From Openers

Ohio’s Senate contenders released fundraising tallies today that show Democrat Sherrod Brown keeping pace with Republican incumbent Sen. Mike DeWine, although DeWine retains a financial edge.

DeWine raised $2.1 million for his re-election bid between mid-April and the end of June, roughly a quarter more than the $1.6 million that Brown collected in that period.

DeWine had $6.6 million in the bank at the end of June, compared with $3.7 million for Brown.

So just getting within $500,000 means one is keeping pace?

According the latest polls she is, but according to NixGuy he says don't worry about it.

OK let’s restate the facts on the ground about this district.

It’s about 70% GOP district. Any GOP candidate needs to underperform by 20% to lose. I know Schmidt is not the strongest candidate in the world, but come on. The GOP could run Bob Taft in this district and he would probably win.

If anyone had a chance it was Hackett, he had the perfect storm going for him: money, energy, media attention, depressed GOP turnout.

We all know how that turned out.

Let’s also remember that Hackett ran pretending to be a member of the GOP.

ProjectLOGIC chimes in on the race too.

From the Beacon Journal

On a trip last week promoting the money making potential of the Ohio Turnpike, gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell paid no tolls.

The State Highway Patrol, which drove Blackwell on the two-city tour July 6, asked for and got permission to travel the road for free, Turnpike records show. Two staffers who accompanied Blackwell in their own vehicles paid the $3.70 it cost to ride from Cleveland to Toledo.

Blackwell, the Republican secretary of state, has proposed leasing the 241-mile toll road, which he says will raise $4 billion to $6 billion he pledges to pour into a fund to promote economic development.

The request for "nonrevenue status" along the toll road came from the Highway Patrol, state documents show. Blackwell campaign spokesman Carlo LoParo said the campaign had no control over the transaction.

"The Highway Patrol is the Turnpike police force. They ride on the Turnpike gratis," LoParo said. "Their activities are not known by the campaign, and there is no reimbursement mechanism that I know of by which we could have reimbursed them for that toll. We let the Highway Patrol do their job, don't ask questions and try not to get in their way."

Here's where it gets good...

LoParo said the Turnpike is a bloated bureaucracy with a history of corruption, and accused Turnpike officials of alerting media about Blackwell's toll-free trip.

Turnpike Executive Director Gary Suhadolnik wrote Blackwell an angry letter on the day of his event warning against future use of the roadway for campaign events.

"The Toll Plazas are utilized by authorized Commission personnel for administrative purposes exclusively, not for the purpose of engaging in public debate," wrote Suhadolnik, a Strongsville Republican who spent 18 years in the state Senate.

The same thing happens to the leakers in the State Dept. against what Bush is doing. These Turnpike people know their jobs are at risk and are willing to bring down Ken Blackwell to save them. The sad part about this is many of them are Republicans, RINOs at their worst! Although you've got to hand it to those government workers, they know the political game.

From the Fix

Since I spend so much time parsing the polls, I have formed opinions about what makes a poll worthy of attention and what doesn't. Ever since my time at Roll Call newspaper, I have generally viewed telephone surveys that employ live interviewers as the most reliable. I'm much more skeptical about polling that uses automated interviewers -- Survey USA and Rasmussen Reports being the two firms best known for using this approach -- so I largely avoid citing these surveys on The Fix.

Interesting. Didn't they show Ted Strickland with like a 50 point lead or something.

When Ted Strickland put together ads to air on Christian radio, here's some of the stuff that was left on the cutting room floor.

He is...

• AGAINST a constitutional amendment protecting traditional marriage.
• AGAINST a measure that permitted the public display of the Ten Commandments on government property. (Vote 221 6/17/99)
• AGAINST a constitutional amendment to guarantee every citizen's right to pray and express their religious beliefs on public property, including schools. (Vote 201 6/4/98)
• AGAINST allowing faith-based organizations to compete for federal housing grants. (Vote 109 4/6/00)
• AGAINST allowing government-funded religious organizations to consider religion as a factor in hiring. (Vote 175 5/8/03)
• AGAINST an amendment prohibiting the extension of government benefits to unmarried domestic partners. (Vote 352 9/25/01)
• AGAINST amendments to require more funding for abstinence education programs. (Vote 157 5/1/03, Vote 379 10/11/01)
• AGAINST a law creating criminal penalties for harming an unborn baby during the commission of a crime (now known as Lacy's Law). (Vote 465 9/30/99, Vote 89 4/26/01, Vote 31 2/26/04)
  
• FOR taxpayer-funded abortions and the taxpayer-funded development of an abortion pill. (Vote 136, 5/10/06-Vote 216, 5/25/05-Vote 362, 7/15/03-Vote 115, 5/16/01-Vote 292, 7/16/98-Vote 373, 7/10/2000-Vote 173, 6/8/1999-Vote 260, 6/24/1998)
• FOR continued funding of the following National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants: "Mood Arousal and Sexual Risk Taking," "Study on Sexual Habits of Older Men," "Study on San Francisco's Asian Prostitutes/Masseuses," and "Study on American Indian Transgender Research." (Vote 352, 7/10/03)
• FOR gay civil unions

Courtesy the ORP.