Aren't we glad the elections are all over? It was a wild ride and a great ending, but now we can take a breather, enjoy victory, and get our levels of time, energy and sacrifice back down to normal. And best of all, we won't have anyone wheedling us for any more donations for a while, right?
Well, not quite. There are still a few unfinished contests left to settle, in which the Democratic candidates can still benefit from our engagement, and yes, a little bit of cash. I'd like to call your attention to Ohio's 15th district, where Mary Jo Kilroy is still in a very tight race. She's set up an ActBlue page, asking for contributions to help her get through the rest of the counting process and the expected re-count. Kilroy has a very good shot at winning this one, so please consider giving her a hand.
In OH-15, Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy is running against Republican Steve Stivers, Libertarian Mark Noble, and Independent Don Elijah Eckhart. According to the latest results I can find, in a blog entry of the Columbus Dispatch (warning: notorious Republican rag), Stivers presently has a lead of 393 votes, out of about 290,000 votes cast. They're now counting late-arriving absentee votes and provisional ballots -- the Kilroy campaign says that there are still about 27,000 of these to be counted, and that they are likely to swing her way, by more than enough to close the gap. They keep counting absentee votes that arrive as late as Nov. 14th (as long as they were postmarked by Election Day), and recounts begin after that, if necessary, so this is going to take a while.
This isn't the first time Kilroy has been in this situation. In 2006, she nearly unseated incumbent Deborah Pryce (who is not running for re-election this year) in a lengthy recount process that lasted into December. She came up about 1000 votes short, out of about 220,000 votes cast. In that process, the addition of late absentee votes and provisional ballots reduced Kilroy's deficit by about 2,000 votes; so there is good reason to be optimistic that she can close a gap of a few hundred votes, particularly since there are more provisional ballots this year.
The Kilroy Counts Votes Committee has been set up as a PAC that is accepting donations at the ActBlue page. I received mail yesterday saying that Stivers has hired a team of lawyers to "watch" the locations where absentee and provisional ballots are being counted, presumably to raise as many challenges as they can. So they're asking for help, because Kilroy may have to pay lawyers, confront the challenges, and keep her operations going into December. Since it's a separate PAC, any donations do not count towards the $2,300 limit for the campaign.
This contest is near and dear to my heart, because OH-15 is my district, and I've never been represented by a Democrat in the House, ever in my life. It was agonizing to come so close and nevertheless fall short two years ago, but we could make it this time.
I know we're all relieved that November 4th has passed, and you've probably had enough of people wheedling you for money. But strange as it seems, the 2008 elections aren't over yet. Last week felt great, and we have some good opportunities to feel great again in the coming weeks. Democrats have good chances to win after the counting is finished in OH-15, CA-04, and in the Senate races in Minnesota and Alaska -- and we'll be having a brand-new election in Georgia. So let's try to stay engaged. Markos called on us to leave everything on the road, but we're not all the way to the end of the road yet.