Holly Yeager profiles an extremely competitive congressional race, and explores what it says about Democratic fortunes in the suburbs:
Back in 2006, it wasn't until December 11 -- and two recounts -- that Deborah Pryce, a Republican first elected to Congress from Columbus, Ohio, in 1992, was finally declared a winner in her re-election bid, fighting off a tough challenge from Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy. Pryce won by just 1,055 votes.
Pryce isn't running this year. But Kilroy is back on the ballot, giving Democrats hope they can finally grab the seat.
"She picked up from where she left off in the last race," Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said optimistically. Van Hollen quickly added that her Republican opponent, Steve Stivers, was a lobbyist who represented banks and corporate chiefs before his election to the state Senate -- a big negative, he said, in a state where thousands of families are dealing with mortgage foreclosures.
And Paul Waldman explores the possibility of substantial voter disenfranchisement in November:
Just a couple of weeks ago, a lot of Democrats were mad at Barack Obama. John McCain had crept ahead in some tracking polls, and Obama's supporters were pleading with him to get tough and hit McCain where it hurts. Then the country's economic difficulties turned into an outright meltdown, McCain's running mate was revealed to be something of a nincompoop, and the Republican's campaign looked more and more like it was flailing about without any rationale for why its increasingly grumpy candidate ought to be elected president.
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--The Editors
