With November’s elections still six months away, political prognosticators are looking for “signs” as to what might happen. Roll Call reported today that this week’s primary elections in three large states — Ohio, Indiana and North Carolina — offer encouragement to Dems. From the Roll Call article:
In [tag]Ohio[/tag], state Sen. [tag]Charlie Wilson[/tag] (D), running a write-in campaign, received more than 43,600 votes, more than the total votes cast in the 6th district GOP primary. Overall, almost 65,800 Democrats voted Tuesday in the 6th district, up from the almost 61,300 who voted there in the last midterm election in 2002, despite the fact that the party did not have competitive primaries at the statewide level. Also noteworthy: scandal-plagued Rep. [tag]Bob Ney[/tag] (R) only got 68% of the GOP vote against an underfunded and unknown opponent.
In [tag]Indiana[/tag], more Democratic ballots were cast than GOP ballots in all three of the competitive House districts. Perhaps most important was the 8th district, where Vandenburgh County Sheriff [tag]Brad Ellsworth[/tag] drew more than 43,200 votes compared to the more than 27,300 collected by Rep. [tag]John Hostettler[/tag] (R-Ind.). Also noteworthy, in Indiana’s 2nd, Rep. [tag]Chris Chocola[/tag] (R) saw a substantial drop off in his primary vote total from 2004 and 2002.
And in [tag]North Carolina[/tag], Rep. [tag]Charles Taylor[/tag] (R) received about 2,000 fewer primary votes than his highly touted challenger, former NFL quarterback [tag]Heath Shuler[/tag] (D). All told, 39,100 Democrats went to the polls in the 11th district Tuesday, compared to 33,812 Republicans.
“Across the country, energized Democrats voted for change, while disillusioned Republicans stayed home, voicing their disappointment with Republicans even before the general election in November,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman [tag]Rahm Emanuel[/tag] (Ill.) said in a statement following Tuesday’s vote.
Are these guarantees of Dem success in November? Of course not. But they’re encouraging signs that Dem voters are motivated and ready to turn out in big numbers.
Consider this your morale boost for the day.