Blog: Dems Pull The Plug on Driehaus

Statement

Triage is a term that has its origins in World War I, among French doctors who were treating battlefield wounded. One doctor often had many wounded soldiers to treat at the same time, and they had to decide which soldiers were probably going to live whether they got immediate treatment or not, which ones could be saved if they were treated immediately, and which ones were so gravely wounded that they would likely die no matter how quickly and to what extent they were treated. Triage.

Well, the Democrats are in so much trouble this year that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), has had to make the same tough decision with respect to their vulnerable candidates. Who should be okay, who's in trouble but can be saved, and who will lose no matter how much money or resources are spent to save them. Two days ago, they put Steve Driehaus into this third category -- can't be saved.

The DCCC had purchased $563,000 worth of TV ads for the Driehaus campaign in the Cincinnati media market. They pulled it all.

Here's what some of the top political news sources in the nation have to say about it. NBC News political reporter Chuck Todd says: "Polling in this Cincinnati-area district this entire year had shown Driehaus behind Chabot… With the DCCC now out, it's fair to say the national party doesn't have a lot of confidence in its chance of Driehaus holding on. In other words, he's being written off."

Here's what the Washington Post had to say: "National Democrats are beginning to cut off the money flow to some embattled incumbents, in order to shift the cash to other once-safe districts, a key sign strategists have decided their races may be lost."

And finally, perhaps Washington's top political pundit, Stu Rothenberg, of the Rothenberg Report says: "It is difficult to read the cancelations as anything other than the Committee's decision to write off the Driehaus race."

So there you have it. The election's over, right? We've got it in the bag. Uh, NO. We've got three more weeks of hard work to do. No one rests. No getting complacent. Confidence, yes. Overconfidence, no.

Let's face it, it all comes down to which candidate gets the most votes BY Election Day, Tuesday, November 2nd, exactly 20 days from today. And although most of the votes will actually be cast on Election Day, up to 40% of the votes could be cast during the 35 day period before the election, between September 28th and November 2nd. In Ohio votes can cast by absentee ballot, or one can go to the Board of Elections at 824 Broadway.

One of the reasons I lost the election last time was that Democrats cast twice as many early votes as Republicans. We can't let that happen this time, and I'd like to ask for your help to make sure it doesn't. Would you consider casting an absentee ballot this year? You should have received a request for an absentee ballot form, from the Board of Elections. Just fill it out and return it, and they will send you an Absentee Ballot to vote with. If you can't locate the request form, you can order another one by calling the Board of Elections at 632-7000 or you can call my campaign at 481-9998.

Or let me make one other suggestion. President Obama is coming to Ohio this Sunday to try to energize early voting among the Democratic liberal base. We're having a rally this Sunday downtown at the Verdin Bell Center near the Board of Elections at 11:00 a.m. Then for those who wish to do so, we're going to walk together a couple of blocks to the Board of Elections to vote. We'd love to have you join us. You can call my campaign at 481-9998 to get additional information.

So in conclusion, yes things look good for us to win this race. But there must be no letting up, no sitting on our lead, no dancing in the end zone. There will be plenty of time for celebrating after November 2nd.

For the next three weeks we must stay focused like a laser beam on getting the conservative/Republican/Independent vote out. And then when we win, we must stay focused on getting this country back on track, getting the economy moving again, stopping the out-of-control spending, and getting America back to work. A tall order, but one that we can together accomplish.

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