Afternoon E-Day Roundup

Tubes are buzzing about the race today. Buzz buzz buzz.

First, the Wallstreet Journal has a generic "hey, there's an election!" piece up. 

Then, over at "Framed" there's an interesting comment from one guy that heard a Latta radio ad.

I heard an attack ad on the radio yesterday criticizing Weirauch for wanting national health insurance "even for illegal immigrants" and wanting to repeal the "death tax."  In other words, the same exhausted rhetoric is being totted out against her.  The effect of the ad for me was to reinforce that not only do the Republicans lack ideas of their own, they also lack new counterpunches.

And SFGate has a great piece about how Bob Latta's shenanigans indicate how the GOP is turning off the hispanic community, for, well, forever.

Latta, who faces a serious challenge from Democrat Robin Weirauch, has clearly not gotten word that the Republican Party's increasingly punitive approach to immigration is costing the GOP Hispanic votes. Perhaps Latta is not worried because people of Hispanic origin account for only 3.8 percent of Ohio's 5th District population. This, in turn, may be why Weirauch has minimized her differences with Latta on immigration, preferring to focus on trade and health care.

The Ohio contest points to an important but little-noticed disconnect between how immigration is likely to play in the 2008 congressional elections and how it will affect the presidential campaign. A Latino backlash against the Republicans could hurt their nominee for president, but a backlash against illegal immigration could help Republicans in races for Congress.

Rothenberg's claiming anything goes...

The reliably Republican nature of Ohio’s 5th district would seem to make it an unlikely target for Democrats, but a target it is in Tuesday’s special election.

And while political operatives from both parties scramble to downplay expectations, there is more than enough evidence to conclude that the race to fill the seat of the late Rep. Paul Gillmor (R) is going down to the wire.

Republican Bob Latta, who should, under normal circumstances, win the race rather easily, finds himself in an uncomfortably competitive race against Democrat Robin Weirauch, who already has lost two bids for Congress in the district.

And of course, Big Orange has their own call to arms up today.