WASHINGTON — The special election last week in Ohio's fifth congressional district – the northwest corner of Ohio, including the top half of Mercer county – was heralded beforehand as the Very Big Deal of Ohio politics.

This race, between state Rep. Bob Latta, R-Bowling Green, and Democrat Robin Weirauch of Napoleon, national media outlets speculated, would be the tipping point to determine if 2006 was an anomaly or the real deal. The victor would replace U.S. Rep. Paul Gillmor, R-Old Fort, who died in September.

Then Latta won decisively – he was sworn in Thursday – and both sides had to figure out what it all meant.

Let political spin begin

Republicans, not surprisingly, said this was a victory for their message. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester, sent out a statement saying as much. But he also poured staff and money into the race, helping to raise at least $250,000 for Latta.

Weirauch, meanwhile, trying for the third time to win the district, got about $250,000 from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The AFL-CIO made 30,000 phone calls for her and Gov. Ted Strickland and Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama backed her.

So Latta's decisive victory seemed to, for an instant, take some wind out of the Democrats' sails, until they started spinning it.

Democrats said despite the solid Latta victory, Republicans were nonetheless "more vulnerable than ever in Ohio." Chris Redfern, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, said "the GOP had to scramble to win a special election that should have been a cake walk."

Ohio Republican Party Deputy Chairman Kevin DeWine, meanwhile, was all too happy to serve up some tasty crow to Strickland, pointing out that Weirauch actually did better in her 2006 race than in this one.

"Ted, Ted, Ted. This looks like a whole Latta votes against the governor and his so-called popularity," DeWine said in a statement.

Bob Bennett, meanwhile, also got in a dig at Strickland, calling the results "a clear rejection of a popular governor who spent enormous political capital on this race."

Not to be ignored

All this naval-gazing ignored a few facts. Weirauch did better against Gillmor in 2006 in part because neither side poured the resources into the 2006 race that they did into the special election. That year, you'll remember, was toxic for Republicans everywhere, and Republicans were too busy scrambling to hold other districts to concentrate on Gillmor's race.

As well, the seat has been traditionally Republican. The GOP has held that seat since 1939. It's conservative heartland – George W. Bush got more than 15,000 votes in the 5th District's Mercer County in 2004, while Democrat John Kerry only received a little more than 5,000.

Both parties overlooked another thing as well.

Of all the party officials who sent out statements reacting to the race, only Boehner bothered to congratulate Latta on his hard-earned victory.

Everyone else was too busy spinning the results to bother.