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Thursday, March 17, 2005

OH-02 - Congressman Portman's seat

Congressman Rob Portman has been tapped for Trade Envoy.

In 2004, the Democrats surrendered Portman's second congressional district (even though it was in OHIO). Charles Sanders spent $15K and -- act surprised -- Portman coasted to re-election. This left Portman free to raise money for his cohorts, which he did.

I'm sure Tim will have more.

Posted at 11:30 AM in 2005 Elections, 2006 Elections - House, Ohio | Technorati

Comments

Beat me to this post, Brigham. I'm not sure there's too much more to add, though: OH-2 is deeply hostile territory for us (undoubtedly a reason why Bush felt comfortable tapping Portman for Trade Rep). It went Bush-Gore 63-35 in 2000.

That's not a reason not to have made a serious effort in 2004 (ala Seemann, Morrison, etc.). But at least for 2006, whoever runs to fill the seat on the GOP side probably won't yet have the statute to go around raising money for other candidates.

Posted by: DavidNYC at March 17, 2005 02:13 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

Unfortunately David is correct. Dems have almost no chance in OH-2, though this should at least get some movement going in Democratic circles there. Charles Sanders is a good guy, but not a serious candidate.

Posted by: Andy Albertson at March 17, 2005 10:02 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

With not that much going on politically outside of VA & NJ this year, I'd love to see, say, the local DFA get involved with this race. Since odds are strongly against us, we could have a lot of fun with this campaign, and use it to showcase and try out new ideas.

Posted by: DavidNYC at March 18, 2005 10:15 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment