Politico gets in last minute bitch slap at Bob Latta

and perpetuates the GOP internal war line. Tim touched on the continuing notion that Steve Buehrer has been doing his former rival no favors, but the most recent Politico story on the race is full of other fun tidbits as well. Firstly, it seems to confirm that the NRCC have no use for Latta's incompetent campaign:

One GOP operative said the Latta campaign was unprepared to handle the race’s newfound attention and that the NRCC had to dispose resources to respond effectively. The source called the Latta campaign’s on-the-ground efforts “lackluster” and said the NRCC has become the campaign by proxy.

Cleary, the NRCC is not pleased that they had to spend 16% of their available cash on Ohio's 5th district. The committee has wasted nearly a half a million dollars on the race that it will desperately need next year. Also, it just makes the entire Republican Party look stupid having to viciously defend an R+10 seat with a candidate with strong name recognition and a history of being elected in the district's most populous county.

And of course there is this bombshell:

President Bush won 61 percent of the vote in the district in 2004. But a poll conducted for Latta’s campaign last week showed him trailing Weirauch by four points, according to a GOP operative.

That number is absolutely ridiculous. Either Latta's campaign is desperately trying to lower expectations or a disgruntled national Republican staffer is trying to embarrass the campaign. Either way, it demonstrates that things aren't good for Bob Latta.

The story goes on to discuss the blue collar make up of the district and the appeal of the populist message that Weirauch is running on. Tomorrow is the big day, and this whole race will come down to turn out. If we are able to turn out our voters and Republicans turn out in low numbers, then Robin Weirauch will be the next congresswoman from the Great State of Ohio. It's going to be a crazy day...