Just 663K OH voters cast ballots in the competitive primary between LG Lee Fisher (D) and Sec/State Jennifer Brunner (D). That number is lower than the 872K voters who turned out in '06, when neither Gov. Ted Strickland (D) nor Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) faced primary opponents.
Only 425K voters turned out to pick a nominee against Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC). The 14.4% turnout was smaller than the 444K voters -- or 18% of all registered Dem voters -- who turned out in '04, when Gov. Mike Easley (D) faced only a gadfly candidate in his bid to be renominated for a second term.
And in IN, just 204K Hoosiers voted for Dem House candidates, far fewer than the 357K who turned out in '02 and the 304K who turned out in '06.
GOP turnout was higher than in previous comparable elections.
By contrast, GOP turnout was up almost across the board. 373K people voted in Burr's uncompetitive primary, nearly 9% higher than the 343K who voted in the equally non-competitive primary in '04. Turnout in House races in IN rose 14.6% from '06, fueled by the competitive Senate primary, which attracted 550K voters. And 728K voters cast ballots for a GOP Sec/State nominee in Ohio, the highest-ranking statewide election with a primary; in '06, just 444K voters cast ballots in that race.
This confirms recent polling by multiple organizations showing a large enthusiasm gap between GOP and Democratic voters, with the GOP ahead by 20 points, coming into the 2010 election year.
Democrats pushed, shoved, bribed and went against the majority of Americans when they jammed Obamacare through the Congress and Senate, assuming they could call it a "win" and rev their base up. The bounce from that "win" was gone before the first week and as a "game changer" did nothing to help them win more voter enthusiasm.
What that did accomplish though was to rev up the GOP base even more than previous enthusiasm gap surveys showed and without a true game changer, November elections are going to be a rout to Democrats and odds are bettering for the GOP to take back the House.
They need 40 seats and it is starting to look like they can not only do this, but take more than previous projections showed.
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