Space Cadet?
The general election matchup between Rep. Bob Ney and Dover legal director Zack Space should, at the very least, be fun to watch.
Space, a political neophyte, defeated Chillicothe Mayor Joe Sulzer tonight for the right to take on the scandal-implicated incumbent. But his campaign may need a makeover of sorts now that he'll be getting loads of national media attention.
Space's campaign has been devoid of the seasoned political operatives prevalent in most major races. His father, Socrates Space, has played an outsized role so far in his campaign The younger Space only ran after failing to recruit more seasoned politicians from his home base. He had to remove an image of scantily-clad cheerleaders from a MySpace profile early on in the campaign. And his first and only advertisement suggests he'll need an infusion of charisma to improve his chances against Ney.
That said, Ney's 67% primary performance against an obscure opponent indicates he's very vulnerable, regardless of who's on the ballot. DeLay won 62% of the vote against a better-funded challenger last month, and announced his resignation from Congress soon thereafter. It wouldn't be surprising if Republicans place similar pressure on Ney to step down to help the party carry this normally safe GOP seat. [JOSH KRAUSHAAR]
Josh - you are correct on one point which is that Space is a political neophyte. But your comparison to the DeLay campaign is completely off-base. Ney's primary opponent may have been obscure but the Demcrats pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into this campaign attacking Ney. Both Space and Sulzer ran extensive TV & radio and numerous Democrat 527s ran ads as well. In comparison, Ney's campaign did not run a single TV or radio ad saving its money for the general - in contrast to DeLay who spent over $2 million on his primary. It's easy to try to make the DeLay comparison but they are two completely different races.