From ONN

New Mexico and New York share the top spot while Ohio and South Dakota are tied for last in a new state-by-state ranking compiled by three liberal advocacy groups that analyzes laws dealing with gay rights and reproductive rights.

Most efforts to gauge state positions on such socially divisive topics stick to one theme, but the rankings released Wednesday look at two hot-button issues in hopes of encouraging new alliances between gay-rights and abortion-rights groups.

That is the tenth most conservative city in the country.� According to Human Events.

Ted Strickland talks about his childhood and campaign in the latest Columbus Monthly magazine.

I'm not sure when/if they post this type of article online, but this part made me sick:

When I was a little kid," ( Ted Strickland says), " we used to take our baths in the summertime in the crick- and if you said creek, you were in trouble. You were trying to be highfalutin. It was a crick."

What a hillbilly.

from Ann Fisher in the Dispatch

Some bloggers recently asked the Ohio Democratic Party for free passes to the state party dinner at Veterans Memorial on Saturday. Those otherwise anonymous bloggers wanted the proverbial rubberchicken dinner and a chance to hear the vaunted U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois work his oratorical magic on a room filled with true believers.

Rothenberg said he didn’t want to offend the friendly bloggers, an increasingly potent factor in the political matrix. But he’s also sensitive to the lowly party grunt, the perennial volunteer, who often can’t afford a ticket.

Finally, Rothenberg is concerned that in arguing for the tickets, some bloggers likened their craft to that of a newspaper reporter. Newspaper reporters may attend such events, but they don’t €”? or shouldn’t €”? take even as little as a salted cashew from the bowl at the bar. Reporters surely are not entitled to take a seat reserved for a paying customer. The event is, after all, a fundraiser.

He turned them down and felt the wrath of the blog.

In the end, Obama paid for a blogger table. Still, Rothenberg is troubled, likening bloggers to the pamphleteers of the Revolutionary War period, without form or rules. "In time, they are going to start selfpolicing or they are going to be policed."

John McClelland, of the Ohio Republican Party, said he hasn’t yet fielded any requests from bloggers for freebies. He, too, is watching and waiting. "They are not the traditional media, but we’ve tried to be open with them in terms of having access to our events, taking phone calls, answering any questions.

Ah ha! So liberal bloggers cry and moan to get free handouts. I believe that the conservative position would be to pay to attend an event. I am not a big fan of handouts.

But you couldn't pay me enough to listen to Osama Obama.

From Red-state.com

This past week's Call & Post brought another frontpage article on GOP gubernatorial nominee Ken Blackwell's appeal among fellow African Americans, and how this poses problems for Ohio Democrats who have traditionally relied on black support. Furthermore, I heard about instances of African Americans who earlier this month went to the polls wanting to vote both for Blackwell in the GOP primary, and for Tracy Heard for the 26th Ohio House district in the Democratic primary. Of course, voters must choose to vote in only one party's primary. When poll workers told those voters that in the primary they could vote for Heard on the Democratic ballot, or for Blackwell on the Republican ballot, but not for both, those who took Democratic ballots said they'll vote for Blackwell in November.

From the PD

The husband of Cuyahoga County judicial candidate Christine Russo pleaded not guilty Monday to assaulting her in their Strongsville home.

Police charged Frank Russo with misdemeanor domestic violence after questioning the couple's children, who said they had tried to intercede on behalf of their mother Friday night.

Frank Russo told police he had learned his wife was having an affair. He said he was trying to "hold Christine in bed to tell her that he loved her and forgave her," according to a police report.

Sounds like a great judicial candidate.

From Openers

Watch for Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Cleveland's powerful black Democrat, to endorse Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland as early as this week.

Tubbs Jones, who's been miffed at Strickland over the internal politics surrounding Chris Redfern's election last year to the party chairmanship, met with Strickland Friday.

Tubbs Jones was joined by the following black leaders, who thus far have also withheld formal endorsements: Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin, and Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams. Political consultant Arnold Pinkney also attended the meeting.

The poll which put Blackwell down by 6 points…you can see a detailed breakdown of it HERE.

Correction:� There is a Libertarian running for Governor, so if the race tightens up these third party candidates become more important.

From the PD

Sure, it's a long shot. But merely making the effort - largely driven by Mayor Frank Jackson - is still worthwhile. Already it has brought together hospitality industry leaders, public officials and corporate decision-makers who haven't talked as often as they should. They've had to focus on packaging the region's assets and analyzing its weaknesses. Their teamwork may not pay off with the Republicans, but it may set the stage for future victories.

From his site

At 1:00 PM today, The Fitrakis for Governor campaign will submit 10,915 signatures of Ohio voters who want to see Bob Fitrakis and other Green-endorsed candidates on the ballot this November. The signatures will be delivered to Secretary of State Blackwell's office at the Borden building at the corner of 4th and Broad in downtown Columbus. A�press conference will follow immediately after the filing of petitions at the SOS's office in the Borden building.

Now remember in 2002 the Natureal Law Party candidate received over 120,000 votes.� While this year a third party candidate will probably not receive that many votes, due to the fact that�this election will be much closer.� Also, remember in 2004 Ralph Nader did not get on Ohio's ballot, while it looks like this Green Party candidate will.� Even if he gets 20,000 votes it could make the race a little more interesting.

Employees of the Akron Beacon Journal have started a website, http://www.wearethebeacon.com/, where they worry about the future of their paper.

They claim to be profitable and a "holding high the torch of vigilant, independent journalism." I have no idea how profitable they are, but their independence is certainly in question. The ABJ is known for having sometimes an indistinguishable line between their op-eds and columns. Their bias is clearly liberal.

The print media is slowly dying and being replaced by new media outlets. Personally, I'm much more comfortable with the "new media" because many credible blogs, publications and tv shows are very open about biases and they leave it up to you to decide. I can't say the same for the Akron Fish Wrapper.

Let the Akron Beacon Journal die.

Hat Tip: the always interesting and pedantic George Nemeth

From the PD

JEERS . . .

to the 180 maintenance employees of Cleveland Public Power, who are on strike. After two years without a contract, members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers want the city to break the pattern it has established with every other union, and give them extra money. Mayor Frank Jackson shows no sign of doing so, and any prolonged job action is likely to alienate CPP's customers.

From OpinionJournal.com's premium email Political Diary:

�Friday, May 26, 2006

Republicans are starting to breathe a little easier over their prospects in key Ohio races. A series of scandals and unpopular tax increases have severely tarnished the Buckeye State GOP after 16 years of complete control over state government. Nonetheless, a new Ohio poll conducted for the University of Cincinnati gives GOP Senator Mike DeWine a ten-point lead over Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown. Most significantly, Mr. DeWine is even taking a majority of union household voters.

But the really good news for the Ohio GOP is that their candidate for governor, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, is only six points behind Democratic Rep. Ted Strickland. The key to Mr. Blackwell's growing strength since he won the GOP primary earlier this month is his support in the black community. The former Xavier University football star has been touring black churches and receiving a warm reception, which is now showing up in the polls. Mr. Strickland still leads him among blacks by 55% to 32%, but that's a far smaller edge than an Ohio Democrat would normally expect to enjoy over a GOP opponent.

"Ken always said that since he had won 30% of the black vote in his previous statewide races, he would become governor if he could maintain that level of support," says backer Dan Peters, a former executive with Procter & Gamble, which is based in Mr. Blackwell's hometown of Cincinnati. Mr. Strickland still holds a narrow lead among whites, a group Mr. DeWine leads in his race by some 18 points. If Mr. Blackwell can hold his minority support and build his appeal to white voters to something approaching normal levels in Ohio races, he will be in an excellent position to take the lead.

I just found this story on Central Ohio Politics

http://www.centralohiopolitics.com/

If you have a bit of time, take a look at these local news broadcasts from Texas concerning gang violence on the border (link below). It provides first hand video concerning border problems in very graphic detail.

As we all know there is a big disconnect in the MSM. Either they are choosing not to report about the important issues or they are unaware. It might even be somewhere in the middle. If you read the military weblogs you know there is a huge disparity concerning the first hand reports from Iraq and Afghanistan from bloggers, and what the reporters write about from the US. Likewise there is nothing being reported about border violence and what I would call a low intensity conflict.

Violence is on rocket ascent along the border; yet, the President, Secretaries Gonzales and Chertof, and the cockroaches in the Senate have ignored this major problem. Our local law enforcement agencies are engaged in a war.

The link: http://tinyurl.com/ocltw

From Openers

Hours after former Enron honcho Ken Lay's conviction, DSCC executive director J.B. Poersch sent out an e-mail calling for Sen. Mike DeWine to finally divest himself of $1,500 in Enron political contributions. DeWine got $500 of it for his 1994 campaign and $1,000 for his 2000 race.

"Mike DeWine has waited long enough - it's time for him to get rid of
the dirty Enron money," Poersch said in his statement. "It's incomprehensible to think that Mike DeWine would hold on to Enron's money, especially after today's convictions."

Fair enough. But Poersch overlooked the fact that DeWine's Democratic challenger, Sherrod Brown, also got Enron money — more than DeWine got, in fact. His $2,000 came in between 1994 and 2000.

Ah, trying to get those precious political points.

From thenewspaper.com

An Ohio state Senate committee voted this week in favor of legislation that would effectively ban speed cameras in the state and impose costly restrictions on the use of red light cameras. Representative Jim Raussen (R-Springdale) had introduced the bill to, in effect, ban both types of photo enforcement in a measure overwhelmingly adopted by the House last year. The Senate committee, however, modified Raussen's bill to allow red light cameras but remove a few of the existing high-profit incentives to use the devices.

The Senate bill bans the use of speed cameras unless a police officer witnesses the incident and personally tickets the motorist responsible at the time of the incident. It also ends the current practice of paying camera vendors a cut of the revenue generated, offering an incentive to trap as many motorists as possible. Instead, the proposal mandates flat-rate contracts. The bill also prohibits private vendors from reviewing photographs to determine guilt, a change that will substantially increase the cost of ticket programs as police would have to assume this function. The measure also forces city to adopt standardized yellow signal timing set by the Ohio Department of Transportation.

There is more to add about this funny cat fight between Senator Miller and Senator Jacobson.

Red-State.com says that I was able to predict this event was going to happen, and I didn't realize it.

Forget gambling. Lets generate state revenue by taxing a ppv fight between Miller and Jacobson.

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