Free Republic

When there are criminal charges related to a dog attack, the dog must be kept as evidence for the trial. When you have a pit bull, you obviously have to give it its own cage. You can't exactly mix a violent pit pull with any other animal.

As a consequence, animal shelter space is consumed by violent pit bulls, which forces them to kill more of their good animals. At the least, there should be registration required for all pit bulls, with owners in violation charged a huge fine. And all owners of violent pit bulls should be charged all expenses related to the attack. Use the money from these two items to expand the animal shelters to make more room for these pit bulls.

Sorry, you'd have to pay me to listen to algore.

The numbers do tell what happened on the ground - Jean Schmidt is badly underperforming the Republican vote in that district, as shown by any federal elections returns you can look at this decade. Her incompetence is putting a Safe R seat into play, and costing us millions of dollars that should be spent on Republicans in swing districts.

You tried to change the subject by focusing on Brown County, which is a very small part of the district. But those numbers also prove your blindness to reality. Every election this decade has shown that Brown County is Republican-performing in federal elections.

Now I know you'll come back and claim the results for DeWine prove otherwise. But they actually don't. DeWine lost Ohio by 12%, yet he still carried Brown by 4%. DeWine overperformed by 16% in Brown County, which does show its Republican bias in federal elections. George Bush barely won Ohio both times, while carrying Brown County handily. The only Republican who too incompetent to capitalize on this is Mean Jean Schmidt.

I'm sure more than you. Prior to the special primary election in 2005, I lost 10 pounds in under a week with all the door-to-door I did. And I was overweight by no more than 10 pounds to begin with. Unless you've been active in politics for a real long time, I'm sure I'll have been doing door-to-door and lit drops longer than you.

As far as your good numbers, you just use the same number over and over

I guess I should rely on your uninformed "hunches" for evidence? Sorry, all but novices understand that past voter behavior is an excellent way of determining the voting habits of a district. For example, when a Republican president, in a year where the vote was evenly divided, gets 64% of the vote in a Congressional district, that is clear evidence that is a heavily Republican district.

Now let's look at Brown County in federal elections:

2000 President: Bush wins 62.7% of the 2-party vote

2000 Senate: DeWine wins 68.8% of 2-party vote

2000 Congress: Portman wins 72.8% of 2-party vote

2002 Congress: Portman wins 73.9% of vote

2004 President: Bush wins 63.9% of 2-party vote - an improvement from 2000; so much for this Democratic trend you invented out of your butt

2004 Senate: Voinovich wins 71.5% of 2-party vote

2004 Congress: Portman wins 72.3% of 2-party vote

This is not a Democratic County. This County votes strongly Republican in federal races. Now let's see how Mean Jean did:

2005 Congress: Jean Schmidt wins 44.0% of 2-party vote, significantly underperforming the R vote here.

2006 Congress: Jean Schmidt wins 48.4% of 2-party vote.

The numbers clearly show that Brown County is reliably Republican in federal elections. The numbers don't lie, just Jean Schmidt's supporters.

Dalight, your ignorance never ceases to amaze me. First of all, all but the most ignorant people already knew that the 2nd District is heavily Republican. I suspect you do too, except you have to claim otherwise to put a positive spin on Mean Jean's horrific performance here.

Notwithstanding your attempt to play stupid, I showed you good numbers that proved OH-2 is heavily Republican. I showed you good numbers to show you Brown County is heavily Republican. The only "evidence" you've presented to the contrary is your own uninformed hunch that somehow things have changed rapidly in 2 years.

Just because Jean Schmidt is too incompetent to get 55% of the vote in a 65% Republican district doesn't mean OH-2 is no longer a Republican district. The only thing that's changed, is that Republicans now run a candidate who is so widely disrespected in Ohio that she can actually lose a Solid R seat. Schmidt carries little crossover vote, loses the independent vote handily, and even loses a large chunk of the Republican vote. She is a poor candidate and no amount of namecalling from you can change that.

I could give 200 million reasons why she won't.

Here's what Stu Rothenberg said about this seat in the spring:

http://rothenbergpoliticalreport.blogspot.com/2006/05/ohio-primary-paints-clearer-november.html

"So, even though Schmidt is hated by most Democrats because of her remarks on the House floor regarding Congressman Jack Murtha (PA), she is the heavy favorite to win reelection in November. President Bush won the 2nd District 64%-36% in 2004, and GOP primary voters outnumbered their Republican counterparts by over a 2-1 margin. This seat is currently Safe for the Republicans."

Even knowing Schmidt's weaknesses, Rothenberg didn't think she could possibly blow a district this heavily Republican. But once again she collapsed at the end, requiring millions of dollars of national money to hold the seat.

Go ahead, stick your fingers in your ear again and tell us this isn't a Republican district. Tell us the papers are against her, even the ones that keep endorsing her. Tell us that Rothenberg is biased against Jean and only referred to this as a Safe R seat because he wanted to lull us into complacency. Anything, except face the reality that Schmidt is a terrible candidate who could actually lose an invincable seat.

Presidential Vote, Ohio 2nd CD:

George Bush - 64%

John Kerry - 36%

Congressional Vote, 2004, Ohio 2nd CD:

Rob Portman (R) - 71.7%

Charles Sanders (D) - 28.3%

Yeah, that's Safe Republican. Just because you are too dense to look at the numbers and see that Jean Schmidt severely underperformed doesn't mean that the district isn't heavily Republican. Your ignorance does not change facts.

Chabot has always thumped his competition handily and this election was a squeaker for him too.

Wrong. Chabot hasn't always "thumped" his opponent, but he has always won. Unlike Jean Schmidt who has the luxury of a Safe Republican district to run in, Chabot has had to win in a swing district. This district actually leaned Democratic in the 90's until redistricting made it even.

Presidential Vote, Ohio 1st CD

George Bush - 51%

John Kerry - 49%

Since you consistently fail to comprehend the simplest of facts, let me restate this information for you: Steve Chabot has to run every 2 years in a swing district. It doesn't lean one way or the other. Chabot keeps winning because of his tremendous skills as a candidate. Jean Schmidt runs in a heavily Republican district. Any HALF-DECENT Republican can win it running away. The fact that Jean Schmidt can't doesn't mean the district changed overnight, it means Jean Schmidt is a lousy candidate who needs to be replaced.

For that matter, Brown isn't safe either.

2004 Presidential Vote, Brown County:

George Bush - 12,647

John Kerry - 7,140

2004 Congressional Vote, Brown County:

Rob Portman - 13,796

Charles Sanders - 5,293

2006 Congressional Vote, Brown County:

Jean Schmidt - 6,624

Vic Wulsin - 7,058

Once again, Jean Schmidt's inability to win a Republican county reflects nothing but Schmidt's own incompetence. Do you have any more ignorant claims I can dispel?

I'm looking forward to the day Bob Taft is no longer our Governor. I wish all his cronies were out of office too. This is one issue where we'll see improvement with Ted Strickland. Strickland has a record of supporting the 2nd Amendment and I believe he's expressed his support for improving the current law.

Yes, I'm a secret Democratic supporter. That's why I've donated time, money, and votes to the likes of Ken Blackwell, Sandy O'Brien, Mary Taylor, Steve Chabot, George Bush, Tom Brinkman, Bob McEwen, and Ron Hood.

As a Democrat, I should applaud Mean Jean for her support of Bob Taft's tax increases and spending hikes. And I'd also be very appreciative of her for turning a Safe R seat into a tossup, forcing Republicans to divert money from the likes of Congressmen Chocola and Sodrel to bail her out.

The Cincinnati Enquirer has endorsed Jean Schmidt 4 times in the last 17 months. Mean Jean's supporters must be real low on excuses when they have to cry bias against a newspaper that won't stop endorsing her.

Do you understand what it means to be in a Safe Republican district? It means no Republican should ever come close to losing. When President Bush wins a CD by 30 points, that's a Safe Republican district. Safe, unless you manage to run the most repulsive Republican you can find, and with Jean Schmidt we've about hit the jackpot.

It is not character assassination to point out that Jean Schmidt has underperformed the Republican vote in this district by nearly 30 points. Not once, but twice. She would have lost in both years without the millions in help she received from the NRCC. Millions of dollars that could have helped Republicans in swing districts.

Yeah, Jean has two primaries. Harold Ford's successor in Tennessee had a huge primary, he still won the general in a cakewalk. Hillary Clinton had a primary. She won the general in a cakewalk. Jim Jordan had to win a primary, yet he won his Republican district in a cakewalk. Candidates in safe districts face primaries frequently, but they still win the general easily because they're in a safe district and they're halfway competent.

Like most of Jean Schmidt's apologists, you are absolutely clueless to political reality. You seem truly incapable of understand the concept of a safe district. This is a Safe district for Republicans, unless that Republican is a completely unlikable hack like Jean Schmidt or Pat DeWine. All we have to do is find someone else and this becomes a safe district again.

Redistricting could definitely impact SW Ohio. Right now the City of Cincinnati itself is split between Chabot and Schmidt, which dilutes the Democratic vote. The Democrats would draw all of Cincinnati into Chabot's district, making it a tougher hold. Chabot had to hold that type of district throughout the 90's, but there's no question the Democrats could make it harder. It would be a Lean Dem district that Chabot might still win, but without Chabot we'd probably lose it.

If Jean Schmidt is still around by 2010, we'll lose that seat. With Mean Jean barely winning it now when it's 65% Republican, all they have to do is make it 55% Republican and Jean will get crushed. There are any number of ways to do that. Perhaps the easiest is to extend Mike Turner's (OH-3) district south and move Jean's farther east. Move all of Warren County into Turner's seat and split Clermont County, and Jean couldn't possibly win. A good Republican would still hold that district, but someone like Mean Jean who severely underperforms the Republican vote wouldn't.

Supposedly there are some "names" who will get recruited to take on Mean Jean. From what I hear, Republicans locally and nationally are sick of having to waste their warchest to hold a heavily Republican district. It's costing us seats elsewhere around the country.

Personally, I'm hoping Phil Heimlich runs. He would have won handily the first time. He'll be able to raise the money necessary to win the primary, and he'd win the general in a cakewalk. Mean Jean has had her chance to solidify her hold here and has failed miserably.

I really wish you would buy a clue. A winner is not somebody who nearly loses a district that their presidential nominee carried with 64% of the vote. That is a loser. If every Republican nominee underperformed their district by 28 points, we'd be down to 50 Republicans in Congress.

The only reason this district is winnable for Democrats is because of Jean Schmidt's incompetence. Rob Portman won his last 3 elections with an average of 74% of the vote. He not only didn't need the NRCC to spend money on him, he was able to send hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republicans in tough districts.

Now, Republicans are wasting money here when they should never have to because Mean Jean is that incompetent. We have wasted millions of national dollars on this seat to keep her from losing twice. We need a new nominee before this horrible woman costs us any more seats.

Those of us who care about this district are sick of it being represented by an incompetent hack who is trying her hardest to give it up to a Democrat. President Bush won this conservative district by 30 points, but Mean Jean has twice come within a few thousand of losing it.

More importantly, the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee has had to blow millions of dollars on Mean Jean to hold this seat. This is a seat that the Republican candidate should not only win easily, but should be able to donate excess campaign money to other Republicans in tough races. Instead, we are losing races elsewhere around the country because of Mean Jean's incompetence.

We need a new candidate. A candidate who can hold this seat, and hold it without outside help.

Mean Jean has critics everywhere. When you're in a heavily Republican district and you need the national party to spend millions of dollars to get you to 50.5% of the vote, you know you're not well liked.

Because of Mean Jean's incompetence, we are losing races elsewhere around the country due to the millions we have to waste on her. When will Ohio Republicans get smart and dump this witch so this can resume being the Safe R district it's supposed to be? No Democrat should ever get close here.

The Marine that Jean Schmidt quoted did not refer to Murtha at all when he said "cowards cut and run", and said he'd never refer to another Marine as a coward. This is one of many Mean Jean lies.