Dems Come Up Short in Ohio
Hackett (the Democratic candidate) lost in Ohio’s special runoff race for the House seat that was recently vacated. It was a traditional Republican district where Bush carried 64% in ‘04. Hackett was 48%. You can read the DNC’s take here about how this “bellwether” is predicting a Democrat insurgence in the ‘06 and ‘08 elections. I think it’s important to take a look at how Hackett ran his campaign first. You can see Hackett’s TV ad here.
Note that he doesn’t identify his party, he doesn’t identify issues, and he uses President Bush in his ad. The wonks pointed out a lot of the garbage his said in public and where he stands on the issues but most voters are not wonks. They make up their decision, in part, on ads and in Hackett’s ad; he relied on cheap tricks to try to mislead voters. He may support gun rights, but it takes more than one issue to make a conservative or a liberal. Remember, there are pro-choice conservatives and pro-life liberals.
This “bellwether” race has shown one way the Democrats can win or get close in races. They have to pretend to be Republicans and conservatives. When they run on their own platforms, they will lose.
Crossposted at BNN
Related Posts:
