Election Predictions

Lots of election predictions out today. Here are links to a few:

We have the wildly optimistic from Kathleen Lopez of NRO. She sees Republicans picking up 80 seats in the House and 9 in the Senate including the California seat currently held by Maam Boxer.

We have very detailed predictions from Jim Geraghty. He predicts every House race and every contested Senate seat.

Winners and Losers is a collection of predictions from various experts at a NRO Symposium.

Don Surber toyed with the idea of doubling his months old prediction of 51 House and 5 Senate seat gains for Republicans. While noting some numbers that could lead to the double down, he stuck with his original prediction to avoid any chance of disappointment tonight. His 51 and 5 are the bare minimum gains I could see for the Republicans.

For laughs, here is a link to Meghan McCain's predictions. They are predictably nonsensical. She only predicts five races and my guess is she gets all five wrong. Particularly amusing is her idea that Gov. Charlie Crist will win the Florida senate seat. He'll be lucky to avoid third place after the silliness of the past week where he and Bill Clinton tried to push the Dem nominee to drop out of the race. This race will be called for Marco Rubio within minutes of the polls closing.

My own predictions: In Ohio, Rob Portman will win the senate seat easily. In the governor race Kasich will win, but won't be outside the margin of fraud/recount shenanigans. Strickland's ads have been effective both in painting Kasich as a Wall Street big wig and as being anti-gun rights. My congressman, John Boehner will win easily and will be the next Speaker of the House as the Republicans gain 60+ seats. I don't see the Republicans getting a majority in the Senate. It will be close, but I don't trust California voters doing the right thing and kicking Boxer to the curb. A side note to that prediction is the Democrats actually have a lot more Senate seats to defend in 2012. At least two senate races will go into a protracted recount process. There will be at least five long term incumbent congressmen who were perceived safe that will get beaten. Let's hope Barney Frank is one of them.

Tonight's drinking game? If watching MSNBC drink every time a host cries or says the word disaster. If watching FOX drink every time they say historic, unprecedented, or better than expected.

Shouldn't Ohio's Attorney General Know and Follow the Law?

During the final weeks of the 2008 presidential election then Senator Obama was doing a grip and grin walk through a Toledo neighborhood. He came across Joe Wurzelbacher who asked the candidate a question which was answered with more than intended truth as the candidate made a now infamous comment about spreading the wealth around. In the weeks that followed that encounter, some Democratic political operatives/Ohio government employees who were upset about their candidate's socialistic leanings being exposed abused their official governmental positions to invade Wurzelbacher's privacy. Now, Wurzelbacher is suing them for their illegal actions. Which led to this item in Politics Daily:

After investigating, Ohio's independent inspector general concluded there was "no reasonable basis" for the searches. Wurzelbacher subsequently filed a civil rights lawsuit against the three employees. Now, as Bill Hershey reported in the Dayton Daily News, Democratic Attorney General Richard Cordray had agreed to represent them in court.
The problem with Cordray's decision is that an Ohio statute states, "The attorney general may not represent an employee who acts recklessly, maliciously or in bad faith outside the scope of his employment." The inspector general's conclusion that there was "no reasonable basis" for the searches suggests that they were done outside the scope of the workers' employment and should absolve the attorney general from the responsibility of defending these individuals.

Corday's screw up has legs, as former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, who is running for attorney general, is making political hay about this and it reflects on the governor who will have a tough reelection next year if the economic situtation doesn't improve markedly.

DeWine authored an op-ed in the Dayton Daily News. "Cordray's decision to provide legal representation in the face of Ohio law may provide political cover to the (Democratic Ohio Gov. Ted) Strickland administration, which appointed the wrong-doers, but it is no way to run the attorney general's office," he wrote. "Ohioans deserve an attorney general who will make decisions based on the law, not politics."

If this case is delayed and drags on for a while it could have serious impact on next years elections. Regular folks who are not tied to either party (independents?) frown on government hacks using their access to attack citizens.

Politics Ohio dot com get interview with Governor Strickland

Ben Keeler from the right side and Kyle Kutuchief from the left are the lead bloggers at Politics.Ohio.Com and they recently got an opportunity to interview Governor Ted Strickland. This is part of what I believe to be a growing trend of politicians to reach out to the online community. While it is still a tiny segment of the population that reads political blogs, the reality is it is a vocal segment. Anyways, I encourage you to click the link and watch the interview. Based on his congressional voting record and everything I had heard about Strickland he struck me as a liberal extremist and I was of course opposed to his election. Having said that, he comes across very likable in this interview and so far has done alright in office. Don't get me wrong, he is still a very liberal Democrat and is pushing policies that are not in Ohio's best interest.