By Greg Giroux, CQ Staff

While Tuesday’s special elections in Ohio’s 5th District and Virginia’s 1st District ended the way that most special elections do — as “holds” for the defending party that did not alter the partisan composition of the U.S. House of Representatives — they are already providing fodder for Republican and Democratic spina?`meisters.

If the convincing victories by Republicans Bob Latta in Ohio and Rob Wittman in Virginia produced a status quo result — Democrats now hold a 233-201 edge in the House, with one vacancy in a Republican-held district — they didn’t preclude Democratic and Republican officials from opining in the races’ aftermath about what the results might say about the November 2008 elections.

The victorious Republicans — who were favored to retain both districts — portrayed the Latta and Wittman wins as setbacks for a House Democratic leadership that took over the reins of power after winning a majority of seats in the November 2006 election. GOP officials also made clear that opposition to illegal immigration will be a leading campaign theme in 2008, and they are hoping that voters will blame Democrats for congressional gridlock on this and other issues.

The Republicans feel that a strong anti-Congress sentiment will work to their advantage, because there are more Democrats than Republicans running for re-election (Republicans need a net gain of 16 House seats to claim a 218-seat House majority). The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the campaign arm of House Republicans, issued a memo last night that described the Ohio and Virginia results as “further confirmation of a shifting political environment, an electorate desperate for change in Washington, and a wide-open congressional playing field.”

But Democratic officials noted that Tuesday’s outcomes — Latta won 57 percent of the vote and Wittman won 61 percent of the vote — were not surprising, given the strong Republican leanings of Ohio’s 5th and Virginia’s 1st; President Bush three years ago took about three-fifths of the vote in both districts.

The Democrats also said that Tuesday’s special elections showed that “nothing’s changed,” except that the NRCC was rendered more cash-strapped after having devoted considerable resources to defending the Ohio district.

The NRCC spent at least $443,000 on independent expenditures in the Latta-Weirauch race, according to a tally of Federal Election Commission (FEC) reports through Tuesday. The NRCC spent nearly 20 percent of the $2.5 million that it had in cash on hand as of Oct. 31 (when the NRCC also had $3.6 million in debt). The DCCC, meanwhile, reported $244,000 in independent expenditures on the Ohio race — less than 1 percent of the $29.2 million cash on hand that the House Democratic committee had as November began (The DCCC has $2.1 million in debts). Click here for the latest fundraising totals.

“ Tom Cole and the NRCC spending 20 percent of their cash on hand to retain one of the most Republican districts in the country — priceless,” DCCC chairman Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said Tuesday night in a statement that referred to his partisan opposite from Oklahoma.

The NRCC spent minimally in the Virginia race. The DCCC did not report any independent expenditures in Virginia’s 1st, where Wittman was heavily favored over Democratic candidate Philip Forgit.

The Democrats also reject the GOP’s contention that the political environment is shifting away from them. They point to polling data that show most Americans prefer Democrats to Republicans on a wide range of issues — and to the Republican skew of House members who have announced they are not seeking re-election in 2008.

• A Look Ahead: The next special House election — the sixth of the 2007-08 cycle — will occur March 8 in Illinois’ 14th District, a mostly suburban district west of Chicago where the winner will succeed former Republican House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, who resigned Nov. 26. That contest may turn out to be the most competitive special election this cycle: While Illinois’ 14th gave Bush 55 percent of the vote in the 2004 election, it is the most politically competitive in presidential vote performance of the seven districts that have held special elections this election cycle or soon will.

The chief contestants — Democratic scientist Bill Foster and Republicans Chris Lauzen, a state senator, and Jim Oberweis, a dairy executive — are well-funded and are preparing to run in a Feb. 5 special primary election that will coincide with the state’s regularly scheduled primary election.

The same day that Illinois 14 voters will choose a successor to Hastert, voters in Louisiana’s 1st District will be voting in primary elections to begin the process of filling the seat that Republican Rep. Bobby Jindal will vacate on Jan. 14, when he will be inaugurated as Louisiana’s governor. Primary runoff elections will be held April 5, followed by a special general election on May 3; if runoff elections are not needed, the special election will be held April 5.

OTHER SPECIAL U.S. HOUSE ELECTIONS IN 2007-08

• Georgia’s 10th (Republican Paul Broun elected July 17 to succeed Republican Charlie Norwood, who died February 13)

The Parties’ Take: Democrat James Marlow was a credible candidate in the overwhelmingly Republican-leaning 10th, but he was shut out of a potential upset when two Republicans — former state Sen. Jim Whitehead and Broun — finished first and second respectively, in the all-candidate, all-party single ballot primary election in June. That two Republicans qualified for the runoff was not a surprise. But what was a surprise was that Broun prevailed in the July runoff election over Whitehead, who was much more politically seasoned than Broun, had more campaign money, and was a friend and political ally of the late congressman.

• California’s 37th (Democrat Laura Richardson elected Aug. 21 to succeed Democrat Juanita Millender-McDonald, who died April 22)

The Parties’ Take: No jousting here either by the national Democratic and Republican parties. The Republicans conceded this heavily minority and overwhelmingly Democratic-leaning district in southern Los Angeles County where Bush won just 25 percent of the vote in 2004.

• Massachusetts’ 5th (Democrat Niki Tsongas elected to succeed Democrat Martin T. Meehan, who resigned July 1)

The Parties’ Take: Republican nominee Jim Ogonowski lost to Tsongas by just 5 percentage points — an atypical result in a district that had backed Meehan by wide margins and also voted strongly for Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. GOP officials brandished the result as a blueprint for Republican challengers to run effective “outsider” campaigns against the Democratic majority, and as evidence that the national political environment had shifted away from Democrats and that they would not repeat their 2006 political successes.

The Democrats responded to the result by noting that Massachusetts’ 5th, which takes in Lowell, Lawrence and other cities northwest of Boston, is really not that Democratic-leaning by Massachusetts standards, and that Tsongas is highly likely to improve on her 51 percent showing in a higher-turnout November 2008 election.