Super Bowl XLII on February 3, 2008 in Glendale, Arizona saw the New York Giants defeat the New England Patriots 17-14. New England came into the game undefeated and have been since been dubbed one of the biggest busts in the history of the NFL for their inability to finish off a great season.

Fast forward 4 years and the same two teams are in the Super Bowl. On Sunday in Indianapolis, Indiana, the Giants and Patriots will fight again for the Lombardi Trophy. Once again, the Patriots find themselves the favorites and seem eager to get revenge.

Paralleling the story line of the Super Bowl rematch is the Presidential election being held this November as it was in November 2008. Like New England, the Republican party seems eager to exercise the demons of a bad result in 2008.

Superstitious Republicans are hoping for a New England win on the 5th of February which in turn may lead to a Republican win in November.

In summary, New England win=Republican win, Giants win again=Obama win again…or not, but I’ll rooting for the Patriots on Sunday just in case.

For the first time in its over 150 year history, the Presidential nominee for the Republican Party will either be a Catholic or a Mormon. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (Mormon), former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (Catholic) and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (Catholic) are the three legitimate candidates left in the race to face President Barack Obama in November.

In a country where the religion of Commander-in-Chief matters, it is an issue that will be talked about over and over again. There is no doubt in my mind, one of the most reviewed aspects of the rest of the primaries and general election will be the candidates religious beliefs.

A victory for Romney over President Obama in November would mean that he would be the first Mormon to ascend to the office of President. A Mormon candidate has not been nominated for the office by any party, let alone one of the two major parties. For Romney and Mormons, to simply gain the nomination would be a major breakthrough for the religion on the national political stage. Of course, Romney would not be happy with making history for the Mormon faith, 1.7% of the American population.

A victory for either Santorum or Gingrich over President Obama in November would mean that our nation would have only the second Catholic President, JFK of course elected in 1960. In 2004, Bush won the Catholic vote with 52% over John Kerry (Catholic), but the party saw a drop in the number of Catholic GOP voters in the 2010 midterm elections. Roman Catholicism, the nation’s largest individual denotation at just under 24% of Americans, will play a large role in deciding the race and a Catholic nominee could bring the number back up to the 2004 number or even higher.

As observed in the early primaries, for these three candidates to be successful they have to prove the traditional values of their personal religious beliefs match those of voters no matter their beliefs.

Republicans who do not want to see either of these three men win the nomination, could always vote for Ron Paul, a Baptists.

Great news: Republicans are running in every one of the 22 state representative seats in Johnson County.

On June 7, I wrote how there was not yet a candidate in District 24, where GOP County Chair Ronnie Metsker resides.  I said that he should run, if nobody else will.  An update:  Republicans have a candidate — Michael Foltz from Roeland Park — though I don’t yet know what he believes.  I hope that, unlike Metsker, he will be willing to tell others what his philosophies are.

With District 24 filled, this means that Republicans have a candidate for every one of the state representative seats in Johnson County.  There are 125 total Kansas House seats in the state, and 22 of them include Johnson County voters.  In 2012, after redistricting, I expect another 3-5 seats added to that Johnson County total.

After election day in November 2010, we’re going to have the strongest group of conservative, pro-freedom legislators in the history of Johnson County.

Visit the county election page to see the list of candidates.

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