A Faltering Big Red Machine
WOLFFORD, DAVID
A Faltering Big Red Machine Republicans may lose their hold on Ohio’s second district. BY DAVID WOLFFORD Ohio’s second congressional district is up for grabs. A Republican stronghold...
...As far as presidential coattails go, Schmidt will presumably ride the district’s overwhelming preference for McCain...
...With that advantage and support from the party, Schmidt may well defeat Wulsin on November 4. Whoever wins, after November 4, the losing party will likely seek out a stronger candidate and prevent round three...
...As Election Day nears, he may drop the qualifi cation...
...A recent SurveyUSA poll commissioned by Roll Call shows Schmidt and Wulsin in a 48 to 40 percent split, with 10 percent declaring they’d vote for somebody else...
...She’s our congresswoman...
...A Republican stronghold for over 30 years, it stretches from Cincinnati’s east side, up the Ohio River to Portsmouth...
...The House erupted in hisses and boos...
...But while Schmidt is despised on the left and not beloved by all in her party, she is an acquired taste...
...Ohio could go either way, but this district wants McCain over Obama by 19 points...
...This November, Democrat Victoria Wulsin, a physician from the affl uent Cincinnati suburb of Indian Hill, will challenge Schmidt for the second time...
...Rob Portman won it handily from 1993 through 2004, usually breaking 70 percent...
...Her fi erce work ethic, intense persona, and sharp off-the-cuff comments have caused some to dub her “Mean Jean...
...Scioto is a swing county that often determines the outcomes of statewide elections in Ohio...
...Schmidt has also got quite a following in her home county of Clermont, though the number of registered Democrats there is on the rise...
...But one thing is plain: The voters are not keen on either nominee...
...His own campaign’s poll of Democratic and Republican primary voters showed Krikorian at 19 percent...
...The Cincinnati Enquirer has endorsed Schmidt on the eve of her past congressional elections, even while acknowledging her “tendency to step in it...
...Within three months of being sworn in, she ridiculed Rep...
...The “I’m better than Mean Jean” strategy may work...
...She downplayed the revelations of inadequate provision for wounded veterans at Walter Reed Hospital, expressed openness to an unpopular nuclear waste site in her district, and has been under fi re for misrepresenting a college degree...
...The outlook for Election Day is uncertain...
...Fairly or not, Rep...
...Murtha got scant support on his resolution, but doubtless more collegial support than Schmidt after the rookie representative unduly attacked the decorated Marine...
...strategy includes refusing PAC money...
...But rather than running on her merits, Wulsin has chosen to run against Schmidt’s mistakes...
...Allegedly quoting a Marine from her district, Schmidt said to Murtha, “Cowards cut and run, Marines never do...
...During the summer of 2005, the party sent resources and manpower into the district...
...Her campaign committee is sponsoring a website, EmbarassedbySchmidt.com, that exposes the congresswoman’s missteps...
...He will have raised about $200,000 before the race is done, has fi ve paid campaign staffers, and was the fi rst candidate to go on television...
...That meant the hard fight was over, or so she thought...
...John Murtha (D-PA) on the House fl oor as she spoke against his resolution to redeploy U.S...
...She stands 5'2?, with piercing eyes and hair tightly pulled back...
...When asked how Wulsin differed from Schmidt, her spokesperson was quick to laud her as “more than an SNL skit...
...Schmidt barely won her two general elections—with 51.6 percent and 50.5 percent respectively...
...Some local Republicans question whether she’s the best person to represent OH-2, given her public image and her past close races including two challenges in Republican primaries...
...troops from Iraq...
...David Wolfford is a government and politics teacher and writer in Cincinnati...
...If only it had been her last...
...More look unfavorably upon them than favorably (Schmidt, 40 percent unfavorable to 35 percent favorable, Wulsin, 36 percent to 28 percent...
...Schmidt soon earned a reputation for her stern manner...
...from Case Western Reserve and a doctorate from Harvard School of Public Health, has worked in public health management, and founded a charity combatting AIDS in Kenya—narrowly lost to Schmidt in 2006, taking 49.39 percent of the vote...
...BY DAVID WOLFFORD Ohio’s second congressional district is up for grabs...
...Jean Schmidt, a social conservative and past state representative, beat 10 male contenders...
...The county party endorsed her in the primary...
...His “Had Enough...
...Saturday Night Live parodied Schmidt in her trademark red, white, and blue as this became the gaffe that defi ned her...
...But in 2005, Portman left the House of Representatives to serve in President Bush’s cabinet, and 11 Republicans eager to represent OH-2 leaped into a special primary...
...Political analyst Stuart Rothenberg concluded earlier this year that OH-2 “may well be the worst congressional contest I’ve ever witnessed...
...Opined Krikorian, who knows the district, “Capitalism without bankruptcy is like religion without Hell...
...She’s paid a lot of attention to us as a representative, and we really appreciate that,” Johnson adds...
...She’s a beacon of conservative values...
...The wild card in this race will be independent David Krikorian, a Cincinnati entrepreneur of Armenian background with expertise in economics...
...Anyone who has met her sees her determination and passion for families...
...Schmidt’s challenger—who has an M.D...
...The Democratic party has had its eye on OH-2 ever since Portman stepped aside...
...Dynamite comes in small packages,” Terry Johnson, the Scioto County GOP chairman, says of Schmidt...
...He’s received the endorsement of the Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police...
...The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has added the district to its “Red to Blue” list of priority races, and we can expect advertising from both congressional campaign committees soon...
...Murtha has appeared in commercials in the past and will stump with Wulsin...
...All three candidates appeared in a televised debate on October 6. Wulsin announced that she would “tell the truth” as a representative, subtly calling Schmidt’s ethics into question, while Krikorian tried to capitalize on the public’s disdain for Schmidt’s vote in favor of the second attempt in the $700 billion rescue...
...she announced at one of her early press conferences...
...Tired of the Schmidt...
...Today the district is no longer safe...
Vol. 14 • October 2008 • No. 6
