reality-based educator

Bob Ney won 67% of the vote against a little known and underfunded opponent in the GOP primary yesterday in Ohio's 18th district.

Political analysts were not impressed by the results. Here's CQPolitics on Ney:

The embattled congressman probably did not win overwhelmingly enough to quell doubts about his vulnerability in the November election, which will be the toughest race he has faced since he was first elected in 1994.

Ney had 68 percent of the vote against James Brodbelt Harris, a little-known financial analyst who did not even meet the $5,000 contribution threshold to register with the Federal Election Commission.

That more than three in 10 Republicans backed a political unknown over Ney — long a popular figure in the east-central Ohio district — demonstrated that some voters in the Republican base are disenchanted with the congressman.

Ney will be opposed by Zack Space, the elected law director in Dover, who had 39 percent of the vote to top a four-candidate Democratic field.

...

CQPolitics.com rates the Ney-Space race as No Clear Favorite — one of only nine House races in the nation that presently has that designation.

Hotline On Call says Ney's 67% support in the primary indicates he is very vulnerable in the general election and Republicans may pressure Ney to step down from Congress a la Tom Delay now that the primary is over so that the GOP can have a better chance to carry this usually safe GOP seat.

So far Ney has reportedly resisted pressure to step down from his seat. Of course if Ney is indicted in the Abramoff case in the next few months, Republicans insiders won't have to pressure Ney to resign anymore.

In other Ohio primary news, in OH-06, State Senator Charlie Wilson won his write-in campaign with what CQPolitics called a "dominant victory." Wilson had initially failed to get the 50 petition signatures needed to get his name on the Democratic ballot earlier in the year, a huge gaffe which Dems had to rectify by spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in the district to publicize Wilson's campaign. But the effort worked. Wislon won 63% of the vote in the primary and he will run against state Rep. Chuck Blasdel in the general election in November. CQPolitics is rating the OH-06 race one of the nine most competitive House races in the nation and is designating it "No Clear Favorite."

Given that there were no surprises in yesterday's Ohio primary results, Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post writes that "Democrats have much for which to be hopeful in the state's governors and House races."

After the last few election cycles, it's nice to hear that Democrats have much to be hopeful for in an Ohio election.