Last week, we finished surveying the lay of the land out West. This week, we begin to turn our attention to the Midwest. Yes, that's right. The Midwest looks to be once again a crucial battleground to win both the White House and Congress. And with just six weeks left until election day, we'd like to talk about the state of the races in America's Heartland.
As reported by Joe Hallett in the Columbus Dispatch and noted on Ohio 15th and Plunderbund this morning, State Sen. Steve Stivers (R-Upper Arlington) of the 16th Ohio Senate District has changed his mind and will jump into the contest to replace retiring Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Upper Arlington) in the 15th Ohio Congressional District. Stivers is an Iraq War vet and a state senator for five years. In short, he is a relatively high-profile adversary for Franklin County Commissioner and well-funded repeat candidate Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Columbus).
I'd like to start out by highlighting that this is not a post about Presidential politics. There's so much of that going on, I thought we might need a break.
I am here to ask for your help, on behalf of five outstanding Democratic challengers running for the US House and Senate. Helping our challengers face their challenge should be a goal for all Democrats, regardless of whom we support for president.
Hopefully, if one of the front-pagers agree with the concept and candidates, they might promote it?
Republican Deborah Pryce is retiring in Ohio's fifteenth district, leaving the seat open for the taking by Mary Jo Kilroy. Pryce is leaving because she is an ally of Hastert, who is also retiring, and she doesn't want to go through a grueling reelection to sit in a minority irrelevant position in the House. The district split between Bush and Kerry, but I would expect it to move aggressively to the Democratic side this cycle after Democrats romped in Ohio in 2006.
Generically, no politician likes being in the minority, so a lot of Republicans will choose to retire over the next few years. That's what happened after the 1994 election, when a bunch of Democrats either retired or outright switched parties. Hastert went, now Pryce, and Virginia Senator John Warner's another one who looks likely to retire. There are more where that came from.
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