CHANDLER WINS!

If the Democratic 2004 campaign were analagous to the war raged against the bug civilization of Klandathu in the Verhoeven's Starship Troopers, then today's events in Kentucky would constitute the early victory on Planet P, followed by the evening's party, in which Ace plays his neon violin, some guy tells Rico that he "kills bugs good", and Dizzy finally gets her man for ten, no, make that twenty minutes.

Yes, for the first time in more than a decade, a Democrat has won a special election for Congress. Ben Chandler beat, no, trounced Republican Alice Kerr by a dozen percentage points to fill the seat vacated by now-Governor Ernie Fletcher.

Why is this a big deal? Because Kerr based her campaign strategy on close association with the record of George W Bush. By doing so, her numbers, well, tanked. This rendered the election, in the view of many, as a referendum on Bushian policy. Some agree with this sentiment, while others assert a different opinion, on the expected party lines, as the AP account strives to convey:

Some Democrats claimed the race in Bluegrass country, home to horse and tobacco farms, had national implications.

Robert T. Matsui, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Chandler's victory was “a clear message to the arrogant Republican government in Washington that Americans are ready for a change” and that Republican policies “have totally failed to create jobs in Kentucky as in so many other states.”

But state Republican Party Chairwoman Ellen Williams suggested Chandler's name recognition was the key factor. “His name was in people's minds, and that makes a big difference,” she said.

Aww, poor Ellen. Right. Nevermind that just as the Democrats did as much as they could to help Chandler, the GOP threw as much as they could, up to and including the kitchen sink, into this race. And nevermind that this was a big slice of Kentucky, a state that gave Bush a 15-point margin of victory in 2000.

For another historical parallel, compare tonight's results to the special election that brought Representative Lois Capps to the US Congress in early 1998. After a string of defeats and blunted momentum on various issues for the Dems, this victory launched the first time ever that the party that controlled the White House gained Congressional seats in a midterm election.

Anyway, expect to see more instances of both
1) Congressional victories for Democrats, starting with Herseth in South Dakota, and
2) Political analysis based on Starship Troopers analogies.