The networks are calling the Ohio U.S. Senate race for Republican Rob Portman over Democrat Lee Fisher.
No surprise there. Portman has been leading in the polls by wide margins for weeks, and Fisher’s campaign has been pretty much invisible. Fisher got attention only when he did a curious “24-hours-of-Lee-Fisher” event recently, and that was seen as more of a publicity stunt than anything else.
Portman will replace another Republican, George Voinovich, so the result is not a pick up for the Republicans. Portman is likely more conservative than Voinovich, but he is not a Tea Party favorite, either.
On the Democrat side, I expect many Ohio Democrats are regretting that they didn’t nominate Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner rather than Fisher. Brunner is more of a fresh face, whereas Fisher has been in Ohio politics for 30 years — and he didn’t run much of a campaign.
