But Strickland beats Blackwell

Strickland 46.6
Blackwell 40.6

Strickland 45.6
Petro 30.5

Flannery 43.8
Blackwell 41.3

From the PD

“Mayor Frank Jackson introduced his economic development leadership team on Wednesday and it features new faces from Portland, Ore., and Milwaukee.
Michael J. Montgomery will lead the team in the new position of chief of regional economic development. He comes to Cleveland from Portland, where for the past year he had managed an effort to revitalize the Willamette and Columbia river districts.
Previously he served as economic development director in San Diego and Oakland, Calif., and spent five years in Bosnia and Herzegovina overseeing economic development projects.”

Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

From WTOV9

“Advertisements targeting Wilson started airing on local television on Wednesday.
The 30-second spot targets Wilson for his role as chairman of a regional wastewater authority that was fined for dumping sewage into the Ohio River in the 1990s.

Wilson’s opponents in races for the statehouse have brought up that issue in negative ads previously, but Wilson won every race.

The fine print at the end of the television commercial says it was paid for by the National Republican Congressional Campaign and was not connected to any candidate.

Blasdel’s campaign manager Ryan Stenger told NEWS9 he hasn’t seen the commercial.
“The things I talked about (Wednesday night) are Chuck’s core values,” Stenger said. “Fighting for small business and fighting against too many roadblocks and government bureaucracies.”

From the Dispatch

“Ohio school districts could finally see their dream come true ”” a local property-tax levy that can grow with inflation, possibly relieving them of frequent, expensive levy campaigns.
A budget-corrections bill containing such a measure cleared the legislature yesterday, and Gov. Bob Taft supports it, spokesman Mark Rickel said.
But some county auditors, including Joe Testa in Franklin County, are calling the change a step backward for Ohio taxpayers, who might unwittingly vote away their right to periodically check their school district’s spending and efficiency.”

It’s all about the children!

From the Other Paper

“It isn’t that Jim Petro has completely given up.

The Ohio attorney general still has about $1 million to spend on TV advertisements before the May 2 primary. Petro will probably attack Ken Blackwell for spending too much as Ohio secretary of state. And he still believes Blackwell’s proposed TEL””tax and expenditure limitation””amendment is so poorly written that it could sink his campaign.

But word around the campaign is that Petro has come to grips with the likelihood that Blackwell is going to be the Republican nominee for governor””a scenario foretold by the secretary of state’s 11-point lead in Sunday’s Dispatch poll.”

Is it true?

From his press release…

Democrats: Vote For Flannery

Ohio Democrats seem to be conceding the May 2 gubernatorial primary to Ted Strickland - and that’s too bad.
Bryan E. Flannery is the better candidate. Flannery, 37, wants to be the education governor - but unlike others who have touted the claim, he likely can deliver. Of the four candidates seeking to replace Bob Taft this year, Flannery is the only one who understands that school funding reform is perhaps the biggest issue for Ohio voters.
A former state representative, Flannery, of Strongsville, has crafted the Educate Ohio amendment that would essentially force the state to determine what it costs to educate a pupil and set aside money to fund that cost. The measure would lower property taxes and increase state contributions to public education. Flannery couldn’t get enough signatures to put the amendment on last fall’s ballot, but he hasn’t given up. He still hopes to get it before voters…

From Nix Guy

“I know some of you are out there saying ”�“Blackwell is too extreme!”?, ”�“Ted can run on that!”?. Ha! here's the big problem with that scenario. If Blackwell is the extreme candidate (and he isn't, being a fairly ordinary conservative, the kind Ohioans elect for president) then Strickland must be the ”�“safe”? candidate. Blackwell can then change that into an outsider vs. insider theme with Blackwell as the outsider. And Strickland loses any possible advantage of running against Columbus. The 35%-40% of liberals in Ohio will eat up a Strickland defense of saving Ohio from Theocracy but it will be completely lost on the rest of the population (how much did the gay marriage amendment pass by again?).”

From the Dispatch (HT to UAPA)

“The two Republican candidates for governor each are spending more than $1 million for television commercials statewide starting no later than April 17 and running through the May 2 primary.
“It's probably the most that's ever been spent in a gubernatorial primary,” said Bob Clegg, senior vice president of Midwest Communications and Media, a political-media consulting firm based in Columbus.
Ted Strickland, the frontrunner for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, began airing TV ads last week to introduce the congressman from Lisbon to Ohioans in what his campaign called “a considerable buy.”

At least whoever the GOP nominee will be will have a high name ID.

From Red-state.com

“And where does that leave Jim Petro? Well, this run for governor appears to be it for the current attorney general. If Petro loses in the primary or the general election, he would easily be muscled out of any future statewide races for governor or U.S. senator. He lacks Blackwell’s national standing and would likely lose most of the prominence he currently has in GOP circles. If he loses, Petro immediately becomes the GOP’s Tom Ferguson.

So this is one reason why Petro has adamantly ignored the pressure — both public and private — to drop out of the governor’s race and allow Blackwell, the front-runner, to save his campaign cash for the general election. Contrast Petro’s situation to that of Jim Trakas, who only last year turned 40 and last week bowed to pressure to drop out of the race for Ohio secretary of state. Trakas knows he has the time ahead of him for other political campaigns, and the favors he wins now by dropping out of a race he was losing might help him in the future.

Petro wins no favors by dropping out, since Portman and/or Kasich will be there the next time an open race for governor or U.S. senator occurs. For Petro, it’s now or never.”

From the Community Press

“Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, historically a friend of local government, has arranged to place on the November ballot a constitutional amendment that — while widely portrayed as limiting spending only at the state level — would hamstring spending on capital assets by every local government and school district statewide, even if that spending is of dollars on hand and/or involves no new tax.”

Here is the updated list of counties who have endorsed a candidate for Governor or have decided to not endorse. If there is anymore we missed, let us know. Betty did get three counties to endorse her, however, Summit has switched to Ken Blackwell. This is updated with the Marion (Petro) and Fulton (Blackwell) endorsements from this week.

Here we go…

1. Ted Strickland is going to win and he says he will defeat….Ken Blackwell! According to his statements at the Youngstown Vindicator. Oh, and he expects to cruise in the primary.

2. According to an editorial in the PD, it’s Betty Montgomery who is best set up for the future, not Petro, Blackwell or even Ted Strickland.

3. Betty Montgomery rips Ken Blackwell’s TEL. (From the Beacon Journal)

4. Yesterday, Marion County endorsed Jim Petro.

5. Ken Blackwell is now anti-Catholic, according to the Ohio Democratic Catholic Caucus. No he’s NOT according to The Catholic League.

6. More community groups come out against the TEL. (From the Ottawa Beacon)

7. Lou Holtz endorses Bryan Flannery, listen to the recorded phone call going out to every Democrat in the state, HERE.

8. You’ve read that Betty is against the TEL and now listen to her say it. (From WKSU)

From Bizzyblog

That leaves the US Senate race ”” Brace yourself.
Three candidates were in the fray: incumbent Mike DeWine and challengers Bill Pierce and David Smith.

The ground rules were as follows:

A candidate must get 22 votes from the 33 party members to be officially endorsed.

If, after the first ballot, none of the three received 22 votes, whoever finished third would be eliminated, and there would be another vote with only the remaining two candidates eligible.

On the second ballot, if neither candidate received 22 votes, no candidate would be endorsed. The actual vote counts would not be revealed for either the first or second ballots.

I am told each candidate was allowed to speak for a few minutes, and that there was no time allotted for questioning the candidates before the voting occurred.

So what happened? No one got 22 votes on the first ballot. The candidate who finished third and was eliminated was ”�.. was ”�.. Mike DeWine.

You read that right. This is a stunning….

Please read the rest of the post, this is amazing.

Thanks for a reader of RAB to send this in

-Dewine dropped after first vote
Then no 2/3 majority for smith and pierce..so both candidates deemed qualified
- Gillmor endorsed
- Blackwell endorsed
- Montgomery endorsed
- Mary taylor endorsed
- Hartman endorsed
- Bradley endorsed
- Cupp and O’donnell endorsed (Supreme Court)

From Leadingthecharge

“Sen. Mike DeWine is running under a new banner as he seeks re-election in a difficult environment for Republicans. “Independent fighter for Ohio families” reads the tag line on the first television commercial of his campaign.”

Well that’s good to know.

From the PD

“Columbus — Using symphonic music and a roaring fireplace as a backdrop, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bryan Flannery and his running mate, Frank Stams, use their first TV ad to portray themselves as solid family men who bashed heads together on the gridiron at Notre Dame.
They’re also both weary of hearing people bash Ohio, and they have a plan to “make Ohio great.” Apparently that’s to make Ohio great for the first time, because the oft-used tagline curiously omits the word “again.”

From Openers

“Voinovich said the proposed Tax and Expenditure Limitation (TEL) Amendment to Ohio's constitution is ”�“not in the best interests of the people of Ohio,”? because it removes gubernatorial and legislative discretion ”�“to deal with problems that are confronting the state and puts it on automatic pilot.”?

DeWine added, ”�“From what I've seen about it, it would hurt local governments and hurt education.”? DeWine and Voinovich said they are not endorsing a candidate in the heated GOP gubernatorial primary between Secretary of State Blackwell and state Attorney General Jim Petro.”

This will stir up some talk…

A bus tour is coming to Cleveland

“Dubbed the ”�“Ending Earmarks Express,”? we're going to roll out of Washington, DC, onApril 7 and visit the sites of some of the nation's most egregious and wasteful earmarks. Our inaugural swing in early April is largely scheduled, but we’re planning to crisscross the nation until Congress passes real earmark reform. That's where you come in.”

Here are the tour stops…

This week, we’ve started to announce our first stops outside the Beltway — beginning in Ohio on Monday, April 10, with events at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in downtown Cleveland and at the University of Akron campus in… well, Akron (those earmarked public education dollars were well spent on me, eh?)
We’ll begin Tuesday, April 11, in lovely Charleston, West Virginia, then head west to Frankfort, Kentucky, for an afternoon stop that will highlight one of the most bizarre earmarks we’ve ever heard of.

But Tim isn’t giving up yet…

From the Dispatch

“Montgomery has worked in government since graduating from law school in 1976, beginning as a criminal clerk for the Lucas County Common Pleas Court. Grendell, in contrast, has spent most of his career in the private sector, having won his first election in 2000.
He disparages Montgomery and other career politicians. He says he has no interest in running for governor, but that he does want to serve as attorney general before retiring from politics to teach law.
“I think Republicans throughout Ohio should have the right to choose between someone who's been running since last year and someone who sees the office as a consolation prize when she dropped out of the race for governor,” Grendell said.”

Going down swinging…

From the PD

“Charter One will pour $150 million in low-interest loans and grants into University Circle and its environs over the next three years to add sparkle to Cleveland’s cultural and institutional gem while revitalizing the tarnished neighborhoods nearby.”

Good news.