Ohio Republicans continue to take it on the chin. The question of just how serious the GOP’s problems are can be seen in OH-05. The district had a special election primary yesterday because the incumbent, Paul Gillmor (R), tragically died earlier this year. In 2004, Bush (60.93%) crushed Kerry (38.53%) in the fifth district. In 2006, Gillmor (56.85%) easily bested Robin Weirauch (43.15%). Weirauch is running again, and she won the Democratic primary by a 72-28 margin.
Unlike the Democratic primary, the Republican primary was highly competitive.
State Rep. Bob Latta narrowly defeated a like-minded conservative rival yesterday following a rancorous campaign to represent the GOP in the heavily Republican congressional district vacated by the late Paul Gillmor.
Latta, receiving more than 32,000 votes, or roughly 44 percent, defeated State Sen. Steve Buehrer, who received just under 29,400 votes, or 40 percent, according to unofficial returns with 100 percent of precincts reporting.
Steve Buehrer was heavily funded by the Club for Growth in their bid to capture a seat widely considered safe for the Republicans. The campaign got quite nasty and had a much higher profile than the Democratic race. In spite of the massive differential in interest, a startlingly large percentage of the electorate voted in the Democratic primary.
Overall, 117,269 voters went to the polls. Of those, 73,251 (62.4%) voted in the Republican primary and 44,018 (37.5%) voted in the Democratic primary. That is hardly what we would expect under the circumstances.
The fifth district has been solidly Republican. In fact, Robin Weirauch’s 43% in the 2006 election was the best any Democrat has done in the district…ever. That the Dems could pull 37.5% of the vote in a non-competitive primary, while the Republicans were fighting out a well-funded and highly competitive race, suggests that Weirauch may be well ahead of the 43% she achieved in 2006. Add to this the fact that she won’t be running against an incumbent.
If the fifth district of Ohio isn’t safe for Republicans, there are not too many places that are. We’ll find out on December 11th.
