“In retrospect, the die may have been cast for the November elections on May 19, 2010,” Republican consultant Brad Todd said, pointing to the day after the special election in Pennsylvania’s 12th district.
Todd, who is a close adviser to National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions (Texas)…
For most of the election cycle, Democratic strategists were optimistic they could hold the House because of their arsenal of opposition research. But Democratic attacks failed to bring down enough Republican challengers to keep the majority.
Democrats thought GOP challengers were simply too flawed to be acceptable alternatives…
A little more than a year ago, I wrote a column in this space (Will the Buckeye State Swing Back to the GOP in 2010?, Oct. 22, 2009) that noted Ohio’s bellwether reputation and suggested the state could see a major effort by a rejuvenated Republican Party to…
Every election cycle, a few candidates and campaigns stand out as remarkable for their absurdity, their outrageousness, their futility or their sheer gall. They need to be recognized.
No, I’m not talking about a campaign that proves to be remarkable for its weak fundraising (such as Ohio Democratic…
Ever since Barack Obama uttered the words “awesome God” in his 2004 convention speech, Democrats embarked on a multiyear journey to convince voters of faith. But any inroads Democrats made with religious voters over the past four years were essentially washed away in this year’s midterm elections.
Voters…
As Republicans, Democrats and journalists discuss the meaning of this year’s midterm elections, it’s become clear to me that many of questions they ponder present false choices that obscure the lessons of Nov. 2. Here are some of them:
Question No. 1: Were the 2010 midterms “about” jobs…
Elections both reflect a political party’s appeal and create a new face that ultimately recasts that image. And the midterm elections of 2010 are no exception.
For Democrats, “diversity” has been about ideology and region recently — proving to Americans that the party isn’t a bunch of liberals…
Five new Republicans will join the Ohio Congressional delegation in January, but they may not want to get too comfortable on Capitol Hill.
The GOP wave that swept across the Buckeye State last week dramatically changed the makeup of the delegation from 10 Democrats and 8 Republicans to…
There were many messages and lessons to be drawn from the 2010 midterm results, but the most obvious one is that Republican, conservative and swing voters fired Democrats — even Democrats they liked, and even Democrats who took care to vote as their constituents wanted.
Sure, freshmen Democratic…
So what happened this election cycle? As voters across the country head to the polls today, here are a few thoughts.
• Democrats never succeeded in changing the trajectory of the election cycle that developed roughly midway through last year.
Once voters decided President Barack Obama and…
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