A Long Night.

It is roughly 3:00 a.m. and we are still at the Board of Elections where we are waiting to sign-off on the unofficial election results.

A few quick observations:

1. Congratulations to the Democratic Party and to President-elect Obama. Even as Republicans, we should never lose sight of the historic nature of this moment. The election of an African American man to the highest democratically elected political office in the world is a triumph of our American system. As R's, we may not like that the Democrats won. But, let's pause for a minute to say congratulations.

2. We did well locally despite the landslide. I expect we will keep the Clerk's office and the Recorder's office in a tough year.

3. We continue our domination of the courthouse with Patti Clancy and a large majority of judgeships still in Republican hands.

4. There are still votes to be counted in Rep. Chabot's race. We'll watch that closely.

5. We helped two Republican endorsed Judges retain their seats on the Ohio Supreme Court.

6. It was a tough night. We weathered it and I am committed to making it better in Hamilton County and across the State of Ohio.

To every volunteer and to every Republican, I say this: THANK YOU and keep the faith. This could have been worse. We should "take a breath" and evaluate where we are as a party without pointing fingers. We've had a great run and now is our time to re-evaluate where we are as a Party and to see what we're really about.

In the coming days and weeks, I will implore every Republican to look to a different future with me. More on that later...