GOP Wins Special Elections

The GOP successfully defended two House seats in special elections today: Virginia 1 and Ohio 5. Ohio 5 is noteworthy because of a very bitter primary fight and the subsequent investment of the major parties. The Democrats were hoping for an upset in a low turnout December election, but failed to even push the meter beyond what happened in 2006. I've been tracking it all night on Nixguy and it turned out to be a lot less exciting than promised.

All of which would be a complete waste of time for the Democrats except that they did manage to get the NRCC to push the panic button and dump nearly a half million into defending the seat. Which is just cold comfort to the Democrats, because the real takeaway is that the GOP is just as safe as ever in safe GOP districts. Which might be enough to stop the tidal wave of retirements that has been setting the GOP back.

Of course it may also just mean that low turnout helps Republicans. Always.