Ohio 2nd Blog

One of the hardest things about covering this special election has been your humble editor subjecting himself to the daily rants of WLW arch wingnut shock jock Bill Cunningham. Today he was in top form. Cunningham called Hackett a baby killer for being pro choice. His favorite point of the day was comparing Hackett to such other famous marines as Lee Harvey Oswald and Timothy McVeigh. Class act.

UPDATE: I’ve been told that McVeigh was actually Army, although I’d almost swear he was on Cunningham’s list. I’ll check the audio tomorrow. sigh…

Many blogs are now trying to position what the results of this special election will mean…. framing it in the best possible light. We take a different tact.

Our analysis is simple: $500,000

That’s how much the National Republican Party in the last week has been forced to spend to prop up Jean Schmidt. This is the reddest, safest, most Republican district in Ohio. This is Bush country. We are but one single little Congressional race. They are pouring massive resources in the defend a wall that could never be breached. If it falls they know that Democrats will be storming into the House in 2006. Even if it doesn’t the wall will still be significantly easier for future candidates to climb.

Paul Hackett has done all this and he’s never wavered on any of the issues that Beltway Democrats traditional shy away from in order to attract “swing voters”. He supports gay rights, he is pro choice.. if you ask him he says so, and he gives you good reasons that anyone would understand. Hackett never runs from a fight, and he never hides his beliefs. A sea change from the nuanced, measured tone of Senator John Kerry. That’s why people respect him. That’s why many Republicans will vote for him.

Paul Hackett has shown Democrats how to fight. Not by attacking Republicans like Howard Dean, but by fighting for what he believes in.

This is a great district in a great state and we have a great candidate. It’s an honor to fight for him, and it’s an honor to fight with you all. We’ve brought our best game and they’ve acknowledged it, not with their praises, but with their money.

So as you read the spin and the punditry trying trying to tell you why none of it matters, just remember: $500,000

We can win this, and they’ve shown us that they know we can. Good times, my friends… good times. Now go out there and get people to the polls!

• OK… I’m done fiddling with this thing.

We are at the finally day of campaigning before election day. Yesterday was a chance for both sides to get a little rest before the final push.

I’ve also posted some pictures of yesterday evening from Hackett HQ. The Noe story gave them a nice last minute media rush. Several reporters were there including a camera crew.

Here’s the latest online about the race:

• Enquirer > Candidates take it easy in final days
• CCW > More canvassing and lots of dogs
• Swing State Project > Big Day, Early to Bed
• BizzyBlog > 2nd District (OH) Pre-Congressional Election Collection
  A good compilation of local blog posts on the race. I you want to see what the pro Schmidt blogosphere is saying, that’s the place to start.
• Grow Ohio > Meanwhile Back at the Ranch…
  Another great report by Eva Wolkowitz.
• Michael Meckler > August 1, 2005 (NEW)
  Interesting analysis and predictions on the outcome from one of Ohio’s most connected conservative bloggers.
• Bob Brigham is still raising cash online. (NEW)

(513) 735-4310 is the number to call. More as it comes in…

Canvassing will be going til dark tonight and starting back up again tomorrow morning. Contact Hackett for Congress (513) 735-4310 to get in on the action.

Action Reports:

• Hackett signs are everywhere. Some good coverage by Schmidt but not as much.
• Calls attacking Hackett are calling him “Tax Hike Hackett” and also talking about his support of gay marriage.
• There’s also work of a robo call going out to Black and rural voters that has a religious theme.
• Flyers are being handed out at some churches calling Hackett a “baby killer”
• Schmidt spoke at Hackett’s church today. (Gutsy move)
• Bishop Brown has out a radio ad from Hackett on 100.9 FM .
• Pastor Lynch and his father have sent out thousand of mailers for Hackett to their contacts.
• A woman started yelling at Hackett’s wife today when she was shopping with her children calling her a “baby killer”.
• One of Hackett’s kids was very upset when she heard about the Washington Post story quoting a White House official saying that they would “bury” him.
• Because of the extra volunteers thousands more people have been contacted about Hackett.
• Some people are expressing exhaustion from the amount of ads on the race. Not directed at any one candidate.

These are all very vague. Sorry I don’t have time to flesh them out more. Also if I make any errors.

Eva Wolkowitz over @ Grow Ohio has up another great post, this time of the Hackett canvass kickoff rally with John Glenn, and Max Cleland.

I’ve also uploaded a bunch more photos over @ the Flickr site.

• Washington Post > GOP Says It Will ‘Bury’ Name-Calling Candidate
• FEC > Additional $117,680 of attack ads by NRCC
• Tracy Joan @ DKos > Stop the Calls!!!
  There’s always a risk of going over board on this stuff. One call… go vote… that’s fine. I’m totally in the camp of Ohio needs to be won by people from Ohio. Still, when fighting Tom Delay and his crooked cash there’s nothing wrong with a little reinforcements.
• CCW > The Hackett Rally

Also reports of a massive wave of push polls from the Republicans. Vague stuff but it always is. This is the part of the movie where their heads start spinning around in circles and flames shoot out of their mouths.

BTW: I’m about ready to call a time out on the liberal blogosphere. Love you guys… really grateful for your support… but CHILL for a few days. (What are the odds of that happening? We’ve released the hounds and now there’s nothing we can do but sit back and watch as they rip to shreds everything in their path.)

Now back to bed until we can get a copy of the Enquirer. It’s really hard to sleep but I need to.

TracieLynn @ DKos has photos up of today’s Hackett rally.

Any more out there?

UPDATE: More photos over @ Linda in Cincinnati’s Yahoo! account. (via MyDD)

FYI: Anyone can upload pictures about the race to their Flickr account and if they add the tag oh02 it will be visible in a single stream that people can view from the web or from an RSS reader: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/oh02/

This goes for Schmidt supporters too

Fran for Dean over @ DKos has set it up so that Daily Kos veterans can phone bank from anywhere calling Democrats to remind them to vote. GREAT IDEA! Go over and check out what you need to do. They are being careful about who they let do it.

Democratic Underground has another report of Republican push polling targetted at “predominately African-American communities”.

This is a stardard GOP tactic that I can confirm since I live in a “predominately African-American community”. It is unverified as of yet, but it is in their playbook.

I had this funny idea: whenever the GOP did a push poll in a race you would have a kind of open counter push poll that you would unleash against them. Similar to what was done to silence them on attacking Hackett’s character. Everytime they made a call lying about our candidate, people from around the country would do a similar but much larger coordinated attack against the opponent as a deterrent. You go there… we go there harder… a sort of open anti dirty tricks unit. Something to think about.

Bob Brigham reports from the field. Exciting stuff.