Paul Hackett

Today Ohio is holding a special election to fill the congressional seat of Rob Portman, Republican who was named U.S. trade representative by President Bush. Hackett, the Democrat, is an Iraq war veteran who is against the war and has criticized President Bush. Schmidt, the Republican, is president of Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati and while she reputedly has a steel trap memory for names and faces, can't seem to remember testifying before Tom Noe, the guy at the center of Ohio's Coingate scandal.

Swing State Project has been organizing the netroots. This is a heavily Republican district (Portman won his last election with 70% of the vote) so a win by Hackett would be big.

The race will be close, so hope that Diebold doesn't throw it to Schmidt.