THE ELECTION DAY GAINS BY OHIO DEMOCRATS ARE IMPRESSIVE.

The Election Day gains by Ohio Democrats are impressive.
The party took control of most of the elected executive offices: governor, attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer. It's been 12 to 16 years since Democrats held any of those posts.
Sherrod Brown, its U.S. Senate candidate, beat U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, a Republican who held the post for 12 years.
Those victories in Ohio were similar to the Democrats' successes nationwide.
While Democrats failed to take back the Ohio House, it picked up a net total of seven Ohio House seats.
Of particular note, a Democrat beat a sitting incumbent for a seat in Trumbull County, and a Democrat won the open seat, currently held by a Republican, in Columbiana County. There are currently 60 Republicans to 39 Democrats in the House. The GOP will retain control over the legislative body, but by a much smaller margin, 53-46, come Jan. 2.
While those are impressive Democratic victories, don't ignore the party's failures in the election.
Its two state Supreme Court candidates lost. That can be excused because judicial candidates in Ohio don't have their party affiliation listed on general election ballots.
Official vote totals are still pending, but it appears that no sitting Republican member of the U.S. House in Ohio will lose.
The only Republican-controlled congressional seat to go Democrat was the 18th, and it took a federal corruption conviction of the Republican congressman in that district for it to happen.
Only 1 Senate seat gained
Perhaps the most pathetic failure for Ohio Democrats was its inability to make a dent in the Republican-controlled state Senate.
Democrats had a net gain of 1 state Senate seat. It breaks the two-thirds stranglehold Republicans have over the Senate, 22-11, until Jan. 2 so the legislative body can't override vetoes from Gov.-elect Ted Strickland unless a Democrat sides with the Republican majority.
Of the 17 state Senate seats up for grabs, six were Republicans seeking re-election, and three others were held by Republicans not running again.
For Democrats to gain control of the Senate, their incumbents in five districts had to be re-elected, they had to retain the three seats being vacated by party members because of the state term-limits law, and win races in six of the nine districts held by Republicans.
The first two parts were easy. But all six incumbent Republicans won, with only one of the races considered close. As for the three seats vacated by Republicans, Democrats were only able to pick up one.
Leadership team fails
The Democratic Senate Caucus' leadership team is largely responsible for recruiting candidates who can win those seats, and helping them with assistance and money.
To be kind, the team failed to accomplish its mission. Yet the incoming 10-member Democratic Senate Caucus rewarded two of the four current leaders by promoting them to higher positions.
The caucus was to meet Tuesday to select replacements for two vacancies, one with Trumbull as its largest county and the other with Columbiana as its largest county.
Instead of playing by the rules it established, the caucus held a binding vote on its leadership positions last week with an official vote, now just a formality, to be held Tuesday after filling the two vacancies.
State Sen.-elect John Boccieri of New Middletown, one of the caucus' major fundraisers and the only nonincumbent Senate candidate to run unopposed, was in line to be assistant minority leader, but because of a fight over leadership, he was muscled out of the position.
That means the Mahoning Valley won't have a legislator in leadership in the state Senate or House.
When the vacancies are selected Tuesday, the Valley will have three of the 12 Democratic Senate seats and none in leadership. The Valley did more than its share in electing Democratic candidates, and the area ends up with no leadership members. That's not a bright move on the caucus' part, but it's not the first time that's happened.