A Little On The Election

I'm pretending to be a lawyer again today, so I haven't had a chance to go through the canvass report to drill deeply into the numbers. There is one race, though, that I think is worth mentioning: the contest for the Republican nomination for State Representative in the 28th District.

The current office-holder is Democrat Connie Pillich, who was unopposed in her primary. The GOP primary featured four candidates. The winner was Mike Wilson, founder of the Cincinnati Tea Party. Not only did Mike won, but he did so handily, pulling in 44% of the vote and trouncing the "establishment Republicans" who were running.

The significance of this win should not be under-appreciated. The Tea Party has now proven that--at least in a relatively small race (geographically speaking)--it can mobilize its members, get out the vote, and win an election. Overall turnout in the district was low--about 12 percent of Republican voters turned out--but nonetheless, this is an extremely important development in local politics, and one that we should keep an eye on.

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And: can we get some UN monitors up to Butler County to monitor their Board of Elections? Every year, it's something new with them.

Election Recap

After a Late Night, here are important results of last night's Election:

Issue #1 Cruised to victory 68% to 32%

Jim Tarbell won the Democratic Nom in the end by a comfortable level: 46%-40%-14% (Tarbell-Thomas-Brown).

Chris Monzel rallied his newly adopted suburbanite neighbors to handily defeat Leslie Ghiz (56.5%-45.5%).

The biggest news and I would call it the surprise of the night: Surya Yalamanchili won the Democratic nomination in the 2nd Congressional District over David Krikorian (40%-38%-21%).

I hope all of the candidates and campaign teams can take a short breather, but then the winners can get back to work.

The race for Hamilton County Commissioner is going to be a good one, but the choice is going to be clear: Vote Tarbell.

Tarbell Wins!!!

With 94% of the votes in, Cincinnati Blog is declaring Jim Tarbell the winner!

Election Night Blogging

UPDATE #2: We are on pins and needles but the news is good:
Tarbell 10,520
Thomas 10,240
Brown 3,036

UPDATE #1: Absentee Report for the Dems:
Tarbell: 4,352
Thomas: 4,215
Brown: 1,057

So, I'm about to head down to Arnold's for the Jim Tarbell event and will be setting up shop for the evening. I plan on sitting, eating, drinking, listening, and do some limited blogging from my iPhone. If you want the official results, check out the Hamilton County BOE for the canvass report. If I hear things I can report, I will try to update this post.

Krikorian Has a Future With Amway

No matter what happens today in his primary race for the 2nd Congressional District's Democratic Primary David Krikorian has proven himself worthy of job with Amway by adopting Amway's alleged corporate philosophy.

If you want to know more about what I'm talking about, try Snopes.

When I get to reference Amway (now called Alticor) and I get to link to Snopes.com, you can pretty much consider yourself to be tainted. Krikorian may win today's primary, but his chances of ever winning any public office are slim.

Polls Are Open! Get Out and Vote!

The polls in Ohio are open until 7:30. If you don't know where to vote, then click here to find out if you live in Hamilton County. A few points to know.

• If you voted last year in November and have not moved, you are still registered to vote. 
• If you have never voted in a primary for a particular party, you can ask for a particular party's ballot, which will allow you to vote for the primary races of that party. 
• You can still vote for just the Issues, but getting an issues only ballot.

Bring ID to vote. Here is what is acceptable:

1. Current and valid Ohio driver’s license; or
2. Current and valid photo identification card issued by the State of Ohio or the United States government; or
3. A military identification (“military ID”); or
4. An original or copy of a current utility bill; or
5. An original or copy of a current bank statement; or
6. An original or copy of a current paycheck; or
7. An original or copy of a current government check; or
8. An original or copy of a current other government document.

For more overall questions, check out the Secretary of State's website FAQ.

Primary Predictions?

Who is going to win in the Primaries tomorrow?

For the Democrats:
I would guess Fisher will win for Senate.
I believe Tarbell will win for County Commission.

For the GOP:
I am going to say Monzel will squeak it out over Ghiz, but I think it will be a close race.