Will Ohio be punished because of Strickland?

That's the basic jist of the suppositions behind this Blade article, "Will the governor's support of Clinton backfire on Ohio?"

If you ask Governor Ted Strickland or Ohio Party Chairman Chris Redfern, they don't seem to believe that's going to happen, though it appears clear that Republicans will use some of Strickland's words against him (at the bottom of this post you'll see it's already started.) Most of us expect this in politics though, it's part of the process of getting the rest of us to join them, yes, the ever popular "unity" theme where the focus switches from beating up on party members to turning to "the other guys."

For me it's one of the reasons I don't take typically take endorsements by electeds seriously, yet having seen Ted Strickland talk about Hillary in person, I do feel that he really did believe some of these comments made such as this:

At the beginning:

"These are very serious times for our nation and the world and I believe we need a serious leader who is capable of bringing about the change that I think we so desperately need," Strickland told reporters on a conference call.

Or:

"You know it's tough for a woman to seek the presidency. It's also tough for an African-American to seek the presidency and I understand that, but it seems as if, you know, there's not a double standard when it comes to Sen. Clinton seeking this office, but there's a triple and a quadruple standard and I think she's dealing with all of this with great dignity and courage," he said.

When asked what he meant by triple and quadruple standards, Strickland gave a few examples. "Well, you know, you gotta be strong. You gotta be appropriately emotional. You can't be too critical of your opponent, but you've got to be critical enough. It goes on and on and on. There are assessments made of Sen. Clinton that would never be even considered for a male candidate," he said.

It has to be difficult for him and for some of the others to have truly felt that Clinton was the more electable candidate especially given the time and energy he spent campaigning for Clinton. Yes, I realize it's what is being expected of Clinton supporters as well but there are very few political consequence for us though the pressure will increase and the message will continue as expressed in this Blade article that the goal is now that Obama is better than McCain.

The Ohio Republican Party put out a release on June 4th that points out more which is not unexpected. I believe in part that since no matter how many times he says he's not interested, the continued focus on Ted Strickland being a potential vice president for Obama makes him a target. I think many do not feel Strickland is being sincere about not wanting to be vice president, but just as I feel he was sincere about Clinton, he's sincere about not wanting to be vice president not when it was Clinton and not when it's Obama. In this situation I don't see politics creating a scenario where he would change his mind.

Ohio races get attention from Roll Call...

Most times eyes don't turn to the Ohio political scene until primary or election time when many have stated "As Ohio Goes so goes the Nation" so it was with some interest that I saw that some of our congressional races are getting attention. Part of the article, subscription required for full access:

For Ohio Republicans, Friday might be known as the day they finally could exhale. That’s when the filing deadline passed in the presidential battleground state, following a year marked by Congressional retirements and a brutally expensive special election.

Republicans now are looking at competitive — and potentially divisive — primaries in all of the seats that came because of the retirement of GOP Reps. David Hobson, Deborah Pryce and Ralph Regula.

“We were very fortunate to have one of the most senior delegations. ... We’ve been able to have a very powerful delegation,” said Ohio Republican Party Deputy Chairman Kevin DeWine. “Unfortunately, three of them have decided to retire at the same time.”

Go to Iowa and be able to vote twice in the primary!

Despite all of the rhetoric about who is anti-student I've changed my mind on the idea of caucusing being such a great idea if you can go there, claim you live there, vote in a caucus then be able to go back to your real legal residence and vote in the primary there.

Here in Ohio we'd call that voter fraud...

Ohio election officials use rules set forth in law (R.C. 3503.02) to determine a person’s qualifying voting address. Under those rules, your voting residence is the place in which your habitation is fixed and to which, whenever you are absent, you intend to return. You must intend your residence in the county to be permanent, not temporary. You will not lose your voting residency in Ohio if you leave temporarily and intend to return, unless you are absent from the state for four consecutive years.

Should we really place this large of an importance on the Iowa results with as inconsistent as their rules are when you compare them to most other places?

Ohio's Congressional race gets national attention...

As I started to read Chris Cillizza's latest email, I immediately noticed that a race that I've been following on my local blog caught his attention in this week's Sunday Fix.

Here on the ground in NWO, it appears that there is a very good chance that Democrat Robin Weirauch could win this one, so I'm not sure if I agree with Chris's belief that a loss by Latta is unlikely but I do agree that the Democratic Party can and will claim a victory even if Weirauch doesn't win because of the amount of money the Republicans have spent to try to keep this seat as an R. Part of Chris's post on that:

Despite the heavy spending, strategists for both parties sought to play down expectations in advance of the vote. Republicans noted that Gov. Ted Strickland (D) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) carried the 5th District in 2006. Democrats pushed back, arguing that the very fact that House Republicans are being forced to spend from their very limited war chest is a victory.

In reading some of the posts over on Daily Kos, there are also a few Virgina Democrats who are not happy that their special election is not getting the DCCC dollars or the internet attention. The national blogs came slow to the Weirauch campaign, at one point in time I was the only blogger on a media conference call but they are making up for their earlier wait and see approach.

Carville says we need more horses, I think we need better ones...

Part of the email I just received that is stated to be from James Carville, that of course is really just another email asking for a financial contribution.

Dear Lisa,

I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I'm as frustrated as you are that more hasn't gotten done in this Congress. Like you, I want to see more progress on getting us out of this mess in Iraq, getting more folks health care, and kicking our oil habit.

But I want to be clear: That's not the fault of the horses we have. It's because we need more horses. Fifty-one Democrats in the Senate just isn't enough. Don't just take it from me. Stu Rothenberg is the gold standard of political analysts and he just said "Sixty seats is what it's about. And if the Democrats can get close to that, then they really can do things."

Come 2008, we can turn this country around, but that means electing more Democrats, and electing more Democrats means supporting the DSCC. The DSCC has laid out a goal of what it's going to take to win the Senate seats we need, and that translates into a fundraising goal each and every month. Right now, they're only $94,363 away from the November target. Give by midnight tonight and you can put us over the top.

Fifty one seats is a majority in the Senate, getting 60 seats or 70 seats is not going to change anything. The real issue is the House, and the Democratic Party is not putting money into races where Democrats are facing Republicans. All you have to do is look right here in Ohio at the Fifth Congressional race to see that there are no mass influxes of money going to the Robin Weirauch campaign. Either from the Ohio Democratic Party or the National Democratic Party. You have Democrats publicly saying how important it is for Robin to win, yet privately they are not putting their money into the race and they are saying she's not going to win. It's the typical double standard that I've seen before when local Democrats have tried to take on Republicans, the Democratic Party here in Ohio does not give them the assistance they would need to be able to pull off a win. I watched the exact same thing happen to Mark Dansack, he was given very little support financial or otherwise from the local or state Democratic Party, the Republican Party spent huge amount of dollars to make sure the incumbent Republican retained the Ohio House seat. It was heart breaking to watch because the reality is, without financial support under our current election system, it's extremely difficult to win.

So Mr. Carville, we do need more horses, but new horses and where they are needed rather than just being part of a stable...

Toledo takes third place in liveable-city competition

Some interesting news for my little hometown:

The city of Toledo received third place tonight in an international competition that selects the most liveable cities in the world.

The award was announced in London, where a delegation of Toledo officials and community members went to compete for the award. In Toledo’s category, Malmo, Sweden was first, while Lyon, France, came in second.

Toledo faced competition from six cities in the 200,001-to-750,000 population category of the International Awards for Liveable Communities 2007.

Besides Malmo and Lyon, the other finalists were Edogawa City, Japan; Manukau, New Zealand; Niagara, Ont., and Wenjiang, China.

The Noe Ending story...

I was one of the first bloggers to focus on the story of Coingate and Tom Noe all the way back to May of 2005 so to me the "anniversary" of Noe going to jail is sad, not necessary sad in the manner that the Ohio Democratic Party just sent a release out on:

Ohio’s Unhappy Anniversary

Columbus, OH - It was one year ago today that inmate number No. 26157-018 began his prison term in the Federal lock-up in Milan, Michigan. Ohioans may not know the number but they certainly remember the name: Tom Noe. The disgraced former Republican insider and was found guilty last year of money laundering, forgery, and stealing from a $50 million rare-coin investment made by the state’s Bureau of Workers Compensation fund.

“Today is a sad anniversary for Ohioans,” said Chris Redfern, Chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party. “Many in Northwest Ohio hoped Tom Noe’s guilty verdict would have signaled to Republican candidates like Bob Latta that they should clean up their act and bring people together to solve the critical challenges facing middle class families. Yet, the day before the primary, the Ohio Elections Commission unanimously found Latta guilty of recklessly lying about his opponent’s record.”

During the recent Republican primary in Ohio’s 5th Congressional District, Northwest Ohioans were forced to sit through Republican candidates Bob Latta and Steve Buehrer savaging one another in round after round of vicious attacks during the Republican primary. In fact, in one ad, Latta criticized Steve Buehrer for accepting thousands of dollars in donations from Tom Noe. However, the ad neglected to mention that Latta received more than $1,000 from Noe.

It's sad because Democrats promised to not engage in pay to play and it still happens, sad because while Tom Noe broke the law there were others involved in what led up to the corruption and for the most part they all got a way with it. Sad because we have murderers that will spend less time in prison than Tom Noe, which really should create some reflection on our society when we view money to be more important than taking a life...

Toledo Councilwoman Betty Shultz who was one of the Noe conduits, not only never stepped down from office but was voted back into office, so it doesn't surprise me that voters did not think Latta or Buehrer receiving campaign money from Noe was an issue. Noe donated to many campaigns, and many of those who received money from Noe are still in office today so if voters will re-elect someone that was found guilty of wrong doing, taking donations from a person that at the time they did not know was breaking the law doesn't seem to be an issue nor is it going to be one that is going to really help Robin Weirauch win against Bob Latta. It has to be on the present, the future and who can do more for Ohio...

Ohio Gov Endoreses Hillary

This in from Chris Cillizza:

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has decided to endorse Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton

Frankly I'm surprised that this happened now, personally I'd prefer that our elected officials not endorse presidential candidates at all, but it's obvious that's not ever going to happen. They could at least wait until the primary for their particular state has been held before giving a "yeah" or a "nay".

I'm sure in some parts of the Ohio Democratic blogosphere this is not going to go over well since there are quite a few bloggers that support Obama and a few Edwards supporters out there that will disagree with Ted's choice. While Ted Strickland has stated he has no interest in the VP slot and has promised to serve his full term as governor on more than one occasion during the campaign trail, there are those who still want are speculating that Ted has vice presidential aspirations. While very little in Ohio politics surprises me anymore, I seriously doubt Ted wants to be Vice President. He has not hidden his admiration of Clinton but that doesn't mean he's planning on giving up Ohio for D.C.

ODP is ‘Up All Night To Do What's Right'

I normally cover things related to Ohio on my other local blog, but thought this was an interesting story for both and decided to blog about this here. The Ohio Democratic Party is doing something a bit different, they are hosting a ‘Up All Night To Do What's Right' event in Columbus, but there is also a virtual aspect to this so that people who are not in Columbus can also participate.

It sounds like it could be a very interesting night so Ohio Democrats...head on over.

:-)