We apologize if you were unable to access The Review this morning - our server was hit with something I don’t understand, but we’re back up now.
As for the election - no major surprises, as we expected. There was, however, a major upset in the Treasurer’s race. Upstart Sandra O’Brien defeated Taft insider Jennette Bradley by a narrow margin. Further evidence that Taft’s demise spelled doom for those closest to him.
Two thoughts on the results:
1) Turnout was low. Although a primary, less than 20% (about 1.5 mil) of Ohio’s registered 7.7 million voters showed up to the polls yesterday. Primaries always have a low turnout, but estimates ranged closer to the 2 million voter mark. Ohioans on both sides of the aisle are disgusted with their leadership in the Buckeye state. The GOP touts a governor with extremely low marks and a Senator that is part of the infamous “Gang of 14.” The Dems turned their backs on Paul Hackett and now have shoved Sherrod Brown upon the Dem voter.
2) I do not understand the Ohio conservative voter. Take a look at the two biggest winners on the GOP side last night: Blackwell and DeWine. Could there be two more starkly opposed candidates for major office coming out of the same party. Blackwell is about as far right as conservatives get - or at least he claims to be. He is very religious and cries from the rooftops about government spending. Then you have DeWine, who as a fellow Redhawk gets a bit of a pass here, but I think even he would label himself as the epitome of a moderate. Yet Ohioans placed them both on November’s ballot with overwhelming support. The lesson learned is one of two things: 1) most voters know very little about the men and women they vote for and name recognition or a few things they’ve heard and liked win their vote; or 2) voters are so savvy in their choices that they are willing to select a candidate they may disagree with on certain issues to further the general GOP machine on a national level.
On to November.