I had hoped that Hackett would squeaze out the win for us however I knew that he would probably lose. It's dissappointing that with a great candidate like him, a Democrat still can't win. Howwver, let's face the facts. This district was never one that we ever targeted or ever thought we had a chance in. When you look at other seats around the country, I think we've got a much better chance to take back the house. Suddenly the California 48th doesn't seem so fanciful. Now a candidate like Hackett doesn't exactly come around every day but let's face it, that is one of the most Republican districts in the country. And Hackett is not a conservative, not even a moderate. He's a lawyer who supports abortion and gay marriage. He didn't run around professing his love for Bush. He called him a "SOB". And he got 48% of the vote in a heavily Republican district where no Democrat had won in ages.
Now, here's why Hackett's loss is a phyrric win for the GOP. We don't have a candidate against Mike DeWine in 2006. Hackett running again in this same district would just be a waste of time. Schmidt will be an incumbent and have the power of incumbency. I would only hope that enough top Dems could persuade Hackett to run for Senate. If he does as well as he did tonight among rural voters and suburban conservative voters, I think he could definately beat DeWine. Yeah, it wouldn't be easy but this would be better. I only hope we can convince Hackett to run for Senate.