THE BIG NEWS FROM LAST NIGHT YOU WON'T HEAR ON CNN-- ESPECIALLY IN OHIO

Dr. Vic Wulsin was a big winner last night

The big news this morning is that Hillary won 3 of the 4 Democratic primaries last night-- including Ohio and Texas-- although in terms of delegates, it looks about even between her and Obama for the day. (You can play with the Slate delegate counter, which is fun for wonks.) Also John W. McCain clinched the worthless Republican nomination to be the GOP's snarling sacrificial lamb in 2008. Turnout was massive-- for Democrats... even in Texas where Democrats have long given themselves up for dead.

Now, in terms of congress... there were several important races. For Blue America, the two most important were Vic Wulsin's in OH-02, which we covered last night-- and which we'll be going over this afternoon at 3pm (EST) at Firedoglake with Vic-- and Rick Noriega's senate race in Texas. With 3 opponents, the key for our candidate, Rick Noriega, was to avoid a run-off so he could start focusing on Cornyn. Mission accomplished. Rick wound up with 51% of the vote, just about double his nearest competitor, Gene Kelly. Bad news for Cornyn: about 18% of Republican primary voters rejected him. There were 3 congressional races in Texas we were following, two of them GOP primaries. Ron Paul coasted to renomination against the GOP Establishment rubber stamp Chris Peden (covertly supported by the McCain forces). And among the 10 far right maniacs looking to bring fascism back to TX-22 Shelley Sekula Gibbs took almost 28%. If she wins the run-off, as is likely, she'll face right-wing Democratic freshman Nick Lampson. For progressives and moderates there can be no winner this year in TX-22, although Lampson is less horrible on many issues than Sekula Gibbs. The only Democratic primary in Texas that had interested us was for the right to challenge the Clear Channel son-in-law, Bush rubber stamp Mike McCaul in a gerrymandered district starting in Austin and snaking east towards Houston. Grassroots fave, Dan Grant, was beaten, substantially, by Larry Doherty.

In Ohio, 99.99% of votes are now counted. Dennis Kucinich fended off his 4 challengers. He wound up with 52.27% of the vote. In OH-02 Vic Wulsin took 57.89% of the vote against two challengers. Fake Dem Stephen Black-- supported by former DCCC Executive Director/Emanuelista John Lapp-- ran the most repulsive primary campaign I've ever seen (straight out of Lapp's Karl Rove playbook). The interesting thing about OH-02, though is that is an overwhelmingly Republican district, far more Democrats came out to the polls than Republicans. In the presidential primary, there were 103,729 Democrats, while only 47,337 Republicans voted. Hillary garnered 55,783 votes against Obama's 46,426. McCain only managed 26,920 votes. Look at those numbers again. The Democratic loser absolutely swamped McCain-- in the GOP heartland! In the congressional race 94,946 Democrats voted while only 71,139 Republicans bothered to stick around, just over 40,000 of whom voted for Schmidt. So... Vic wound up with 54,965 votes to Mean Jean's 40,891. This race is going to be a big priority for Blue America for 2008. Try to make it over to FDL this afternoon (3PM- EST) to talk with Vic and if you can spare some money, she needs to replenish her war chest after a hard fought primary. Her Blue America page-- and Rick Noriega's-- is open now.

Other races in Ohio look bad for the GOP. Ohio's first CD, where Dreihaus is taking on struggling incumbent Steve Chabot, Steve wound up with 55,476 votes to Chabot's 44,661. In OH-03 Jane Mitakides will be the Democratic candidate against incumbent Mike Turner. 91,000 Democrats participated in that primary (giving Jane just under 50,000 votes) while only 60,000 Republicans bothered to vote. In OH-07 where Republican Dave Hobson is retiring, 83,000 Democrats voted, giving Sharen Neuhardt a victory in a crowded field while only 82,000 Republicans showed up and gave Steve Austria the nomination, also in a crowded field. Republican incumbent Steven LaTourette is in big trouble in OH-14. 95,000 Democrats voted and picked Bill O'Neill as the candidate with 59,857. Only 51,650 Republicans bothered voting. Bye-bye LaTourette. The other Ohio race of interest is in the 16th CD where Republican Ralph Regula is retiring. John Boccieri got 68,388 votes out of 106,000 cast on the Democratic side, while only 68,000 Republicans voted, picking Kirk Schuring with 32,503 votes (47.3%).


UPDATE: MANY REPUBLICANS VOTED FOR VIC WULSIN YESTERDAY

We have been talking with Vic over at FDL and she just dropped a bit of a political bombshell: "The 2nd District has some very interesting dynamics. Congressman Bob McEwen [OH-R] called this morning to congratulate me. He said that at his dinner table last night, the other six guests - all Republicans - had chosen Democratic ballots and voted for, yep, Vic Wulsin! He says the Repubs want her OUT (he barely lost to her in the ‘06 primary, so remember where he’s coming from) and want a reasonable alternative. So, I’d like to think some of the crossing-over comes from a desire to get Schmidt out."