Ohio Conservative Payback for Senate Filibuster Deal

Senator DeWine of Ohio is one of the gang of 14 who signed the infamous Senate deal to end judicial filibusters. That lousy deal which legitimized Senate Democrats tactics and undermines President Bush's consitutional authority to appoint judges by requesting he "consult" with Senators on future nominations.

Conservatives upset over this betrayal are bound to be wary of supporting candidates for office who either were a party to the deal or might be prone to make similar misjudgements in office.

While this is just one of mnay factors which sunk the candidacy of Senator DeWine's son Pat in this week's special congressional primary in Ohio; it was a clear sign that conservatives will be holding those who aspire to public office accountable.

Schmidt impressive; DeWine not:

"One thing was clear from Tuesday's primary - whether they voted for Schmidt or McEwen or Tom Brinkman Jr., the party's most fervently conservative voters dominated the Republican primary.
And they clearly sunk DeWine's candidacy.
...
"The people who are going out to vote in this election are people who are really serious about this," said former Adams County commissioner Bob Semple of Winchester, who backed McEwen in the race. "This is not an election where people come out and vote for somebody just because they remember his name."

Therein lay DeWine's basic problem - he started this campaign with near universal name recognition - earned on his own in Hamilton County, bequeathed to him by his father, U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, in the rest of the district. That name meant instant ability to raise staggering sums of money - nearly $1 million, nearly three times the loot that other major candidates were able to amass.

But what he lacked from the start was a constituency, a large mass of highly motivated voters who would come out in the middle of June to vote for him because of his position on issues or because of long-standing support of him as a public official.