GOP jailbird Bob Ney was replaced last year in Congress by Democrat Zack Space, who'll have to defend his seat next November. It's still early but Space is criss-crossing Ohio at a furious pace, running like it's October '08 and the polls are split down the middle. Why? Because the Republican Party is already breathing down his neck. The GOP has tapped this as one of the most important races in the county and set Space's defeat as one of its top goals.

many voters said they were preparing for one of the longest and most brutal Congressional campaigns they have ever seen. "The national Republican Party is going to dump a whole lot of money into this district," said Lynn Elliott, 59, a Republican and a dairy farmer.

Both parties see Mr. Space's seat as an important prize. The 18th Congressional District, which Mr. Space represents, is Republican territory; President Bush received 57 percent of the vote here in 2004. Winning the seat is essential for Republicans to regain control of the House next year, said David Cohen, a political science professor at the University of Akron.

The GOP have an uphill fight with this one, mainly because Space is pretty darn popular, his fundraising rates are strong and even Republicans are saying he's doing a good job. And secondly because there's no clear Republican contender yet.

It won't be until after the primaries that the congressional races come into focus but you can be sure that Ohio's 18th district will be one that both parties will be keeping a close eye on.

It's alive! The immigration bill that is. Fully a week after most of the media and political punditry announced it dead and buried with good riddance, Sens/ Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell announced that the bill would be on the Senate schedule immediately after the energy bill.

No details on the specifics but apparently what changed is President Bush added more "security" stuff to the bill:

But last week conservatives blasting the bill as an "amnesty" for people who blatantly broke the law prevented it from proceeding to a final vote, handing Bush a setback in his hopes for a signature domestic achievement in his second term in the White House.

The breakthrough Thursday came hours after Bush backed an almost $4.4-billion burst of immediate spending to secure US borders, in answer to critics of the bill who said its security component was inadequate.

"This funding will come from the fines and penalties that we collect from those who have come to our country illegally," Bush said.

If the idea is to appease conservatives, this is not going to help. The first thing the conservatives will do is rightly ask why the bill can't impose the fines and border spending without the amnesty. Then wait awhile and see whether amnesty is even needed.