From the Dispatch

“The secretary of state holds a 12-point lead over Attorney General Jim Petro in the final Dispatch Poll before Tuesday's election.
Blackwell's campaign as an outspoken candidate for change ”” despite the fact his party has held the governor's office for nearly 16 years ”” is apparently resonating among Ohio Republicans, more than three quarters of whom now say the state is heading “off on the wrong track.”

Also…Jennette Bradley is in trouble

“State Treasurer Jennette Bradley is up only 6 points on Ashtabula County Auditor Sandra O'Brien in the GOP primary.”

From the PD

1. Blackwell is up by 21!
2. Strickland is beating Blackwell by 10 (which the PD failes to point out is half of the 20 point lead that he had in the Rasmussen poll).
3. Mike DeWine is up by 11.

Yet the Plain Dealer said “Summing up the Republican performance in the polls, Coker says, “There wasn’t too much good news in the poll for them.”

We beg to differ. As long as Strickland isn’t polling in the mid 60s, we have a chance at the Governor’s race, espeically if Tubbs and Coleman stay out of it. Plus if DeWine wins, we have a shot at Brown’s and Strickland seat. All is not lost….at least not yet. Also, how is Ken Blackwell doing so good when we’ve heard so many anti-TEL articles in the past few months?

From Openers

“Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, who dropped out of the Democratic primary for governor, isn’t endorsing either of the candidates who are still running.He’s siding with state treasurer candidate Richard Cordray, who has no primary.

He backs Secretary of State contender Jennifer Brunner, who also has no competition. But he’s not backing Ted Strickland, the Democrats’ presumptive nominee for the top office and the endorsed candidate of the Ohio Democratic Party.

Strickland’s only opponent is former state Rep. Bryan Flannery, who trails badly in money, endorsements and name recognition. Most other high-profile Democrats have signed on with Strickland but Coleman joins Cleveland Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who announced earlier this month that will sit on the sidelines, too.”

The results of the Blue Chip Young Republicans straw poll, which should not be construed as an endorsement of any particular candidate, are as follows:

Governor of Ohio/Lt. Governor of Ohio: Ken Blackwell/Tom Raga

Ohio Attorney General: Tim Grendell

Ohio Secretary of State: Greg Hartmann

Ohio Treasurer: Sandra O'Brien

Ohio Auditor: Mary Taylor

United States Senate: David Smith

United States House of Representatives, 1st Congressional District: Steve Chabot

United States House of Representatives, 2nd Congressional District: Bob McEwen

Cleveland Councilman Zack Reed is exposed for dinking and driving, as well as spending long nights in the bars and being with many women. His drinking is a violation of his probation and a court hearing has been set for Monday morning. See the story here, and see all the undercover video here.

From WHIOTV.com

A key part of the Blackwell campaign is a proposed constitutional amendment, which will be on the ballet in November. The Blackwell plan puts a limit on government spending, both statewide and locally.

The plan has state universities and local authorities up in arms, who said it will hurt more than help. But, Blackwell said controlling government spending is key to our future. Blackwell said, ”�“State and local government in this state have been spending money like drunken sailors. And, the only difference between them and drunken sailors is that drunken sailors spend their own money.”

Blackwell has already pulled off one important victory in the Miami Valley, winning the majority of votes at the Miami Valley Republican Convention earlier this year.

Oh the Mayors are going to love to hear that!

According to the PD they might

“State treasurer Jennette Bradley is not as concerned about her challenger in Tuesday’s primary as she is with the intensifying Republican gubernatorial race.

It’s not that Bradley has a favorite for governor. But her camp worries she could sustain collateral damage if Ken Blackwell and Jim Petro keep firing nasty political bullets at one another.

“When both candidates are involved in these nuclear attacks on each other, it causes folks to say I’m not going to vote,” said Mary Anne Sharkey, Bradley’s spokeswoman.”

From NOW

“Blackwell declined to be interviewed for this story, but NOW caught up with Petro last week at a campaign event in Columbus, Ohio.

“I don't know that we want to have faith-based organizations that become political action committees,” Petro told NOW.”

See the video HERE.

From Openers

“The poll, done by SurveyUSA, asked 414 likely Democratic voters in the district this question: If the Democratic primary were today, and you were standing in the voting booth right now, who would you vote for?”

Capri Cafaro, Betty Sutton and Tom Sawyer each got 24 percent. Five other candidates split most of the rest, with only four percent of those questioned saying they were undecided.The poll, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percent, was conducted April 24-26.”

Could the princess pull off two primary wins in a row?

From Cleveland Townhall

“At our last monthly meeting, one of our special guests was Bill Pierce, who's running in the Republican primary against Mike DeWine. Most everyone there was very impressed with Pierce, and based on the conversation I heard afterwards, the DeWine camp should be concerned because I think they lost at least 8 votes that they were able to count on last election.”

From the Other Paper

“Petro spent his lunch hour Monday at the Columbus Renaissance for a national conference on identity theft.
The AG gave a dry speech in which he made no mention of his candidacy for governor. In fact he seemed to have forgotten it altogether when he told the group, “In seven months, I’ll be retired.”
Afterward, Petro acknowledged his campaign staffers probably didn’t appreciate his decision to spend more than an hour the week before the primary speaking to a group of people who don’t vote in Ohio.
But what they do appreciate is that Petro finally appears to be playing to win. The surest sign of this is that the sometimes-reluctant candidate agreed to run a negative ad against Blackwell that was nasty enough to merit a rebuke from the state GOP boss.”

A little too late?

From his site, watch the video.

Dayton Daily News says Ken Blackwell’s

“Take Ken Blackwell’s ad against Jim Petro. Mr. Blackwell aims to paint Mr. Petro as a liberal and to beat him up on the issue of gay marriage.

Mr. Blackwell, the Republican secretary of state, criticizes his opponent, the Republican attorney general, for opposing Ohio’s new constitutional amendment that bans gay marriage ”” never mind that Mr. Petro objected to the measure not because he believes in gay marriage, but because the amendment is poorly written.

(The latter fear has proven correct, witness the legal fight about whether Ohio’s domestic violence laws now can apply to heterosexual and homosexual unmarried couples.)”

From the Mount Vernon News

“Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell brought his campaign for governor to the campus of the Mount Vernon Nazarene University on Tuesday. Speaking to students at the Prince Student Union, he outlined his agenda for job creation through fiscal restraint, tax cuts and reducing the brain drain from Ohio. Blackwell was introduced by Laura Mastin, chairman of the Blackwell for Governor campaign and a 1992 graduate of Mount Vernon Nazarene College.

”�“This is a very important seven days,”? he said. ”�“It's the last seven days of a very invigorating, a very robust campaign. It's a campaign where we've taken a message of growth and job creation, and putting our state back on a path of expansion of our economy, and really giving hope to a great people.”?

Blackwell noted Ohio is ranked third in the nation in total state and local tax burden. He said when everything else is going up, the taxpayers of the state cannot afford to have their taxes going up, too. “

From Cleveland Right to Life

Dr. David van Gend, Secretary for the World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Life will be the special guest speaker at Cleveland Right To Life’s annual “Choose Life Luncheon”. Dr. van Gend is the national spokesperson for Do No Harm - Australians for Ethical Medical Research. He has also written, lectured and debated on the issues of euthanasia, late-term abortion, and embryo experimentation

In addition to Dr. van Gend, Dr. Robert J. White, M.D., Ph.D., will also speak. Dr. White is an author, scientist, and world-renowned brain surgeon, and is Professor of Neurological Surgery at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and internationally recognized for his experience with clinical brain surgery. Dr. White was inducted into the Cleveland Medical Hall of Fame, and has served as an officer and president of the Society of University Neurosurgeons and the Academy of Medicine of Cleveland. He has also been received in Papal audiences and has advised the Vatican on bioethical issues.

Special guest MC will be veteran Cleveland Indians radio broadcaster Tom Hamilton.

From Mount Vernon News

“The Knox County Campaign to Elect Ken Blackwell for Governor of Ohio announces
the opening of the Ken Blackwell Campaign Headquarters at 6 E. Vine St., Mount Vernon. The headquarters will remain open through primary election day, May 2. The public is encouraged to stop in and volunteers are invited to help with the campaign.”

He better win or that campaign HQ will have a life of less than a week.

From the Dispatch

“Jim Petro, Blackwell's opponent in Tuesday's GOP gubernatorial primary, joked that his wife, Nancy, or his running mate, or even former GOP candidate Pete Draganic could have filled in for Blackwell at the City Club debate.

But Petro opted to take the stage by himself when Blackwell, who leads in the polls, declined to participate. He used the forum to suggest he would be a stronger candidate in the fall than Blackwell.

Petro said he is not as far right politically as Blackwell and suggested that the constitutional amendment on the fall ballot to limit state spending, which Blackwell backs, could drag down the entire state GOP ticket, much as a right-to-work issue did in 1958.”

According to Bizzyblog

“With each passing day, it become more apparent that the US Senate GOP primary has two adult candidates and a third named Smith. Why anyone thinks they can trust as a senator someone whose campaign cannot and will not stay within the law on something as simple as campaign sign placement and leaving a competitor's signs alone is beyond me.

Though none of us would even think to do it anyway, Bill Pierce has specifically advised his people not to retaliate by removing or defacing Smith signs ourselves. Even if his instructions aren't helpful to his campaign, it's the principled thing to do. Bill Pierce's campaign, and the candidate himself, are all about principle and class, two things the Smith campaign, and apparently Mr. Smith himself, can't possibly begin to comprehend.”

From the Beacon Journal

“But Subodh Chandra, a Democrat running for attorney general, said he noticed a spike in out-of-state campaign contributions in the days after the puppet show and cartoon were posted on his campaign Web site and on a politics blog.
“Humor is sometimes the most effective method to cut through all the shouting and grandstanding that goes on in campaigns,” Chandra said.”

He’s right.

Check out the video at WOIO Action News, it’s of Cleveland City Councilman Zach Reed and his party attitude.