From SurveyUSA

Schmidt Edges Wulsin, Keeps OH2 House Seat for GOP: In an election for US House of Representatives in Ohio's 2nd Congressional District today, 10/17/06, Republican Congresswoman Jean Schmidt edges Democrat Victoria Wulsin by 8 points, according to a SurveyUSA poll conducted exclusively for WCPO-TV Cincinnati. 3 weeks to the 11/7/06 election, Schmidt gets 48%. Wulsin gets 40%. Since an identical SurveyUSA poll released 9/20/06, Schmidt has gained 3 points and Wulsin has lost 2 points. Schmidt had led by 3, now leads by 8. Schmidt leads by 10 points among voters under 35. 4 weeks ago, Wulsin led this group by 6, a 16-point swing. Schmidt leads by 24 points among voters age 35-49, an 18-point improvement. Voters over 50 are evenly split. Schmidt leads by 15 points among men and by 3 points among women. Republicans support Schmidt 6:1. Democrats support Wulsin 12:1. Independents break 4:3 for Wulsin. Schmidt leads by 16 points among voters with household income over $80K, a 15-point improvement. Of those who approve of President George W. Bush's job performance, 82% support Schmidt. Of those who disapprove of Bush's performance, 77% support Wulsin. President Bush's approval rating among likely voters in Ohio's 2nd CD is 51%. In the past month, voter enthusiasm has increased in this district. The percentage of "likely voters" in SurveyUSA's turnout model has increased from 62% to 69% of registered voters. 4 weeks ago, 49% of likely voters identified themselves as Republican, today 53%. 4 weeks ago, 31% of likely voters identified themselves as Democrat; today 29%. Schmidt was first elected to Congress in a special election in 2005.

From the PD

Issue 2: A modest proposal to raise the minimum wage in Ohio from the current $5.15 per hour to $6.85 per hour is attached to a patently ridiculous proposal to harness the minimum wage to the Consumer Price Index. That means Ohio's minimum wage would rise automatically, year after year after year. A couple of decades of that, and we won't even be able to pay the last minimum-wage worker to turn out the lights as he leaves Ohio (to look for a job). And this one's a constitutional amendment, so if it passes, even our nimble legislature will be powerless to undo the inevitable damage. Hell, no.

The Secretary of State's office has sent the Strickland residency issue back to the Columbiana County saying the board failed to properly investigate the issue.

They will now hold the hearing they should have in the first place had the democrats not decided to play politics with our elections system.

from his obnoxious column

Behind the cold accusations in the heat of a political campaign is a rehabilitated man anguished about being made "a political football" in Monday night’s final gubernatorial debate, his Cincinnati lawyer says. Stacy Hinners said yesterday that J. Kenneth Blackwell’s assertion that his opponent, Democrat Ted Strickland, knowingly employed a sex offender on his congressional staff is wrong.

"My client never informed Mr. Strickland of the circumstances of his arrest," Hinners said, bolstering Strickland’s stance during the debate that he "never knowingly hired or employed" someone charged with a crime.

Hinners sought to set the record straight about her client, a man whom Blackwell on broadcast television Monday described as "a gentleman who exposed himself to children." Blackwell alleged that Strickland covered up the record of his former staff member’s crime.

A political football? Well if the media would have done their jobs, this situation could have been reported long before it would be important to the governor's race.

And hey- Joe Hallett, Do you have any children? If you have a young daughter, what would you say about a man who exposed himself and masturbated in front of her! I have a feeling Joe would care. And I have an idea that most fathers, if their daughters went through that- the father would probably take justice into their own hands. But I guess Joe Hallett's partisanship is more important to him than his role as a concerned father.

Joe Hallett defends pedophiles, and he should be ashamed!

Not it! Mass. elementary school; Wednesday, October 18, 2006 10:00:07 AM

From the Conservative Voice:

Tag, you're out! Officials at an elementary school south of Boston have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they'll get hurt and hold the school liable.

Recess is "a time when accidents can happen," said Willett Elementary School Principal Gaylene Heppe, who approved the ban.

While there is no districtwide ban on contact sports during recess, local rules have been cropping up. Several school administrators around Attleboro, a city of about 45,000 residents, took aim at dodgeball a few years ago, saying it was exclusionary and dangerous.

Elementary schools in Cheyenne, Wyo., and Spokane, Wash., also recently banned tag during recess. A suburban Charleston, S.C., school outlawed all unsupervised contact sports.

"I think that it's unfortunate that kids' lives are micromanaged and there are social skills they'll never develop on their own," said Debbie Laferriere, who has two children at Willett, about 40 miles south of Boston. "Playing tag is just part of being a kid."

Another Willett parent, Celeste D'Elia, said her son feels safer because of the rule. "I've witnessed enough near collisions," she said.

Without sounding over alarming, Ohio is heading down the same road that Massachusetts has as I note by the growing socialist undercurrents in our great State. And if the Reverend, and Doctor of European Socialism Ted Strickland, is elected the socialists will have a field day. First its cigarettes, then its dodge ball and tag, and next it will be the means of production! At first glance that might sound like a bit of a stretch, but if you insert socialized medicine into the picture, it becomes somewhat accurate.

Bill Cunningham 10/18 Hour 1 Sean Hannity joins Willie to discuss the political races in Ohio.

Bill Cunningham 10/18 Hour 2 The Enquirer has finally picked up on the Ted Strickland saga. Will it make a difference? Will you still vote for him?

Bill Cunningham 10/18 Hour 3 Where is the media's coverage of the Ted Strickland/Blackwell race? Is the media trying to get you to vote for Strickland?

And there is this

Mike Mcconnell Wed 10/18 Hour 3 Congressman Mark Foley sent inappropriate e-mails to pages. The campaign manager for Congressman Ted Strickland is a convicted sex offender. So why is it ok to attack Republicans over Foley, but it's despicable to bring up Strickland's connection to a sex offender?

From his site

COLUMBUS – The Ohio Manufacturers’ Association (OMA) today endorsed Ken Blackwell for Governor and issued the following statement:

The Board of the OMA made its endorsement decision based on objective criteria, which include the public statements and the records of both candidates and the Congressional voting record of Ted Strickland. The Board was heavily influenced by a National Association of Manufacturers analysis showing that Mr. Strickland voted with the manufacturers’ position on important legislation only 9 percent of the time in 2003-04 and just 17 percent in 2005-06.

Manufacturing, which is the bedrock wealth generator in Ohio’s economy, faces unprecedented challenges. The need for continuous investment, innovation and improvement is unrelenting. Competition is global and fierce. More than 200,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in Ohio in the last few years. While many jobs have yielded to productivity improvements that are the result of modern manufacturing, protecting Ohio’s ability to make the products the world wants and needs is critical to Ohio’s position as a world economic powerhouse.

Our state must have leadership that understands how critical the competitive situation is. Our Board gives more weight to actual record than to campaign rhetoric. In the case of one candidate, that record shows an unfortunate misunderstanding of what is important to the 800,000 manufacturing workers of Ohio.

The OMA Board has taken this action with full understanding that this is a challenging election for our endorsed candidate. The Board’s decision to take this step on behalf of OMA member companies and their employees should be seen as a measure of the urgency of the situation we face. We need leadership determined to save industry in Ohio. In the Board’s view, Ken Blackwell is the candidate who offers the best promise for such leadership.

From openers

Ninety-one-year-old Colletta, who suffers from congestive heart failure, diabetes, hypertension and gout, is letting people know that she is in great spirits today thanks to U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine.

Colletta says DeWine, as a member of a powerful Senate committee, secured the federal money for a medical monitoring device used by her home-healthcare provider -- the Visiting Nurse Association Healthcare Partners of Ohio.

“Thank you, Senator DeWine for helping fund a program that has kept me out of the hospital for months!” Colletta writes in a mailer sent to between 1,500 to 2,000 people, including other VNA patients and physicians.

Such a testimonial is hardly remarkable during a super-charged political season in which endorsements are as common as political yard signs.

What makes Colletta’s story special is that it doesn’t appear in a piece of campaign literature. It just sounds like it does.

HERE

Per Jerome Corsi's article, here is his blog.

And here is his blogger profile from Google's cache.

I'm glad he turned his life around, but the recidivism rate on people with this sort of disgusting impulse is very high. So again, why didn't Ted Strickland act on a tip he recieved that his staffer exposed himself to young children?

Remember when Strickland said this?

Strickland said ethical behavior cannot be legislated, but a leader can put standards in place and hold his employees responsible.

He said he will set an example of following not only the letter of the law but the spirit, as well, and hire people of top character and integrity who possess a ``Peace Corps spirit.''

Funny. I know people who were in the peace corps, and none of them exposed themselves to young children.

And remember, in addition to hiring this perv, Ted Strickland, if he was governor, wants to hire criminals (hiring such people seems to come naturally to Ted):

U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland told a closed-door Toledo audience over the weekend that he would hire ex-convicts for state government jobs if Ohioans elect him governor in the fall.

Red Hawk Review has the story.