 we lost between neighboring IN & PA), as it could’ve ended up 3 or so.
But yea, Bennett really really blew it and the Ohio Party is a mess and you have to deal with that. Why was almost every state office lost? Not because of scandal, but because, frankly one week before the 2006 election, yard signs were not in the ground. Major positions in every single precinct are unfilled. Call lists didn't have volunteers. And, this is still largely the case.
This is all Bennett's fault because he is the leader and Republicans are still wondering in the wilderness rather than urgently rebuilding in Ohio.
It was nearly a miracle that we held our Congressional seats, but if you study the situation, the Congressional candidates were the locus of effort that kept the whole state from being a route. This is because when the State party checked out, the Congressmen filled the whole, campaigning for all of the statewide offices as well as themselves in some situations, because the State was completely out of the picture, moping because "their" candidate lost in the primary.
One has to remember, that Blackwell was the outsider for Bennett's bunch. The Taft forces are Bennett and company. We have lost critical time for rebuilding because Bennett didn't step down and begin the process of putting together a new machine for 2008.
I don’t want to make it sound like I’m absolving Mr. Bennett, it’s just there was a perfect storm of problems (not just in Ohio) that was a disaster in nearly every state. Ohio’s, though, was a train wreck that could be seen coming from some distance away. One other added thing was that the argument of party fatigue was a problem. It had been 20 years since the rodents got one of theirs in the State House in Columbus, and that played a part. It’s simply too bad that one of the best individuals we had put up for Governor in years had to lose in such a humilating landslide.
I do have to wonder something else, and that being if a lot of the Petro-supporting Country-Clubber RINOs (many of whom tend to be racists) voted for Strickland in protest, because Blackwell, even in a bad year, should not have lost THAT badly.
Jean Schmidt is no Ney or Sherwood, but she has come close to losing in an overwhelmingly GOP district twice already, and I would rather have someone else run. I think Schmidt should be appointed to a position where she can concentrate on pro-life issues (on which she is superb) and have another conservative Republican run for the seat (as I have posted before, my favorite would be Ken Blackwell).
You say you are a Republican district. I would think if enough people got behind the right candidate; they would defeat her unless there is some crookedness going on with her being elected.
Ney did run for reelection -- he won the Republican Primary, even after it was clear he was going to prison. That meant the GOP didn't get to choose a qualified, capable candidate when, eventually, he dropped out.
I should’ve prefaced it by saying he wasn’t in the general election (unlike Sherwood). I’m not sure what you mean by the GOP not choosing a qualified candidate (or at least one who appeared to be). A special primary was held and won by State Sen. Joy Padgett (and had Ney withdrawn prior to the regular primary, she probably would’ve been nominated at that point, unless she had preferred to stay Petro’s running mate). Unfortunately, Padgett had her own baggage to carry, including being an apparent protege of Ney’s (and Taft’s, for that matter), and the contorted process that Petro had to clear her to run for Congress, which all resulted in her disastrous showing of only 38% against an unqualified newbie rodent.
I’ll go out on a limb and say that it’s quite possible no matter who we put up in this district given what happened, that the rodent still would’ve won. Let us hope at least that next time out, Padgett does not run again (nor for her Senate seat).
Jean is the right candidate.
There was more of an undercurrent of the Evangelicals hearing smears against Blackwell and accepting them as fact and the issue of Blackwell having spent his wad defeating Petro, had nothing left for the General. Blackwell's statewide organization was a shadow of the Democrat machine that was made up of Union operatives and MoveOn/ACT activists. This is because the State apparatus was fatigued as you say, but also, those folks were just gone.
It was a difficult time because alot of every year Republicans were sitting on their hands or feeling intimidated by Union members dark mutterings. But, ultimately, you can measure the health of a campaign by the yard signs and the Democrats had their signs out for months. The Republicans partial coverage for the last week. It builds an expectation of defeat.
It isn't enough to have signs everywhere. In my county, we had a candidate running as a unapologetic RINO, saying he intended pulling from the middle and his Democrat friends so he couldn't work for any other Republican candidate. This divided my county's resources between this "nonpartisan" candidate and the Republican remainder. And, the result was nearly disaster, and the real Democrat won the Commissioner race for the first time in a generation. But, the Republican party fully supported this nightmare candidate even as he ran down the whole rest of the ticket and stole away some of the most active workers. Insane.
Unfortunately, Bennett is one of the Uber Petro-supporting Country-Clubber RINOs..
I just think it would have been better if he had stepped back. I don't think its likely, but thats what needs doing. And Blackwell isn't the guy.
There is a reality in Ohio that cannot be denied. The cities are BLUE islands in a sea of RED. But, the islands have alot of population. This is very similar to Pennsylvania.
Ohio doesn't balance Republican, a candidate has to have cross over appeal. Strickland ran a campaign emphasizing humble roots, gun ownership, light evangelical values and this was a winning combination for them, despite being fact/reality deprived. They had organization, ground game and money to push the message.
Blackwell didn't have the cross over appeal to the same communities, and suffered from a number of whispering campaigns that got the religious right to stand on the side lines as well. Part of this being threats against churches which participated in campaigning. But, ultimately, the party just was missing, retired, angry and pooped. This is no secret.
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