I found the dynamics in Ohio fascinating. Of course, Blackwell was a terrible candidate but he and DeWine actually held there own in one place--Hamilton County where they performed about as well as Bush in 2004. Perhaps this is because of low black turnout.
In contrast, Northeast Ohio (Brown Country) and Southeast Ohio (Strickland territory) had margins for the Democrats that I would have thought to be unfathomable. I think the Brown-Strickland one-two punch had some serious synergy when it came to the election results.
I only regret that there wasn't someone who could really get out the black vote for Dems in Hamilton and Franklin Counties. That would've pulled Kilroy/Cranley/Wulsin over the finish line.
Cranley, in particular, was really hurt by the inability of the Dem ticket to rack up a win in Hamilton county. Still, its nice to see that David Pepper won the county comissioner seat and with Todd Portune, it will have a Dem majority for the first time, like, ever.
Given Bob Taft and Bob Ney, I don't see how any Republican could have won in that environment. Actually, the Dem votes in Hamiliton and Franklin were already very high, I doubt they could have done better.
