Wow! What a Night!

There's nothing like election day and night--even when you're not on the ballot.

Last night will be one of those moments where we'll always remember exactly where we were when the news came down of the history-changing Barack Obama victory, including in Ohio and Hamilton County.

By the way, Hamilton County has become THE bellweather County for Ohio, and perhaps the nation--when we go Blue, so goes Ohio, and when Ohio goes blue, so goes the country. For the map, see http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/county/#OHP00map

Time Magazine had predicted Hamilton County would play this bellweather role, including referencing the 2006 County Commission race . . . http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1855354,00.html

And there's a pattern here over the past 100 years: http://hamiltoncountydems.org/pdf/uploaded/Hamco%20trends%203.pdf

And for real politicos, this is about the best Map of the vote yesterday you'll ever see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/campaign08/election/uscounties.html
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On a Countwide level, I want to congratulate all the winners, including Todd Portune, new County Commissioner Greg Hartmann, new Common Pleas Judges Jerry Metz and Pat DeWine, Judge Jody Luebbers, Robert Goering (Treasurer), Patty Clancy (Clerk of Courts), and Rebecca Groppe (Recorder)--although we may have to wait for provisional votes to finalize results in a couple. These were hard fought races, in a wildly unpredictable and electric year, so making it over the finish line is an impressive feat for all. And now we'll all have to work together to get through a challenging time for our County.

Of course, the other big election at the local level was the late-night victory of State Rep. Steve Driehaus as our next Congressman from the 1st District. Having been friends with and worked with Steve for a number of years, I look forward to partnering with him to accomplish the many goals we both have for Hamilton County in the coming years.

We also have several new State representatives, including Denise Driehaus and Connie Pillich, who I also look forward to working with at the state level.

Finally, I also want to thank and congratulate those who competed and didn't quite make it--it takes a lot to run for public office, and, win or lose, those who put their hat in the ring and fight the good fight deserve our respect and thanks. And for those who have served our community for some time, such as Rep. Steve Chabot and Judge Fred Nelson, we thank them for their years of dedicated public service to our community.

All in all, there's nothing like the day where the people speak.

And boy did they.