Here’s yet another story registered Republican Joe Hallett has based on his own prior reporting about John Kasich that he’s, so far, failed to mention.
In the July 15, 2005 edition of the Columbus Dispatch, Joe Hallet reported that Republicans were trying to draft John Kasich to run for Governor. Kasich said he wouldn’t challenge Betty Montgomery or Jim Petro… basically, he’d only run to stop Ken Blackwell to get the nomination:
Kasich has told political allies he won’t run against Petro or Montgomery, whom he considers friends. He would, however, take on Blackwell, whose fiscal proposals Kasich views as irresponsible, sources said.
So in 2005, Joe Hallett reported that John Kasich was considering challenging Ken Blackwell because Ken Blackwell’s fiscal proposals were “irresponsible.” At the time, the only policy of Ken Blackwell’s that John Kasich could have possibly be referring to was Blackwell’s TEL amendment which would have limited the growth of state and local spending by constitutional fiat.
Now John Kasich is talking about a tax plan that will, under any timetable, call for the elimination of 40% of the State’s revenues and cannot even bring himself to say that he’s any different from Ken Blackwell on policy. And Joe Hallet doesn’t even bring it up.
I’m starting to understand why Matt Naugle was curiously absent from the Kasich-Taylor presser and has been silent lately. If I were the Kasich-Taylor folks, I’d be worried about Naugle.
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Forget the GOP Senate primary. If you’re looking for evidence of Tea Bagger rebellion in the GOP in Ohio, look at the potentially GOP primaries for the Secretary of State’s race (Former House Speaker/Man of Many Residences Jon Husted v. County Treasurer/Social Conservative gladfly Sandy O’Brien) and the Attorney General’s race (Former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine v. Delaware County Prosecutor David Yost.)
Last night, the Yost campaign announced it was endorsed over DeWine by the Butler County Republican Party. If you’re not familiar with Ohio GOP geopolitics, let me explain it to you this way. Think about your last county party dinner and who your county party got as its featured speaker. Maybe you got the Governor or a statewide.
Well, the Butler County GOP has regularly gotten people like the late Tony Snow or Karl Rove. This is Boehner-land, after all. The Ohio GOP held its state party dinner in nearby Warren County this year.
In order to get any endorsement, you had to get a supermajority, at least 60% of the county’s central committeepersons. Yost got 68%…. over a former U.S. Senator.
DeWine has run, a, well, unusual campaign for someone with his political resume. His campaign website hasn’t been updated at all since his announcement speech. He was not a featured speaker at the Ohio GOP’s state dinner. He’s seemed to be virtually nonexistent on the campaign trail ( I can find little evidence through local media of him actually campaigning.)
You have to wonder if DeWine is either extremely confident to the point of being complacent (Yost’s press release actually touted a poll showing DeWine still polling at 58% among registered Republican voters in a primary matchup with Yost) or simply disinterested.
Regardless, the Butler County GOP endorsement means than DeWine is facing a credible rebellion on his right flank smack dab in the middle of the Ohio GOP’s geopolitical base.
[UPDATE:] In what can only be described as a dumb political move, the DeWine campaign later this afternoon actually gave credence to Yost’s spin that this endorse is significant by issuing a statement that was picked up by the Hamilton Pulse Journal:
“We are confident that Republican voters in Ohio will nominate Mike DeWine to be their Attorney General candidate. In poll after poll, Mike DeWine is the only candidate who can beat Richard Cordray. DeWine is known across the state by an overwhelming 93% of voters. As a former county prosecutor, he has the vision and experience to clean up corruption, fix the state crime lab, and make sure our state does everything possible to promote economic growth and job creation.”
I don’t think this response helps DeWine’s cause at all when all they say is that he can defeat Richard Corday because 93% of voters have heard of him.
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This came across the wire yesterday:
A Franklin County Common Pleas judge dismissed a lawsuit today that was aimed at blocking the Ohio secretary of state’s order requiring counties to offer paper ballots in the March 4 primary.
Judge Eric Brown ruled that the Union County commissioners, who filed the lawsuit, lack the legal authority to challenge Jennifer L. Brunner’s directive.
The directive applies to county boards of election, not county commissioners, Brown said. Because the Union County Board of Elections did not join the commissioners in the lawsuit, Brown ruled that he lacked the authority to consider whether the directive violates state and federal law.
“Unlike county agencies, boards of election are under the control of and answerable only to the secretary of state and not county officers,†Brown wrote.
All seems pretty basic, yes? Here’s where it gets interesting.
David Moots, chairman of the Union County Board of Elections, was pleased to see the challenge dismissed. He voted to uphold the directive of Brunner, a fellow Democrat, to prepare paper ballots.
“We already had the equipment. We could do it. We just needed to start working,†Moots said. “We’ve wasted a lot of time. Certainly we’ll pull this off, but they left us without much time to get this done.â€
Moots attributed the legal challenge to “partisan politics†by Republican officials. County commissioners did not return calls seeking comment.
“I feel like all of our authority was usurped,†Moots said. “I feel pretty helpless up here. What is the purpose of the (elections) board if the commissioners can act in its place?â€
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PBS provides evidence of the GOP fixing the election here in Ohio. Of course, this will be ignored because of “media bias”.
Was there a White House plot to illegally suppress votes in 2004? Is there a similar plan for the upcoming elections? This week NOW examines documents and evidence that points to a Republican Party plan designed to keep Democrats from voting, allegedly by targeting people based on their race and ethnicity with key battleground states like Ohio and Florida of particular interest. “It was a partisan, discriminatory attempt to challenge voters of color,” Eddie Hailes, a senior attorney for The Advancement Project, a civil rights group, told NOW.
Was the White House involved? David Iglesias, one of the fired U.S. Attorneys, thinks so: “It’s reprehensible. It’s unethical, it’s unlawful. It may very well be criminal.” Iglesias told NOW he was repeatedly urged by his superiors at the Justice Department to investigate allegations of false voter registrations. After his investigations came up short, Iglesias said Republican officials got angry and complained to White House aide Karl Rove. Soon after Iglesias lost his job. As a result of allegations by Iglesias and others, Congress is investigating whether the White House acted unlawfully.
While Attorney General Alberto Gonzales refused to answer many questions about the controversy as he testified before the Senate this week, Iglesias told NOW he believes the White House is keeping documents from Congress to protect the Bush Administration. “That’s why there has been such a circling of the wagons around Karl Rove and Harriet Miers and Sarah Taylor. I believe there to be incriminating, possibly criminally incriminating evidence contained in those e-mails and other memoranda,” he said.
You can view the entire video online.
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Programming note really. I had a coffee meeting set up with Kelley Winzlaff, candidate for the Ohio House out of District 2, but we had a mix up in timing and weren’t able to get together. We’ve rescheduled and I look forward to chatting.
Hoping to get some audio maybe or video as well. Worst case, I’ll have a write up of the talk and go in to more detail about the race. Looking forward to it. If you have any questions to ask, leave them in the comments (especially those in the 2nd District).
An aside: Google Calendar kicks ass. I had it set up to email me an hour before the meeting and also send me a text message 30 minutes before. Probably the only reason I made it on time. I should tell Kelley about it. 
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Email from Earl Britt tonight announcing the launch of johnforcongress.com. Paperwork filing and fundraising apparatus online is being set up. The site is sparse as newly launched ones usually are. Look for more coming out of the 16th soon. I look for John to run a really good race. Good stuff.
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I heard rumblings of this earlier today and Jerid over at BSB confirms it with an exclusive phone interview with John. This is good stuff. John appears to be very solid and will make a formidable candidate. Jerid links to a post by Tim Tagaris just after the November election and it’s worth checking out:
One thing is clear, however: This is one district Democrats need to field a strong candidate in for presidential purposes…I love this district, it’s so compelling to me and will one day be a legitimate pick-up opportunity for Democrats. One way or another, it also might be one of our best shots to increase the majority in the next cycle when most pundits will place a premium on defense of the seats we gained on Tuesday.
This should shape up to be THE battleground (along with the 15th again) in the next election. I join Jerid in his excitement of possibly having John take this on and the possibility of a pickup in the 16th. Fresh horses…
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(ht Jill) Bill “No Money From Nobody” O’neill might have a new slogan when he runs for Congress against Steve LaTourette. More like “Mo’ Money From Mo’ Bodies!” He’s taken off the judicial shackles by resigning from his Court of Appeals seat in order to raise money to defeat LaTourette.
“I’m running because (LaTourette) is wrong on the war in Iraq, wrong on health care and wrong on trade with China,” O’Neill said. “I’m a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army and this war needs to end.”
On health care, he said LaTourette has “had a decade to come up with an original idea and he hasn’t, and so we live in the chaos he has created. I’m also a pediatric nurse who sees that chaos firsthand.”
Is the 14th winnable? Bill thinks so – and you gotta love the parting shot:
“Democrat Dennis Eckart held the district for years and Eric Fingerhut did so after him,” he said. “LaTourette came in on the big Republican wave in 1995 and he’s about to see that the tide has turned.
I can handle that. Smart move to build the love on high principle (while losing), then hop in the game to win it. Bill has many fans from the no money days. Let’s hope that translates to checks in the mo’ money days.
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(ht Schecter and friends) Peter Brown, Asst. Director at the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute has a piece today about the dark cloud over Ohio for the GOP:
In fact, polls of Ohio voters are finding them less inclined to support GOP candidates, less likely to consider themselves Republican than in the recent past, and giving higher ratings to potential Democratic candidates with a consistency that should set off alarm bells at the Republican National Committee.
As we know, there’s many a slip twixt cup and lip. Ohio Dems should know this all too well, but the tea leaves do look pretty good. Brown points out many reasons why those down on South Fifth might need to stock up on Pepto:
* The war in Iraq and President Bush are at least as unpopular in Ohio as both are nationally, perhaps even slightly more so.
* The previous Republican governor, Bob Taft, left office in January with a job approval rating in the teens – the lowest in the country – after an administration beset by scandal and loss of support even among Republicans.
* The Ohio economy is not doing as well as the rest of the country. In fact, two-thirds of Ohioans told a Quinnipiac University poll last month that the state’s economy was “not so good,” or “poor.”
* New Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland has a job approval rating in the same Quinnipiac poll of 53 percent favorable, 12 percent unfavorable.
With the wide margin growing in political affiliation and the climate in Ohio being one of having a new team on board making progress, I like the chances for more wins in the state. As always, it will take great candidates, campaigns, staffs, and activists all making it happen. Will be fun to watch. The message to Dems is pretty clear. Head down and grow the gap. Focus on the job at hand and continue to work to turn the state around. Oh, and watch for the stupid makers.
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Duncan Hunter is running “issue ads” in NH to introduce himself to the voters there. This is obviously against federal campaign finance laws- and people will complain- but if recent elections are any indication of the consequences- then the complaining will lead nowhere.
We saw this type of crap in Ohio last year with Ken Blackwell and the Common Sense 2006 group who was running ads against Ted Strickland. The Blackwell campaign denied any ties to the group- even though the connections were obvious. For example, William Todd (yes- the dirt bag running for Columbus mayor) was the attorney for Ken Blackwell and for Common Sense 2006.
Blackwell, of course, lost the election. And Hunter will never make it out of the primary… so we at least have that going for us.
On the other hand- we all know that advertising wins elections. And dishonest candidates will continue to pull crap like this until we get this whole campaign funding thing worked out.
I’m not screaming for drastic reform, though it would be nice. I’d just like to see a set of rules that is obvious and easy to understand; rules that don’t lead to legal battles that drag on for years.
More than anything else- I’d like to see some candidates that do their best to follow the rules- instead of these dishonest fucks that are constantly hunting for loopholes and gray areas that they can exploit.
[click to continue…]
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Brian Rothenberg has an update on The Legend of Joy Padgett: Bankruptcy Court.
Remember the curious case of Joy Padgett’s Bankruptcy Abuse from last Fall. Or for those of you in eastern and central Ohio, the memorable Joy Padgett for Congress commercial where she is standing like Julie Andrews — sound-of-music like — on the family farm.
Some of you may have known that at the time she pirouetted on her TV farm, she didn’t even own the family farm having transferred ownership as part of her bankruptcy case. And during the campaign that questionable transfer became embroiled in allegations that it was fraudulent by the people she owed – her creditors.
Well, sure enough, Joy is running from creditors in ‘them there hills.’ After the music from November’s election, with visions of DC fading before her eyes, the trustee overseeing Joy Padgett’s bankruptcy proceedings filed an objection to Padgett’s proposed re-payment plan. The objection was based on several problems, including a need for “further documentation and explanation as to why property is not a fraudulent transfer.”
Of course, his title his hilarious: “THE HILLS ARE ALIVE WITH THE SOUNDS OF JOYOUS PADGETTRY”
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With Tester officially winning MT, the entire Senate hangs on the result of ‘Macaca’ Allen v. Webb in VA.
And while Webb is in front by the slimmest of margins, he is in front. I’m confident that he’ll end up victorious, which delivers a 1 seat (51-49) edge to the Democrats in the Senate.
Maybe now we can set about the process of getting the ship pointed in the right direction.
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Montgomery County BOE reconsiders allowing pollworkers to wear “right to life” shirts
by Lorraine on July 27, 2007 · Comments
When I finally got close to the front of the line at my polling place in 2004, a pollworker told me to cover my T-shirt. It had the words “Vote Explosion” on it.
Seeing as I had nothing to cover it with and had just spent 3 hours in line, I politely pointed out that there was no partisanship expressed by the shirt. Vote Explosion was just a loose group of friends registering folks to vote at rock shows. She replied that they were trying to avoid even the slightest possible implication of impropriety.
OK, fair enough. Polling places are supposed to be inner sanctums of nonpartisanhip. Neither voters nor pollworkers may wear political shirts, stickers, or buttons within a 100 foot radius. Although the words “Vote Explosion” aren’t explicitly partisan, neither are the words “Eagle Forum” or “MoveOn.” I think it was a wise move to err on the side of overzealousness, and simply prohibit T-shirts bearing all of the above.
The guy behind me in line loaned me his sweatshirt, and I was able to step forth to express my partisanship in the privacy of the voting booth. As an ongoing tribute of thanks to sweatshirt guy, ever since that day I’ve stowed an extra large, plain T-shirt in my purse whenever I go to vote – just in case a fellow voter is asked to cover up.
Until I read Monday’s Columbus Dispatch, it had never occurred to me that I might someday want to offer my spare shirt to a pollworker.
As part of its “Day of Democracy” effort to fill 2,200 pollworker spots in 548 precincts, Montgomery County Board of Elections deputy director Betty Smith told Dayton Right to Life executive director Christi Dodson that the organization’s logo would be permitted to be emblazoned on the chests of pollworkers.
According to the Dayton Daily News, “although Right to Life sent people to work at the polls in May, none wore the group’s shirts because they were not ready, said Christi Dodson, executive director.”
Did Smith think that as long as all the organizations that produced pollworkers were allowed to wear their t-shirts, it would be o.k.? Equal opportunity and such?
Betty Smith obviously showed unacceptable ignorance and lack of good judgment, but equally culpable are organizations that took her up on the offer. Leaders of any politically-oriented organization should know better than to participate in this “marketing” plan. But Dodson, executive director of Dayton Right To Life, was prepared to take the opportunity a step further. In reference to her organization’s members who would be acting as pollworkers on election day (italics mine):
Well, that got the attention of the good folks of the Montgomery County BOE. I’m not sure where they all were back when the “Day of Democracy” program was approved, but anyway:
I can think of one cause that is appropriate for pollworkers to champion on election day: upholding the letter and spirit of election laws. That includes maintaining an atmosphere of impartiality. Anyone who is incapable of that has no business being a pollworker.
Which brings us back to the chronic pollworker shortage, which unfortunately is not limited to Montgomery County. Here in Franklin the BOE has over 5,000 spots to fill. Cuyahoga County needs 3,000 poll workers.
So I’m going to be a pollworker November 6 and I assure you I won’t be wearing my Vote Explosion shirt. Or my Planned Parenthood pin. Heck, just for kicks I might even make sure I’m not wearing pink, orange, or black.
It will be tough to keep my opinionated nature under wraps for a full day, but I’m up to the challenge. If you’re up for it too, please join me – sign up to be a pollworker. Click here for a full list of county Boards of Elections.
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