From the Blade

Democrats cannot afford to cede the debate of family values to Republicans if they hope to make gains this year in Ohio and nationally, rising Democratic star and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama said yesterday.

 

"People don't have to be religious to be moral, and to be ethical, and to speak about the common good … ," he said before a party dinner expected to raise more than $500,000 for gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland and other statewide Democrat candidates.

"What you don't want to do is engage in the equivalent of showing up to church two days before the election, kind of clapping off rhythm … ," he said. "People sniff out inauthentic expressions of faith."

Mr. Obama specifically took aim at debate set for next week in Congress on a proposed constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage, drawing comparisons to the Republican gubernatorial candidacy of Ken Blackwell. The secretary of state successfully championed a similar state amendment in 2004. "I know Mr. Blackwell … is going to try to take advantage of that [conservative] base as much as he can," he said. "I had someone similar - Alan Keyes - run against me when I ran for the U.S. Senate two years ago. I think that base of voters who consider [gay marriage] the most important issue facing America caps out at around 25-30 percent."

From the Enquirer

Janet Cohen Howard fondly recalls romping on the playground at South Avondale Elementary School with Ken Blackwell and his future wife, Rosa.

That was 50 years ago, but Howard still remembers being told "no one in this community would succeed.''

There was a mix of pain and victory in her voice Saturday as Howard stood up at the Renaissance Hotel here and relayed that story to fellow African-American Republicans.

Times have changed. In 1994, Howard became the first black woman elected to the Ohio Senate. Rosa Blackwell is superintendent of the Cincinnati Public Schools.

And Ken Blackwell is seeking to become Ohio's first black governor, and the second African-American ever elected to any state's top job.

The secretary of state from Cincinnati cited those historic firsts, and others, during a speech to the Ohio Black Republicans Association. "We're going to prove why Ohio is a pacesetter,'' he said.

We'll see if the rest of the media does stories like this throughout the campaign.

From the Cantonrep

But whether Blackwell wins the governor’s race or is defeated by U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland, his Democratic rival, few believe the growth cap inserted into state law last week will remain unchanged.

“In the time period we’ve got left before the November election, obviously it would be difficult to do another constitutional amendment, but I clearly think sometime in the next four years it will happen,” said Scott Pullins, executive director of the tax-fighting Ohio Taxpayers Association.

National anti-tax champion and Blackwell ally Grover Norquist hinted as much in a news release he issued the day of the Legislature’s vote on the watered-down cap.

Get ready for TEL2.

from the Cleveland Fish Wrapper

Although their influence is hard to measure, blogs already are as much a fixture of the modern political campaign as yard signs.

Bloggers are spreading news and gossip, raising money and rallying support for candidates and causes -- tending the "netroots," as they call it.

At times, bloggers' passion for politics -- and their eagerness to be the first to break news -- lead to embarrassing mistakes.

"You heard it here first," buckeyestateblog.com declared in the wee hours one March night. "Blackwell to drop out."

Six weeks later, Ken Blackwell crushed Jim Petro in the GOP gubernatorial primary.

That mistake didn't keep the blog from becoming the most important lefty blog in Ohio. And the blogging community's frequent excitability hasn't lessened its ability to draw attention, and sometimes action, from candidates and news organizations.

Many local and statewide candidates have given interviews to one loose group of left-leaning political junkies known as "meetthebloggers.net," which later posts complete audio and sometimes full transcripts of these in-depth interviews.

The major campaigns monitor the leading blogs and sometimes respond directly to them. Some have hired their own bloggers to help influence the online debate.

Because of Ohio's status as a swing state, its politics are also followed closely by national blogs such as dailykos.com and talkingpointsmemo.com, which have begun citing Ohio bloggers on their sites.

Carlo LoParo, a spokesman for Blackwell, whose Web site features the most caustic official blog, said cyberpundits on both sides of the aisle are extremely important because they provide a window to rival campaigns that never existed before.

"Blogs are a great place to find out what your opponent is doing, especially in terms of getting their press releases and messages to supporters," LoParo said.

He added, however, that blog content must be used with caution.

"You find information on blogs first because they don't have to do a lot of fact-checking," he said. "Many times the information is wrong. But you know what's being discussed."

And they have a list of local blogs, including this one:

Anonymous
Hometown: Cleveland
Web site: Rightangleblog.com
Day job: Unknown
Launched 2005

What is it? Conservative commentary from several named contributors, edited by a person or persons whose identity is a subject of wide speculation

Net worth: The most popular and influential Republican site, regularly rebuking Democrats in synch with Republican Party talking points

Republican talking points? Give us more credit than that. We are conservatives first, Republicans second. And I believe we have a few libertarians around here too.

From Openers

Lorain Mayor Craig Foltin is without a campaign manager in his bid to get elected to Congress.

Ira Treuhaft, who was Foltin’s campaign manager for about two months, is leaving Ohio and going home to New York City. Treuhaft, 27, said he and Foltin agreed that it would be best if Treuhaft no longer continued as campaign manager.

That's never a good sign for a campaign in June.

Check out http://www.ohioabortionban.com/ for more information about the proposed ban on abortion in Ohio.

What do you guys think of it? If it takes the abortion fight back to the Supreme Court so Roe can finally be overturned and the abortion issue would return to the states, I'm all for it.