As the AP's Dan Sewell reports, voters in conservative southern Ohio are taking to the polls this morning to choose the next member of the United States House of Representatives.

Republican Jean Schmidt was first in line when the polls opened Tuesday as voters in a southwestern Ohio congressional district chose between her and Democrat Paul Hackett, an Iraq veteran who is critical of the war.

Tuesday's special election in the heavily GOP district was for the seat of former Rep. Rob Portman, who stepped down this year to become U.S. trade representative.

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It was the final stage of a campaign that has drawn national attention largely because of Hackett's military service and his criticism of President Bush.

Hackett, who would be the first Iraq war combat veteran in Congress if elected, campaigned with fellow vets Monday. He also had weekend campaign help from two other veterans, former Sens. John Glenn of Ohio and Max Cleland of Georgia.

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Both campaigns had TV and radio commercials sweeping the district, while campaign workers focused on get-out-the-vote efforts. Elections officials said turnout could be as high as 25 percent, a strong showing for a summertime special election.

Hackett has been the strongest Democratic candidate in decades in Ohio's 2nd District, where Portman regularly received more than 70 percent of the vote during his 12 years in Congress.

Swing State Project has great continuing coverage of the election.

Just a note about the election: Paul Hackett has raised a nearly unprecendented $450,000 online in this special election. It looks like Democrats across the nation -- and especially in this overwhelmingly GOP district, in particular -- are really energized.

[Update 8:30 AM Pacific]: Charlie Cook weighs in...

Will today's special election in Ohio's 2nd District be that crystal ball for 2006? On its face, this heavily Republican district sure doesn't look like it should be any sort of bellwether. President Bush's 64 percent last year suggests that any Democrat has an enormous amount of ground to cover just to break even. When Republican former state Rep. Jean Schmidt narrowly won the 12-way Republican primary on June 14, besting early favorites Hamilton County Commissioner Pat DeWine and former Rep. Bob McEwen with 31.4 percent of the vote, it was assumed that her hard work was over. After all, the Cook Political Report 'Partisan Voting Index' rating is R+13, which means that in the combined two-party vote in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, this district voted 13 percentage points more Republican than the country as a whole.

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Bottom line: Schmidt, the Republican, is still favored to win the election, but don't rule out the possibility of an upset, given the vagaries of August special election voter turnout and the problems unique to Ohio this year. But even assuming a GOP win tonight, the margin of victory can give us some insight into just how radioactive the governor's troubles and the "time for a change" sentiment in the state will be for other Republicans in the Buckeye State next year. If Schmidt's victory margin is in double digits, this tells us that there is not much of an anti-GOP wind in Ohio right now. If the margin is say six to nine points for Schmidt, then there is a wind, but certainly no hurricane. A Schmidt win of less than five points should be a very serious warning sign for Ohio Republicans that something is very, very wrong, while a Hackett victory would be a devastating blow to the Ohio GOP.

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