The Washington Post reminds us we have another big special election coming up:
Danny O’Connor, the Democratic nominee in a special congressional election here, has denounced both party leader Nancy Pelosi and the Republican-passed tax cut. Troy Balderson, a longtime Republican state legislator, has underwhelmed his party’s strategists and has run only slightly ahead of O’Connor in fundraising.
Ohio’s 12th Congressional District, which stretches from Columbus’s suburbs into conservative rural Ohio, is giving both parties a sense of deja vu. Four months after first-time candidate Conor Lamb won a strongly Republican district in Pennsylvania, rattling the president and his party, Republicans are working to prevent another upset by a young Democrat running as a moderate — all health care, no hot buttons.
“My opponent says he wants to raise the retirement age,” O’Connor, 31, told a gathering of 25 Democrats in one of the district’s most conservative counties. “How’s that good for the middle-class economy? Cuts to Social Security and Medicare — we know that’s how [Republicans] want to balance this budget. That’s not going to happen on my watch.”
The Aug. 7 special election in central Ohio, which was called after longtime Republican Rep. Patrick J. Tiberi resigned to lead the state’s Business Roundtable, will be the last gut check for both parties ahead of November’s midterms. That election will fill the seat until November, when the two again will face off.
Republicans, who presided over a 2011 gerrymander that appeared to turn the district safely red, concede that Democrats have put it in play. A Republican super PAC has been on the air for five weeks; both Vice President Pence and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan have flown in to help Balderson raise money and wake up voters.
“It’s going to be all about turnout in the dead of summer,” Tiberi said in an interview. “Nationally, the momentum is on the Democrats’ side. You’re going to see a lot of money coming in to help O’Connor. The Democrats did a good job with him. They recruited a blank slate.”
Republicans are freaking out because this race is tightening:
Republican Troy Balderson's lead over Democrat Danny O'Connor in the special election race for Ohio's 12th Congressional District has slipped to just five percentage points - at least, according to a poll from O'Connor's campaign.
The survey, conducted between July 10 and July 13, shows Balderson, a state senator from Zanesville, with 48 percent support among probable voters in the Aug. 7 special election. O'Connor, the Franklin County recorder, polled 43-percent support. The remaining 5 percent of those surveyed favored Green Party nominee Joe Manchik.
A previous poll taken by O'Connor's campaign in June showed Balderson with a 7-point lead, 48 percent to 41 percent.
O'Connor's campaign, in a memo, trumpeted the polling as evidence that he is gaining ground on Balderson despite a flurry of attack ads from Balderson and allied Republican groups.
"O'Connor is in better shape now than he was a month ago," the memo stated.
The July poll also showed that among 12th District residents who stated they are "almost certain" to vote (as opposed to just "probable"), O'Connor is beating Balderson 49 percent to 46 percent. Those who reported the highest interest in voting (ranking themselves a "10" on a 0-10 scale) favored O'Connor over Balderson 51 percent to 47 percent.
And O’Connor has been on the air hitting Balderson over the GOP Tax Scam:
Let’s hand the GOP another humiliating special election loss before the midterms. Click here to donate and get involved with O’Connor’s campaign.