OH-05: Are Republicans Worried?

There's two special elections occurring next Tuesday. One is in the Ohio 5th District, vacant since it's Representative, Paul Gilmor, died in early September. The district leans Republican. It has been in Republican hands since 1939. President Bush won over 60% of the vote in this district.

OH-05 is centered in Northwestern Ohio, including Fremont, Tiffin, Norwalk and Bowling Green, as well as the southern suburbs of Toledo.

The Republican nominee is Bob Latta, an Ohio State Senator and the son of Del Latta, who held the seat for 30 years. The Democratic nominee is Robin Weirauch, who got 43% of the vote against Paul Gilmor last year. As of late, Republicans are pouring a lot of money into the special election campaign, raising flags that perhaps they believe Weirauch to be stronger than they think. An internal poll showed Latta 14 points up, but only at 50%. In response, Democrats appear to have poured a lot of their resources hoping to pull off an upset. Some insiders say the race is likely to be close, reminiscent of the 2005 race in the similarly-conservative Ohio-2 district near Cincinatti where Democrat Paul Hackett, an Iraq war vet, won 48% of the vote against Republican Jean Schmidt, an Ohio state legislature. The closeness of the race (Schmidt's predecessor, Rob Portman, had consistently gotten 70% of the vote in earlier elections) was seen as a harbinger for 2006, when Democrats won both houses of Congress.

Election Day in the Ohio-5 is December 11th

Former Rep. Henry Hyde Dies

Henry Hyde, the former Republican Congressman who represented Chicago's western suburbs for over 30 years had died at 83.

Born in Chicago, Hyde attended Duke University and Georgetown University. He received his law degree from Loyola University. Hyde served in the Navy during World War II, seeing combat in The Philippines. He was a Democrat until the 1950's when he supported Dwight Eisenhower. He served in the Illinois House of Representatives until 1974, when he was elected to Congress. A staunch pro-life politician, he vehemently opposed abortion rights. He served on the House Judiciary Committe since 1975 and chaired the committee from 1995-2001. Hyde is most famous for presiding over the Bill Clinton impeachment trials. Although rather conservative, he supported some gun control, including the Brady Bill and the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban. He also was skeptical of the Iraq war.

Hyde retired from Congress in 2006. After the Mark Foley scandal broke, some Republicans suggested Speaker Dennis Hastert should resign and be replaced by Hyde for the last few months of the 109th Congress. His seat in suburban Chicago was taken by Republican Pete Roskam, who narrowly defeated Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth 51%-49%. Earlier this month, Hyde received the Presidential Media of Freedom.

Hyde underwent open-heart surgery in Chicago in July. He suffered from complications from the surgery which caused him to be hospitalized. Hyde passed away at 3 a.m. He was 83.

MS-Sen: Trent Lott To Resign

Just when the Mississippi GOP thought it was safe when Thad Cochran decided to run again, this happens.

If he resigns before the end of the year, there will be a special election in the spring, if he resigns after the first of the year, the special election with coincide with the general election in November, which means Mississippi, like Wyoming, will elect two Senators at once. He's expected to leave before the end of year when coincidently new ethics rules passed by the Democratic-controlled Congress that would ban members of Congress from lobbying on the Hill for two year after they leave office.

An open seat would give the Democrats a chance to win a Mississippi Senate seat for the first time since 1982. Former Attorney General Mike Moore, Current Attorney General Jim Hood and Former Governor Ronnie Musgrove are both potential Democratic candidates for the seat. GOP Governor Haley Barbour will appoint a caretaker for the seat who may or may not run for reelection in 2008. They include GOP Congressmen Roger Wicker and Chip Pickering. Pickering has stated he was retiring from his Congressional seat next year.

This Is Gonna Piss Off Some Republican

See now, if Bush had been more prompt with this news, there probably wouldn't be a Senator Webb, Senator Tester, Congressman Courtney, Congressman Loebsack, Congressman Hall, Congressman Rodriguez, and maybe not even a Congresswoman Shea-Porter.

I, for one, am not complaining, but if I was a Republican, I'd be livid.