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Friday, March 31, 2006 | |
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Ex-DeLay aide pleads guilty in Abramoff case
A former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay pleaded guilty to participating in an influence peddling conspiracy that included soliciting official actions from Ohio GOP Rep. Bob Ney in exchange for a golf trip to Scotland, restaurant meals, and sports tickets.
DeLay’s former press secretary and deputy chief of staff, Tony C. Rudy, faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine under the plea agreement filed today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Case documents show that while Rudy was on DeLay’s payroll, he performed official acts for lobbyist Jack Abramoff in exchange for $86,000 in payments from Abramoff, as well as meals, sports tickets and golf trips.
After joining Abramoff’s lobbying firm, Rudy helped arrange a golf trip to Scotland for Ney and his Chief of Staff, Will Heaton. He told Heaton via email that the trip would involve golf, “drinking, and smoking Cubans.”
The court papers say Ney agreed to "take favorable action and render other assistance on behalf of the clients of Abramoff and defendant Rudy" “in exchange for this stream of things of value.”
Ney helped Abramoff by backing measures to let an Indian tribe that Abramoff represented reopen a Texas casino, and to allow one of Abramoff's U.S. territorial client's to continue labeling its clothes “Made in the USA” even though they weren’t subject to the same wage and labor standards as manufacturers in the continental United States.
Ney’s office released a statement that condemned “the illegal actions of Jack Abramoff and his subordinates” and said they lied to their clients and members of Congress “in order to advance their own personal greed.”
Ney “remains absolutely confident that when the full facts of Abramoff's schemes are revealed, fiction will continue to be separated from fact and it will be made clear that he did absolutely nothing wrong," said his spokesman, Brian Walsh.
- Sabrina Eaton
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Show me the money
Esteemed conservative economist Arthur Laffer says he's trying to collect a $35,000 bill Ken Blackwell's TEL committee owes him for some financial consulting last year.
Laffer, whose family roots are in Cleveland but whose business operations are in San Diego, said he still supports the Republican gubernatorial candidate. But he also wants payment.
''These things happen in political campaigns, unfortunately. They are slow to pay off bills,'' Laffer said, adding that he once ran for senator in California and understands how a campaign can try to hang onto its cash as long as possible.
Laffer is best known for the ''Laffer Curve," his theory that lower tax rates lead to increased economic output and stimulate the job market. Eventually, the theory goes, the growing economy fills government coffers.
Laffer said his company, Laffer Associates, did an economic analysis of Blackwell's TEL amendment last year. It found that TEL would have cut government spending in Ohio by about $10 billion a year if it had taken effect in 1994, and tax rates would have fallen by 17 percent, the study said.
While Laffer sees that as a positive, though others predict the proposed amendment would be a financial disaster for the state.
Laffer added in a telephone interview that he's been asssured he'll be paid.
''They have been pretty slow, but they're going to pay," he said. "If they don't , I'll do something.
"And tell everybody I'm a huge fan of Ken Blackwell. His proposal is the right thing to do. So I'm fine, I'm fine. I won't have a problem collecting, just so you know."
--Bill Sloat
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O'Reilly again
Lawmakers in Columbus are lining up for auditions on "The O'Reilly Factor."
House Speaker Jon Husted and Attorney General Jim Petro already have appeared on the show to participate in Ohio's version of the "high-tech lynching" U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas thought he was forced to endure in 1991. Thursday night, it was state Sen. Steve Austria's turn.
Pursuing his crusade to impeach Franklin County Common Pleas Judge John Connor for placing a child sex offender on probation, O'Reilly invited the Republican senator from suburban Dayton onto his show to discuss Senate passage of Ohio's version of "Jessica's Law." Senate Bill 260 would mandate prison terms of 25 years to life for the rape of a child under 13 and 15 years to life for the attempted rape of a minor.
Joining Austria on the phone with O'Reilly was Cathy Lee Harper of the Justice League of Ohio, whose organization has led the charge in Columbus to impeach Connor. After thanking Austria for his work on SB 260, O'Reilly, the "reporter," asked the Ohio legislator for a favor.
O'REILLY: Well, good for you. Now I've got to ask you a personal favor, senator. You got to watch Ms. Lee's back.
AUSTRIA: Well, Ms. Lee is doing good work.
O'REILLY: Yes, you got to watch her back, because there are some bad people in your state trying to get her. And you got to watch her back. Will you do that for us?
AUSTRIA: Well, absolutely. I know Cathy personally. And we have talked. And certainly, you know, she has every right to go out and get petitions. It's part of the process.
Favor granted, O'Reilly promised to "keep working on our end."
--Ted Wendling
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Odds and ends
The Washington Post's Chris Cilizza updates his list of the U.S. House seats most likely to change party hands this fall, and Ohio has two of the top five. Overall, Cilizza says, the Dems have increased their chances of taking control of the House.
A Rasmussen poll says Democrat Ted Strickland maintains a strong lead in matchups against either Republican gubernatorial candidate, Ken Blackwell or Jim Petro.
And a Zogby poll gives Sherrod Brown a lead over Mike DeWine is the race for Senate. This could be an outlier, though; most recent polls give DeWine the lead.
--Ed.
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Thursday, March 30, 2006 | |
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NAFTA won't go away
Betty Sutton is trying to make sure voters remember that Tom Sawyer voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement when he was in Congress in 1993, a vote Sawyer probably wishes they'd forget.
Sutton and Sawyer are among the eight Democrats running for the 13th congressional district seat. Sawyer said recently that voting for NAFTA was a mistake, an effort to regain favor in a district where union households are common and where some labor leaders express continuing displeasure with his vote. One study states that NAFTA has cost Ohio about 50,000 jobs.
Gerald Austin, an adviser to Sawyer, recently tried to downplay labor's lingering discontent with his candidate.
"The average person is not as passionate about NAFTA as the union leaders," Austin told Congress Daily.
Sutton fired off a lengthy response Thursday, saying Austin's remarks reflect Sawyer's insensivity toward labor.
"Tom Sawyer turned his back on Ohio's workers," Sutton said. "NAFTA decimated Ohio's economy and dismantled people's lives. Workers in Ohio don't deserve Tom Sawyer's disrespect and insulting rationalizations."
Austin stood behind his comments Thursday.
"I think Betty ought to get out and talk to some real people instead of just talking to labor leaders," Austin said. "If she is so much of a labor candidate, how come Capri Cafaro got the endorsement from the UAW?"
Sutton has collected many endorsements from other labor groups.
- Steve Luttner
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Live, from Anderson Township! It's ....
Comedian Rachel Dratch of NBC's Saturday Night Live has been invited to stand in for U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt, who has declined to appear next month at a Cincinnati-area Republican club candidates' debate.
Dratch lampooned Mean Jean on the TV show last November, shortly after the 2nd District congresswoman made her infamous ''cowards cut and run'' remark on the House floor. The remark was an ill-considered reference to Democratic Rep. John Murtha, a decorated Marine who served in Vietnam.
Schmidt's office has said she has other commitments and can't debate April 19 at the Anderson Township Republican Club. Club officials say that if Schmidt won't come, then Dratch is welcome to fill her shoes.
Club officials have written to Dratch and to SNL producer Lorne Michaels to extend the invitation.
'It would be a lot of fun," said Duffy Beischel, the club's debate coordinator. "We even have someone who would be willing to pay Rachel's travel expenses down and back to New York.
''Who says that politics can't be a good time?" Beischel added. "We thought, 'What the heck, let Rachel play her.' A lot of people say she makes a pretty good Jean Schmidt."
Bob McEwen's camp plans to show up regardless of who is standing at the other podium. No word yet from NBC whether Dratch, 40, a member of the SNL cast since 1999, will be able to come.
--Bill Sloat
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Peeved about pee
"Zurz Targets Trucker Bombs" says the headline on the news release issued today by state Sen. Kimberly Zurz.
What's going on? Truckers conspiring with al-Qaida to bomb interstate rest stops? Foreign agents fed up with I-71 traffic bombing truckers who hog the passing lane?
Nope. Zurz, a Democrat from Green, is responding to a report from the Ohio Department of Transportation indicating that nearly 1 million containers of urine -- popularly known as "trucker bombs" -- are tossed from Ohio roadways every year. Some of them, Zurz says, "explode under lawn mowers, often showering workers with urine."
Although it's hard to place a price tag on such degradation and degeneracy, Zurz's bill would set a maximum fine of $1,000 and a minimum fine of $150 for tossing a trucker bomb. Currently, the maximum fine is $150.
Zurz's spokesman, Doug Nagy, says the law would also apply to other "potentially dangerous litter," including glass, needles, nails and chemicals.
The next time you find yourself saying, "there oughta be a law," there might be one on the books.
--Ted Wendling
Update: study was by Ohio Department of Natural Resources, not ODOT. Ed.
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Who Threw the Last Punch?
State Sen. Eric Fingerhut today pondered aloud the high cost of workers' compensation insurance premiums for state agencies.
"Most people just sit in their offices," Fingerhut observed during a meeting of the Oversight Commission for the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation.
A bureaucrat explained that employess often get injuries from heavy lifting or crashing state cars.
But Fingerhut was still puzzled why the state Senate pays nearly six times as much in premiums as the Ohio Supreme Court.
"We must be much more dangerous, but there haven't been any fistfights on the floor of the Ohio Senate lately," Fingerhut said.
Perhaps he was thinking back to 1991, when former Justice Craig Wright left former colleague Andy Douglas with bruises and cracked ribs after an infamous tussle in the court's offices.
--T.C. Brown
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Flannery victory
Bryan Flannery has something to brag about – and it has nothing to do with his days as a Notre Dame football player.
The Sun Newspaper chain, as Flannery points out on his OPEN MIKE blog this week, believes he is a better candidate than Democrat Ted Strickland.
The endorsement calls Strickland, an 11-year congressman, “wishy-washy” and “ill-informed” on the issues.
The newspaper chain, which includes 25 papers in Northeast Ohio, sides with Flannery, a former state representative, largely because it believes he has the best understanding of the school funding problem in Ohio.
Strickland’s campaign had little to say about the endorsement. But spokesman Jess Goode insists that Strickland “is offering a bolder, more detailed vision than any other candidate.”
-- Mark Naymik
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DeWine to co-sponsor gay marriage amendment
Sen. Mike DeWine will soon co-sponsor a bill that would lead to a federal constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriage.
DeWine has voiced reservations in the past about using the Constitution for this purpose, saying he wanted to see whether the courts could deal with the issue first. But when it came time to vote the last time, he supported the sponsors and said he would do so again.
This time, he'll be among the Senate Judiciary Committee members taking the lead. This will assuredly please religious conservative leaders who were disappointed last time -- and who still hold a grudge -- over his refusal to back Ohio's successful 2004 ballot measure to ban gay marriage in the Buckeye State.
DeWine and other political leaders in Ohio said at the time that the state measure was poorly drafted and could harm unintended victims, such as elderly people living together.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist wants a vote on the federal amendment in June.
- Stephen Koff
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Now let's get out there and sell -- er, vote!
He's quite an inspiration, that Bob McEwen. Not only is he a former Republican congressman, a government affairs adviser for a law firm and a current thorn in the side of Cincinnati's Jean Schmidt, whom he hopes to beat in the congressional primary on May 2.
He also fires up the troops at Amway, a Michigan-based multilevel marketing company whose leaders, from the DeVos family, are major conservative political donors. McEwen has given inspirational and political talks to Amway distributors and written in Amway publications, according to web sites and blog postings cited by Schmidt supporters and others.
A McEwen spokesman has heard this, too, but says he has no other information. Critics aren't satisfied with that answer, saying voters should know just how closely McEwen is linked to the powerful Amway army.
But McEwen's audience goes beyond Amway. McEwen sells his own line of motivational products through the Internet. (Check them out here.)
There's his two-DVD set on free enterprise, a single DVD on "God's Plan of Salvation," CDs on love, relationships, freedom and overcoming the "chokepoints" to success. McEwen even offers a companion book ($12) to go with a DVD/CD set ($25) that promises to tell you "everything you always wished you understood about politics, presented in a simple, logical manner showing timeless principles that can transfer to any election." The name of the latter: "Politics: Easy as Pie."
Do the motivational recordings work? Can McEwen really close that sale? We'll find out May 2.
- Stephen Koff
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Rolling over Rock and Roll
A taxpayer watchdog group is targeting federally funded programs at Cleveland's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the University of Akron as examples of egregious "earmarks" that should never have received government money.
The Americans for Prosperity Foundation will hold events outside both institutions on April 10 to highlight $1.1 million in tax dollars that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame got for music education programs like "Rockin' the Schools," and $500,000 the University of Akron got for an "Exercise in Hard Choices" program to help students understand the federal budget process.
The local events are part of a multi-state "Ending Earmarks Express" bus tour that will also visit West Virginia, Iowa and Missouri. The group also backs statewide "taxpayer's bill of rights" amendments of the sort that GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell urges Ohioans to support in November.
Americans for Prosperity Foundation's press secretary, Annie Patnaude, described her group as a grassroots organization that wants to reduce wasteful government spending. She wouldn't say where it gets its own money, save for "individual donations."
Tax filings show the chairman of its board is Kansas billionaire David H. Koch, a co-owner of the Koch Industries conglomerate. He is a major donor to conservative causes. Records also indicate the group is affiliated with Citizens for a Sound Economy and the Independent Women's Forum.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame spokesman Todd Mesek said approximately 50,000 children from "all over" participate in his institution's educational programs. Some of the programs focus on rock & roll's role in political events, like the civil rights movement and the anti-war protests of the 1960s, while others use music to engage students in other subjects like math, science, geography and social studies.
"We really believe in these programs," Mesek said, noting that Cleveland-area schools have had to cut their own arts and music programs because of funding shortages. "They are important, they fill a void, and they help students, particularly those in the city of Cleveland."
- Sabrina Eaton
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Hotline's Futures Market
Hotline on Call has an interesting rundown of Ohio's political scene, with thumbnail descriptions of some two dozen leading figures.
Overall, Hotline concludes: "A number of GOPers laughed when we read them names of some of our '03 stars and told us that we needed a new list. Dems are giddy with anticipation for the election, and they seem to think they've got the candidates to pull out some big wins."
--Ed.
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Wednesday, March 29, 2006 | |
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A new Kucinich?
Ohio GOP Sen. George Voinovich thinks the real reason that Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin wants to censure President Bush is to take over the far-left political turf that Rep. Dennis Kucinich occupied in the 2004 presidential race. Voinovich said he strongly disagrees with Feingold's proposal, and believes it "has more to do with politics than it does with substance."
"Russ wants to be the most liberal candidate the Democrats have running for president," said Voinovich. "He wants to stake out the area that Kucinich did."
When Kucinich was asked about Voinovich's remarks, he wouldn't discuss whether he thinks Feingold is poaching his voters or whether he plans to seek the presidency himself in 2008.
"I have a lot of respect for Russ Feingold and I wish him well," is all the Cleveland Democratic would say.
Kucinich did reveal that he thinks Feingold's resolution to censure Bush for authorizing a warrantless surveillance program is premature. He said Congress should investigate Bush's program before taking such an action.
"It is putting the verdict before the trial," Kucinich said.
- Sabrina Eaton
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Dems get help
The Ohio Democratic party has hired Richard Dickerson to help coordinate statewide campaigns this year, a position the party couldn’t afford to fill four years ago.
Though he’s not from Ohio, Dickerson worked in Ohio during the 2004 presidential campaign with the special-interest group America Coming Together. His current task is to pump up the Ohio ticket while managing the interests of both the state and national parties.
-- Mark Naymik
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Kerry wants your money -- for Brown
John Kerry wants a win in Ohio -- a win by Sherrod Brown.
Kerry, whose 2004 loss in Ohio denied him residency in the White House, sent an e-mail today to thousands of his best friends and former supporters, urging them to give money to Brown's Senate campaign by Friday. That's the deadline for political donations in the first quarter of the year, when candidates race for financial supremacy (so they can afford all those commercials you'll be bombarded with).
"Sherrod Brown is one of our best hopes - and Karl Rove's worst nightmare," Kerry's e-mail says. It also says, "As you can imagine, the GOP political establishment will pull out all the stops to protect Mike DeWine's Senate seat. They'll pour millions of dollars into the state."
That's pretty accurate, as both President Bush and Vice President Cheney have already helped with DeWine fundraising appearances in this quarter. Had Kerry and running mate John Edwards won in 2004, of course, they would have done the same for Brown. Kerry makes no mention of his own issues in Ohio, nor of his former ambitions, but states:
"I can tell you this: I am eagerly looking forward to the day when Sherrod Brown and I serve side-by-side in the Senate."
- Stephen Koff
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The O'Reilly Factor
Looming over Tuesday's long series of Ohio House and Senate hearings on sex-offender legislation was the huge shadow of Fox News Rottweiler Bill O'Reilly.
For the better part of the month, O'Reilly has whipped legislators and politicians pandering for votes into a froth by crusading for the impeachment of Franklin County Common Pleas Judge John Connor, who sentenced a child molester to probation.
One of Connor's colleagues, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Dan Hogan, was repeatedly asked about O'Reilly during his testimony in opposition to the mandatory-sentencing provisions in some of the bills. It was a topic Hogan addressed against his will.
Asked in a Senate committee what he would say to O'Reilly if he went on his show, Hogan hissed, "I wouldn't do it." When Rep. Danny Bubp, a former Adams County judge, again asked Hogan the what-would-you-say-to-Bill question during a hearing in the House, Hogan deadpanned: "First, I'd ask him not to interrupt me -- which he wouldn't do."
--Ted Wendling
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Flannery's playbook
Like a bad Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bryan Flannery continues to call the same play despite its limited effectiveness.
A former Notre Dame football player, Flannery is again bragging about his Notre Dame past and connection to his former coach Lou Holtz, who endorsed his campaign this week.
Democrats can hear Holtz’s endorsement on recorded phone messages the Flannery campaign is spreading across the state.
This should all sound a little familiar. Flannery touted his connection to Holtz and Notre Dame before, when the coach helped Flannery raise money for his 2002 bid for secretary of state.
Having gotten stuffed in that race by Ken Blackwell, it may be time for Flannery to punt the whole football theme.
-- Mark Naymik
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Baring her soul
Tuesday was D-Day in Ohio for sex offenders, and the nine sex-offender bills that were debated in the House and Senate inspired some interesting characters to visit the Statehouse.
One of them was Robert Neinast, the Ohio representative for the Naturist Action Committee, an organization that promotes "the responsible recreational nude use of public lands." Neinast testified in opposition to Senate Bill 245, which would increase penalties for public indecency when the victim is a minor and the offender has a previous conviction for public indecency.
Why, you ask? Neinast said Ohio law still fails to recognize the difference between "mere nudity" and nudity with a sexual motivation. He suggested that blue-nosed cops might start arresting people for being nude in public -- while in locker rooms, skinnydipping, relieving themselves in the woods or while engaging in "the casual nudity that is part of the boating culture."
Neinast's testimony clearly flustered Kimberly Zurz, a Democrat from Green, who had difficulty formulating her question: "Are there a large number of folks . . . " she began, then tried again. "Is there an issue out there that I'm not aware of? I'm not aware that nude bathing is allowed in Ohio, although I have heard there are nude clubs."
Technically, Neinast admitted, nude bathing is legally confined to naturist retreats.
For the record, both Neinast and Zurz were fully clothed during their discussion.
--Ted Wendling
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DeWine Was Dead Last
The rural Republican grassroots revolt against Sen. Mike DeWine caught fire again Tuesday night in Fulton County, where the senator got scorched in an endorsement contest.
DeWine couldn't even muster enough votes to make it past the first ballot in a contest against conservative unknowns Bill Pierce and David Smith, who are both running to the right of the sitting U.S. senator.
Fulton County GOP Chair Sandy Barber said DeWine finished last in the three-man race for the local party's support.
''He was dropped from the second ballot,'' she said.
Neither Pierce nor Smith mustered a two-third's majority needed for an endorsement in that second ballot, so the county rated them ''qualified.'' DeWine's campaign came away with nothing but a brushoff, Barber added.
So far, Pierce has beaten DeWine in three counties, tied one and lost a fifth. All of those contests have taken place in rural communities.
Barber, who has headed the Northwest Ohio county's Republican organization since the early 1980s, said DeWine looks to be in trouble with the party's conservative base. She said she didn't realize how deep the senator's problems are until his defeat.
''Some of the members of my central committee had indicated they were unhappy with Mike DeWine. I didn't realize it was overwhelming as it was,'' she said. ''I don't know if there's a full-blown revolt, but obviously Pierce and Smith were well received. People just didn't like some of the positions Mike DeWine has taken as a senator.''
--Bill Sloat
(Black Swamp Conservative was there, has an interesting take. Ed. Bizzy Blog also relishes the outcome.)
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Tuesday, March 28, 2006 | |
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Voinovich says Bolton behaving
Ohio Republican Sen. George Voinovich has changed his assessment of U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, although he's still not certain he'd support his nomination if President Bush sends it to the Senate again.
Voinovich says he's been scrutinizing Bolton's handling of his new job, and believes he's "a changed man" with "a whole different attitude" who appears to be working well with others at the United Nations.
Cautioning that "a couple months in a job doesn't tell you the whole story," Voinovich said "the jury is still out" on whether he'd back Bolton if Bush renominates him to the position when his appointment expires in 2007.
Voinovich called his opposition to Bolton's nomination "one of the finest moments of my career in the Senate," and said that people he meets in his travels around the world thank him for taking a stand against the diplomat with an undiplomatic reputation.
"He was notorious as someone who kissed up and kicked down," Voinovich said. "They knew it all over the world. It sent a message that said, if you behave the way John Bolton did, there comes a time in your career when you're going to have to answer for your behavior."
- Sabrina Eaton
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Jean Schmidt's shifting bio
WLW radio in Cincinnati reports this afternoon that U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt, the neophyte southwest Ohio congresswoman in a primary fight against former Congressman Bob McEwen, fudged on her biography.
In news clippings from earlier this year and on old websites from her state legislator and township trustee days (here and here), she listed two bachelor degrees from the University of Cincinnati -- one in political science in 1974 and one in secondary education in 1986. But WLW said it could only confirm the earlier degree.
It looks like she has updated her biography -- and deleted one of the degrees -- on her current campaign and congressional websites. She now lists the political science degree but reports only a teaching certificate, not a degree, in secondary education.
The inconsistencies aren't new. Project Vote Smart lists the education credential as a certificate, not a degree, but the Associated Press and Schmidt's hometown newspaper, the Cincinnati Enquirer, within the past year have listed it as a degree. More recently, the Enquirer has mentioned only the real degree.
Schmidt's office did not return The Plain Dealer's calls. WLW has broad reach in southwest Ohio, and another medium -- The Whistleblower, a Cincinnati-area blog -- is spreading the Schmidt story, too.
- Stephen Koff
Update: Schmidt's chief of staff, Barry Bennett, called this evening. He said that he cannot account for the legislative and township trustee bios (which appear to be from 2004 and 2001, respectively). But Schmidt's congressional biography and website have always listed her college credentials accurately, Bennett said.
He also said that Schmidt completed her coursework for the education degree but never filed the paperwork to get the diploma because her mother got sick and later died. "I think it's fair to say that she earned it and never collected it," Bennett said.
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Voinovich and DeWine won't TEL
Ohio Republican Senators George Voinovich and Mike DeWine spoke out today against a controversial spending measure on November’s election ballot that is championed by GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell.
Voinovich said the proposed Tax and Expenditure Limitation (TEL) Amendment to Ohio’s constitution is “not in the best interests of the people of Ohio,” because it removes gubernatorial and legislative discretion “to deal with problems that are confronting the state and puts it on automatic pilot.”
DeWine added, “From what I’ve seen about it, it would hurt local governments and hurt education.” DeWine and Voinovich said they are not endorsing a candidate in the heated GOP gubernatorial primary between Secretary of State Blackwell and state Attorney General Jim Petro.
The TEL amendment would limit government spending increases to 3.5 percent each year, or the combined rates of inflation plus the increase in population, whichever is higher. It would apply to state and local governments as well as school districts.
Blackwell says it will help reverse the state’s economic decline by curbing government spending. While many municipal officials in Ohio oppose the plan, a recent Columbus Dispatch poll indicated that voters support the measure by a 43 to 22 percent margin, with 35 percent undecided.
Blackwell spokesman Carlo Loparo said he doubted opposition from Voinovich and DeWine would have much affect on the TEL amendment’s prospects. He added their stance won’t diminish Blackwell’s support for the senators.
“A majority of Ohioans support the proposal,” LoParo said. “Reasonable people can disagree on reasonable proposals.”
- Sabrina Eaton
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DeWine pleased with Bush's Reds pitch
Sen. Mike DeWine says he'll be at Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park when President Bush throws out the ceremonial first pitch on opening day, but may not be part of the president's entourage.
The Ohio Republican told reporters on Tuesday that he'd sit with the President "if I'm invited," but added that "a lot of people want to sit with the president."
Republicans in tight races have avoided public appearances with Bush since the president's poll numbers have plunged. DeWine, who faces a tough re-election contest this year, didn't show up at recent presidential speeches in Cleveland and Dublin, although Bush raised $1.1 million for DeWine at a private Cincinnati-area fundraiser last month.
DeWine said he planned to be at the April 3 opener against the Chicago Cubs regardless of Bush's plans because he's a lifelong Reds fan.
"I am just delighted to have the president come for opening day," DeWine said. "It'll be a lot of fun."
- Sabrina Eaton
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Boehner wins lawsuit over taped calls
A federal appeals court today sided with House Majority Leader John Boehner in a long-running dispute with a Democratic colleague who distributed a tape of an illegally recorded cell phone call to reporters.
Boehner said he wasn't surprised by this morning's verdict and predicted the issue would end up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.
"Violating the law in pursuit of your political opponents is, in fact, against the law, and should not be tolerated," Boehner said.
A spokesman for Rep. Jim McDermott, the Washington state Democrat who distributed the tape to several media outlets, said his boss was still reviewing the decision and will issue a statement later today.
The lawsuit stemmed from a December 1996 phone call between Boehner and Republican party leaders, including then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, strategizing on how to handle an expected House Ethics Committee reprimand to Gingrich.
A couple in Florida, where Boehner was vacationing, illegally picked up his conversation on a police scanner, taped it, and gave it to McDermott. McDermott was ordered to pay Boehner more than $700,000 in legal fees and damages.
--Sabrina Eaton
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Warm up the applause-o-meter
It's not as trustworthy as a poll, but the round of applause Attorney General Jim Petro got at Monday night's Butler County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner surely must have heartened him. It was loud and it was enthusiastic, and it came two days after a Columbus Dispatch poll showed him trailing Secretary of State Ken Blackwell by 11 points in the governor's race.
Only one other Republican came close to getting such a warm reception: State Auditor Betty Montgomery, who is running for her old job as attorney general.
Blackwell himself was nowhere to be seen in the packed convention hall, which was filled with hardcore Republican acitivists. He sent his running mate, State Rep. Tom Raga of nearby Warren County, but his introduction didn't get anywhere near the reaction Petro drew.
Butler County is in Southwest Ohio's Republican heartland, an area usually considered Blackwell country, because he's from right next door in Cincinnati.
But Petro's campaign might be gaining ground, thanks to a powerful ally. His political brain trust includes U.S. Rep. John Boehner, the Butler County Republican who is one of his state chairs. Besides being a heavyweight in national politics as House Majority Leader, Boehner is the top dog in the county. His strong local organization looks to be actively working to tilt things Petro's way before the May 2 primary.
--Bill Sloat
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Card didn't show his cards
Outgoing White House Chief of Staff Andy Card kept his big secret from the 600 Ohio Republicans who came to hear him speak Monday night at the Butler County GOP's annual dinner. He never mentioned that he was stepping down as chief of staff to President George W. Bush, ending a run that started Nov. 26, 2000, even before Bush could be certain he was moving into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Some Republican leaders have been calling for a shakeup of the top White House staff, saying stress and burnout have caught up with aides like Card, who resigned this morning.
His talk last night at the Sharonville Convention Center was low-key, almost a wistful memoir of his time in the Oval Office. He didn't even offer any sharp criticism of Democrats to the partisan audience. Instead, he reminisced about Sept. 11, 2001, and Bush's response to it.
Card marveled at the spirit and determination he witnessed while accompanying Bush on private presidential visits to comfort injured troops at Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval hospitals. He said these visits are intentionally kept out of the limelight.
''A soldier went to stand for the president of the United States, and he didn't have any legs," Card said, his voice full of emotion. "A Marine would go to salute, and he didn't have any arm. Those sacrifices are not sacrifices that the president would invite on anyone."
The Bush he knows is not a warmonger, Card said.
''There is no decision any harder than the one to require sacrifice,'' he said.
--Bill Sloat
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Monday, March 27, 2006 | |
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DeWine and Bush mug it up
U.S. Senator Mike DeWine, who’s been stressing his independence despite voting 92 percent of the time with President Bush, conveniently missed opportunities to be seen with the president during his last two public appearances in Ohio.
But the two-term senator, who faces a tough re-election battle this year, mugged with the president at his February fundraiser in Cincinnati. You can see the DeWine and the president here and a bunch of others here. (Hat tip: Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.) See them before they're scrubbed.
"They may not have been able to afford the $10,000 price of admission, but with the click of a mouse, the hardworking men and women of Ohio can finally see what voting with the President 92% of the time got Mike DeWine... lots and lots of money," said DSCC spokesman Karl Frisch.
--Mark Naymik
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Target: Foltin
Although the Republican primary is still more than a month away, Lorain Mayor Craig Foltin has amassed support and endorsements from local, state and national Republicans. The GOP mayor of heavily Democratic Lorain is viewed by some GOP officials as having a decent shot at winning the 13th congressional district, which is generally considered to be Democratic turf.
But Foltin isn't the only Republican seeking the seat, which is now held by Sherrod Brown -- a Democrat who is not running for reelection. Four other Republicans are running against him, and they did their best to chip away at Foltin's position during a Monday meeting with Plain Dealer editors.
"I think the decision to support Craig was made by a handful of people who really don't have a pulse of what's going on," said GOP candidate Joe Ortega III.
Dave McGrew, another Republican running for the seat, said "There are political scandals every year in (Foltin's) administration. Everywhere else that's failure, except for the people who run the Ohio Republican Party."
Foltin stressed his record of appealing across party lines.
"The citizens of Lorain, for it being so bad in Lorain and scandal-ridden, have sought to elect me and not agreed with Mr. McGrew. "I have a body of work I am proud of."
Afterward, Foltin offered yet more evidence that being a Republican could be a handicap in Ohio this year.
"I am very proud that I'm not a traditional Republican," he said. "Dave McGrew is much further to the right than I am."
- Steve Luttner
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Bryan's song
Using soothing symphonic music and a roaring fireplace as a backdrop, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bryan Flannery and his running mate, Frank Stams, are introducing themselves to voters in their first TV ad as solid family men who bashed heads together on the gridiron at the University of Notre Dame, have grown tired of hearing people bash Ohio and have come up with a plan to "make Ohio great."
Curious by its omission is the seemingly obligatory "again." Read into that what you want.
Flannery's spokesman, Anthony Fossaceca, said the ad will begin running late this week or early next week and will be "a substantial buy" intended primarily to introduce the Cleveland native to voters in central Ohio, where Flannery is not well known.
--Ted Wendling
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Speak no evil -- but link to it like hell
During a recent campaign swing through western Ohio, Mike DeWine would not talk about his opponent, Sherrod Brown. That was probably a good strategy: keep the focus on the incumbent, not the challenger, and don't engage.
But DeWine's new campaign website isn't playing by those rules. In a section called "In the News," the campaign features not only the latest newspaper articles (including the Washington Post's Sunday piece on the race) and columns (including George Will's latest) about DeWine but, also, pieces that explicitly knock Brown.
DeWine, however, isn't the one doing the knocking. His campaign instead highlights articles and columns about Paul Hackett -- who continued lambasting Brown, his former Democratic primary foe, even after leaving the race. Some of the DeWine campaign's favorite stories:
* "Hackett says Brown is to blame for rumors about his war service."
* "Hackett's research targeted Brown."
Not that Hackett and DeWine are buddies (other than in that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" kind of way). The bottom news link on the DeWine site appears intended to provoke ridicule: "Hackett defends evangelist, terror leader comparison." That's the one in which Hackett compared Christian televangelist Pat Robertson with Osama bin Laden.
- Stephen Koff
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Hackett supporter to praise Brown
Paul Hackett, the Iraq veteran who quit his bid for the U.S. Senate because he believed he couldn't get by fellow Democrat Sherrod Brown, has yet to say anything nice about his onetime opponent.
But Hackett’s former spokesman, Karl Frisch, will have to start praising the congressman today.
Frisch, who once referred to Brown as “more of the same,” is the new press secretary for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which helps promote and defend the party's senate candidates.
Frisch will speak for the committee on behalf of senate races throughout the country, including Ohio.
-- Mark Naymik
UPDATE: Frisch talks, and sure enough:
"I'll be working my tail off to get all of our Democratic candidates
elected to the U.S. Senate, including Sherrod Brown. Ohio needs him in the Senate."
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Pay to play here to stay
Jim Petro and other state officials might wish the pay-to-play story would just go away, but it clearly won't. One by one, each of Ohio's bigger papers weighs in.
--Ed.
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Saturday, March 25, 2006 | |
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In your dreams
We nearly aspirated our Frosted Flakes this morning when we read what one of our progressive blogging friends had posted just before 2 a.m. Saturday: that conservative Republican Ken Blackwell is dropping out of the governor's race.
But on the off chance that the unbelievable might actually be true, we called Blackwell's people, who are on duty today but were unaware of the latest buzz surrounding their candidate. By the time spokesman Carlo LoParo stopped laughing, it was clear that Blackwell is more likely to become a flaming liberal than a gubernatorial dropout.
LoParo went on to compare -- a bit harshly, we thought -- the blogger in question to those unfortunate people who get regular messages from alien civilizations.
"I guess all that tinfoil has paid off," LoParo said.
-- Mark Naymik
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Friday, March 24, 2006 | |
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Wrong number
During a time of year when pollsters bug voters as frequently as telemarketers selling timeshares, a polling firm identifying itself as “National Public Opinion Surveys” stands out.
For sounding confused.
The polling company called a voter – who’s also a Plain Dealer reporter – about this year’s governor and U.S. Senate races. The pollster, a woman, asked standard questions, such as, “If the election for governor was held today, who would you support – Ken Blackwell or Ted Strickland?”
The pollster appropriately did not identify Blackwell as the Republican candidate or Strickland as the Democrat. (She also never offered a match-up with Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Petro, which suggests that whomever commissioned the poll believes that Petro won't make it through the primary.)
The pollster went off-track by repeating the governor's question using the names of Mike DeWine and Sherrod Brown.
Huh?
DeWine and Brown are running for the U.S. Senate.
Like any good telemarketer, the caller from Sacramento, California, kept to the script, repeating the question despite being corrected.
The caller then continued to ask a variety of questions to gauge support on such issues of gay marriage, trade agreements, and tax cuts for the rich.
The major campaigns denied they are paying for the poll.
- Mark Naymik
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DK to join AG race
U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a calculating politician who doesn’t lend his name to campaigns indiscriminately, is about to enter statewide politics.
Watch for the congressman and former presidential candidate to endorse Democratic attorney general candidate Subodh Chandra at a news conference Monday at which they are expected to talk about energy regulation.
Chandra is a former Cleveland law director who lost the state party's backing to attorney general candidate and state Sen. Marc Dann.
Speaking of endorsements, Cleveland City Council is expected to formally back Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland during council’s caucus meeting Monday.
- Mark Naymik
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Strickland debuts ad campaign
Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Ted Strickland introduces himself to voters in a new TV ad that emphasizes his humble roots and his decision to forego federal health care until residents of his working-class congressional district have health benefits, too.
There are two versions of the ad. One is 30 seconds, the other 60 seconds. Both began to run Friday in select markets and eventually will run statewide.
The commercials feature photographs of Strickland as a young boy interspersed with fuzzy images of the barn that offered temporary housing to his family after fire destroyed their home.
He was 5 when the fire struck, and he often tells how his older sister saved him from the blaze by scooping him up in the middle of the night and running down the hillside in a small town near Portsmouth.
Campaign spokesman Jess Goode characterized the size of the TV buy as "considerable," and said the ads' purpose is "to begin to tell Ted's life story, which speaks to the characteristics and values that will make him a good governor."
Strickland speaks in each version of the commercial.
"We were a working class family," he says as the spots open. "Dad worked at the steel mill. There were times in my life when I was careful of the amount of food I took, being conscious of the fact that I had brothers and sisters who had not yet eaten."
His brother, Roger, closes the ads with this line: "I think Ted wakes up every day thinking, 'What can I do to help someone?'"
Also contending for the Democratic nomination is former state Rep. Bryan Flannery of Strongsville.
- Sandy Theis
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GOP leaders love Ney (but do their followers?)
Congressman Bob Ney's campaign announced this afternoon that Republican officials from all 16 counties in his district have endorsed his reelection effort. That, the campaign says, demonstrates the embattled Ney's popularity and the strength of his reelection bid.
Maybe.
But nods from county chairs are not the same as official endorsements from the parties they represent. Only five county parties in Ney's district have officially endorsed him: Belmont, Coshocton, Jackson, Knox and Muskingum.
So what about the other 11? Some have yet to vote on endorsements, some don't make endorsements in primaries, and some may take a pass rather than risk embarrassment in the event Ney gets indicted in a bribery investigation. (He says he is innocent, and the fact is, he is said to be darn good when it comes to constituent service.)
Ney's campaign notes that none of the 11 have endorsed someone else. That's logical; they're more likely not to make an endorsement at all than to disrespect a sitting congressman, even one in the FBI's sights.
- Stephen Koff
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Trakas bows out
Cleveland area State Rep. Jim Trakas said today he is withdrawing from the Republican Party primary for secretary of state. The decision assures the nomination of Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Greg Hartmann in the May 2 GOP primary.
Hartmann will face Columbus lawyer Jennifer Brunner in the Nov. 7 general election. Brunner, who specializes in election law, is unopposed in the Democratic Party primary.
Trakas, a four-term House member from Independence, is barred by term limits from seeking re-election. He said he will withdraw at the request of Ohio Republican Party Chairman Robert Bennett. A Statehouse scandal, bad economy and an unpopular war are expected to make this a difficult year for Republicans to win in Ohio. Trakas, of Independence, said that task would have been made even more difficult if he and Hartmann engaged in a costly primary election battle.
Because Hartmann enjoyed a fund raising advantage over Trakas, he was considered a slight favorite in their primary matchup. Hartmann said Trakas will now become chairman of his campaign.
Trakas made the announcement at the start a scheduled joint endorsement interview with Plain Dealer editors.
- Brent Larkin
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Blackwell link to 527
As Open first reported earlier this month, national Republican strategists Edward Brookover formed a new special-interest group -- Promoting American Values for Everyone -- with the express purpose of influencing Ohio's statewide elections this year, according records filed with the Internal Revenue Service.
While the group remains quiet at the moment, speculation continues about whom the group aims to help. But the group has a link to Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell.
Brookover, a former political director of the National Republican Congressional Committee, has worked as a campaign consultant for Blackwell, including during his short-lived bid for Congress in 1993.
While special interest groups are prohibited by law from coordinating activities with specific candidates, they are often just as partisan.
Brookover, who works for the consulting firm of Greener and Hook and lists the firm's address as the special interest group's, could not be reached for comment.
Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo said the campaign knows nothing about the group and cautioned to not read too much into Brookover’s connection. Noting that Blackwell has also received advice from GOP guru Ed Rollins, he said, “Several prominent consultants have worked for Ken.”
-- Mark Naymik
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Keeping the faith
United Methodist leaders report they are heartened that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland has said he won't help the movement to open Ohio to casinos and slot machines. Strickland is an ordained Methodist minister and his Protestant denomination is explicitly opposed to any form of state-supported gambling.
Strickland, the Democratic frontrunner, told The Plain Dealer's editorial board earlier this week that he is not supportive of expanding legalized gambling in the state. While he didn't bring up religion, his denomination's Social Principles, which are its guideposts of faith, are clear.
They denounce gambling as ''a menace to society, deadly to the best interests of moral, social, economic, and spiritual life, and destructive of good government."
Ohio has about 415,000 Methodists, second only to Roman Catholics among Christian sects in the state, and the church's leaders have tirelessly fought attempts to expand gambling over the years. Earlier this decade, they filed an unsuccessful lawsuit to stop the MegaMillions lottery. And in the 1990s, the Methodists helped finance and organize forces that defeated a statewide referendum on casino gambling.
The Rev. Tom Grey, a United Methodist minister in Illinois who founded the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, said in an interview that Strickland appears to be following his church's tenets. ''I'm heartened by the fact Ted has recognized that gambling is something he won't support,'' Grey said. "I just wish he had made a harsher denunciation."
In Ohio, the Methodist's point man against gambling is the Rev. John Edgar, who said he and Bishop Bruce Ough spoke with Strickland about the issue in January. ''When we talked to him, he said he was not supportive of gambling. He said he does not think it is a good thing, he personally recognizes there are problems."
Edgar said the church has been preparing to fight efforts to put a pro-gambling on the November ballot. ''This is a social justice issue for us," he said. ''It's an issue United Methodist folks are really galvanized around."
- Bill Sloat
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Thursday, March 23, 2006 | |
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Blackwell won't debate Petro
10:00 p.m.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell will not debate Jim Petro, his challenger in the May primary, saying the head-to-head discussions aren't part of his campaign strategy.
The decision forced cancellation Thursday of one high-profile debate and reduced another basically to a speaking engagement for Attorney General Petro.
Secretary of State Blackwell instead is focusing on other ways to reach Republican voters and on fundraising, said his spokesman, Carlo LoParo.
"Whether it is to our benefit or not, (debating) is not a strategy that we are choosing to engage in," said LoParo.
Petro's camp said Blackwell is reluctant to talk about pertinent topics such as job creation in front of voters who might have tough questions for him.
"Ken Blackwell refuses to debate, once again demonstrating his reliance on negative attacks and empty rhetoric," said Petro campaign chairman Bob Paduchik.
Blackwell's decision led to cancellation of an April 10 debate that was to be sponsored by The Plain Dealer, Columbus Dispatch and Dayton Daily News.
Brent Larkin, Plain Dealer editorial page director, said the newspapers had hoped their debate, which was to be televised statewide, would help Republicans make a more informed decision in the May 2 primary.
"We are disappointed that Secretary of State Blackwell apparently feels differently," Larkin said.
The Cleveland City Club, a longtime Ohio political forum, however, will still have its April 25 debate - minus a key player.
"We'll just have Petro at our podium and let him have the opportunity to say whatever he wants," said Jim Foster, executive director of the Cleveland City Club. "We can't let a candidate have veto power over whether we have a program or not."
--Reginald Fields
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Sorry, wrong number
U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown stumbled over one pet cause today in making a point about another.
A conference call Brown hosted to highlight his bill authorizing money to help eradicate tuberculosis was run by a call center in Ireland. Brown regularly decries the outsourcing of U.S. jobs, including call centers, to other countries.
A Brown spokeswoman said the call was actually arranged by RESULTS, a grassroots anti-tuberculosis organization, to mark World TB day, which is Friday. RESULTS spokesman Jove Oliver said it used a Colorado Springs conference call company that, because of overbooking, shifted Brown's call to an Irish affiliate.
For the record, the bill Brown wrote with Republicans including Jim Leach of Iowa authorizes spending $225 million to fight tuberculosis around the world in 2007, and $260 million in 2008. More than 1.5 million people die from the disease each year.
- Sabrina Eaton
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Red ties and Birkenstocks
The right and left will meet in the middle this Sunday.
Rev. Russell Johnson, the conservative evangelical pastor of the Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster, and liberal-leaning Rev. Jim Wallis of the D.C.-based Sojourners ministry, will host a forum on religion in politics at the Capitol Theatre in downtown Columbus.
Johnson is the founder and face of the Ohio Restoration Project, a group affiliated with his church that encourages Christians to vote in elections for candidates who stand for their values. The group has been accused of partisan politics for its close association with Republican candidates.
Wallis, whose ministry promotes participation around social-justice issues, is author of “God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It.”
Wallis, who considers himself a moderate, invited Johnson to share the stage Sunday. The event and the reception afterwards are sold out, with Johnson and Wallis each bringing in about 450 supporters.
-- Mark Naymik
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Yes, no, whatever.....
It's enough to make one wonder whether U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown is talking out of both sides of his mouth.
Brown, a Democrat, isn't seeking reelection as the representative of the 13th congressional district because he is running for the U.S. Senate. Eight Democrats seek to replace him, and one of them - Betty Sutton - says Brown encouraged her to run.
But when The Plain Dealer asked Brown spokesman Ben Wikler about that claim, Wikler would neither confirm or deny it. His only comment:
"Sherrod is excited by the breadth and depth of Democratic talent from across northeast Ohio that's come out for the race."
Hmmm.
When Sutton was told that the Brown campaign refused to confirm her oft-made claim, she was nonplussed. Minutes later, Wikler called The Plain Dealer back and said Brown had indeed encouraged Sutton to run.
But Wikler was once again stuck for an answer when asked whether Brown supports Sutton''s campaign, and whether he knew that two other Democratic candidates - Tom Sawyer and Elyria Mayor Bill Grace - both say Brown told them he would be neutral in the race.
Was Brown saying one thing to Sutton and another to Sawyer and Grace?
A short time later Brown himself called and said, "I encouraged Betty Sutton to run but I'm not making an endorsement in this race."
Does that mean you support Sutton or not?
"It means what anyone wants it to mean," Brown said. "I've said what I'm going to say."
-- Steve Luttner
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Kerry to visit crime scene
It’s that time of year when colleges jockey to line up big-names to give their commencement addresses. On the political front, Kenyon College has landed the most prominent so far: former Democratic presidential candidate and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. He speaks May 20.
The senior class invited Kerry to speak as a way of highlighting problems students faced on Election Day in the village of Gambier. Their experience made national news because some students had to wait nine hours to cast their ballots. The polls in Gambier didn't close until nearly 4:00 a.m., making the village community center the last voting precinct in the Eastern time zone to shut its doors.
--Mark Naymik
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Hunting for endorsements
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland continues to woo Cleveland leaders, who have sway over the most vote-rich area of the state. Strickland will attend Cleveland City Council’s caucus meeting Monday in an effort to shore up full council support.
While Strickland has not received officially been endsorsed by council, many support him and have been attending his events (Strickland’s running mate, Lee Fisher, is related to Councilman Matt Zone.) Three council members – Fannie Lewis, Sabra Pierce Scott, and Kevin Conwell – sponsored a recent meet-and-greet for Strickland on the city’s East Side.
Mayor Frank Jackson has not endorsed in the race, but he’s taken sides in the race for attorney general. Jackson today endorsed former Cleveland law director Subodh Chandra over State Sen. Marc Dann in the primary.
-- Mark Naymik
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A Fulton County shootout?
Fulton County Republican Chair Sandy Barber says aides to Sen. Mike DeWine are busily trying to round up central committee members and their votes before Tuesday night's endorsement meeting. It suggests the GOP senator is worried that another rural county might defect to his more conservative opponent, Bill Pierce, a political unknown in his first statewide race.
Pierce has won two counties, tied one, and lost a fourth where he tangled with the sitting senator. But if DeWine can crush him now, the Pierce boomlet would probably be over.
Barber said in an interview Thursday that the DeWine-Pierce maneuvering has been brisk and that she is unwilling to pick a favorite. She added that DeWine cannot take the Northwest Ohio county for granted.
''There is a bit of a restless base, it's no secret,'' she said. ''In the rural counties, they watch how their elected officials vote. And President Bush is very highly thought of in a rural area like this. When you go against the President, you are going to have problems,'' she said, adding that some Republicans in her area think that DeWine hasn't been solidly allied with the White House.
Barber has been the county chair since 1982 in Fulton County, which lies west of Toledo. It's so Republican that not one Democrat holds a countywide elected post.
DeWine himself is not expected for the GOP meeting Tuesday, Barber said, but his staff has been calling and sending material to the 35 central committee members to rally support. Pierce has been active as well, she said.
A candidate needs two-thirds of the GOP committee members present to vote aye for an endorsement.
''I can't tell you how it's going to go, I really can't", Barber said. "But it is going to be a very interesting race, very interesting.''
--Bill Sloat
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Wednesday, March 22, 2006 | |
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The general salutes Pierce
When former Air Force Lt. Col. John Mitchel dropped out of the Republican U.S.Senate primary earlier this month, he said he wouldn't publicly endorse anybody. The Dayton-area conservative mentioned that he had a favorite still in the race, but declined to name names.
Now his secret is out. Mitchel thinks longshot Bill Pierce is the "best qualified" Republican in the primary battle to knock off Sen. Mike DeWine. Pierce and David Smith, a newcomer who moved into Ohio about a year ago, are both running to the right of the two-term GOP senator.
But Mitchel, who received nearly 200,000 Republican votes in a primary against Sen. George Voinovich, pulled up somewhat short of granting Pierce his full blessing. Here's what he told the Buckeye Firearms Association in an e-mail message urging the statewide gun-rights group to target DeWine for defeat:
"Now is the time to get behind one of the remaining challengers, and in my opinion, the best qualified is Bill Pierce, however, I would caution everyone to learn more about both challengers before they cast their vote on May 2nd."
Linda Walker, a leader with Buckeye Firearms, confirmed Wednesday that the group is weighing whether to follow Mitchel's advice and formally back Pierce.
''DeWine won't be an option for us,'' she said. ''If you want to know our opinion it's short:
"Anybody but DeWine. "
--Bill Sloat
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Preaching for the GOP
Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman has been stumping in Ohio for two days, meeting with party activists and potential fund-raisers and proselytizing to the media about party candidates.
He’s especially trying to pump up U.S. Senator Mike DeWine as an independent member of the Republican Party, a nod to DeWine’s own attempts to keep his distance from the scandal-ridden GOP.
DeWine, who faces token opposition in the primary, is gearing up for a real battle against Rep. Sherrod Brown in November.
In a short interview with a handful of state newspapers, including The Plain Dealer, Mehlman predictably never faults the president or Republican officials for anything. And despite his tacit acknowledgement that DeWine needs to steer clear of his own party, he dismissed the notion that plummeting support for the war or Republican scandals in Ohio and D.C. will have much an impact in this year’s election. And he refused several times to comment on nasty nature of Ohio’s Republican gubernatorial primary.
A disciplined speaker who frequently responds before reporters complete their questions, Mehlman also defended the party’s recent attacks on Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin.
The GOP is running radio ads in Wisconsin accusing Feingold of proposing to censure Bush “for pursuing suspected members of al Qaeda.”
But as political watchdog Factcheck.org points out, the ad "falsely characterizes" Feingold's resolution. Feingold has said he supports wiretapping suspected terrorists and that he wants to censure Bush for ordering wiretaps on US soil without a court warrant and for failing to notify all members of the Senate and House intelligence committees.
As his visit underlines, Mehlman, who headed the President Bush’s 2004 re-election, said Ohio will remain the political ground zero in 2006.
“Ohio is unique. There’s no other state that’s going to have a very competitive governor’s race, Senate race and five congressional seats that are going to be competitive, potentially. That’s the reality,” he said.
You can listen to Mehlman's remarks here:
Ken Mehlman - Clip 1
Ken Mehlman - Clip 2
--Mark Naymik
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Say "cheese"
Hey, isn't that U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt standing in a group of beaming civic leaders dedicating a new federally supported Welcome Center in Portsmouth?
Yep, that's definitely Mean Jean. She's the dark-haired woman directly behind scissors-wielding Ambassador Rob Portman, her predecessor in Ohio's 2d Congressional District and now the Bush Administration's trade czar.
Oddly, the photograph of Schmidt helping Portman bestow some $400,000 in federal largesse upon her constitutents last weekend has turned up on political foe Bob McEwen's campaign Web site.
McEwen wants to reclaim his old job as the area's congressman and he's trying to oust Schmidit in the May 2 GOP primary. But one wonders: Is giving her free advertising the best way to do it?
McEwen's aides seemed a bit taken aback when asked about the Schmidt photo Wednesday. They admitted posting it on the Web side by mistake.
''Oh! That's Jean!'' exclaimed Michael Harlow, McEwen's spokesman, when he checked out the photo. ''I didn't see her in that picture."
Soon, Harlow said, she'll be gone, probably edited out within hours.
McEwen, by the way, can also be seen among the civic boosters gathered around Portman. He's the guy in the gray suit at the top left with his head chopped off.
The Welcome Center is a big deal in Portsmouth, which is trying to jump-start a tourist economy on the Ohio River. Some 2,200 feet of floodwalls have been painted with murals, and the Welcome Center gets folks in the mood to see those local sites, along with housing the city's Chamber of Commerce and Convention & Visitors Bureau. Uncle Sam put about $400,000 into the structure with Portman with steering the money into Ohio.
--Bill Sloat
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Tuesday, March 21, 2006 | |
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DeWine crosses Tancredo's border
Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine's role on a Senate committee that is drafting immigration reform legislation is drawing scrutiny from an outspoken foe of illegal immigration, GOP Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado.
"There's not a type of amnesty that Mr. DeWine doesn't like," Tancredo opined today in a press release urging DeWine to vote against a plan by Senate Judicary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter to give "blanket amnesty to the 13 million or more illegal aliens currenty in the U.S."
DeWine opposes Specter's approach, and instead favors a bill drafted by Sens. John McCain and Ted Kennedy that would require illegal immigrants to pay fines and back taxes on their U.S. earnings, undergo criminal background checks and go to the back of the line for a green card, said DeWine spokesman Mike Dawson.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has been working on immigration legislation for several weeks and there's no indication when it will conclude.
Tancredo spokesman Will Adams said the measure DeWine supports still amounts to a "slap on the hand" for illegal immigrants.
"Granting amnesty to people who have broken the law only encourages more people to break the law," insisted Tancredo, who targeted several other Senate Judiciary Committee members with similar attacks.
Asked about the issue Monday in Cleveland, President Bush noted that some employers have trouble filling jobs with U.S. citizens. He said he supports boosting border security and providing better documentation to legal immigrants while opposing amnesty for those who enter the United States illegally.
"We're a land of immigrants" Bush said. "And we got to treat people fairly. We've got to have a system of law that is respectful for people."
--Sabrina Eaton
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Meet the Onion Farmer
Jeff Zellers isn't just an onion farmer.
His company, K.W. Zellers & Son, also grows lettuce, radishes, dill and cilantro, too. But he's the one President Bush was talking about during his appearance at the City Club when he answered a question about immigration by saying: "I met an onion grower today at the airport when I arrived, and he said, 'You got to help me find people that will grow onions' -- pluck them, or whatever you do with them, you know."
Zellers was the fourth of nine Ohioans who greeted Bush when he got off Air Force One.
"I didn't have the overalls to give myself away," he said.
Zellers said the president asked him what he does and he responded, "farmer." Zellers listed some of the vegetables he grows (including green onions) and then talked with Bush for about 20 seconds about immigration reform.
He said he was "amused" by the mention in Bush's speech, but was more grateful that Bush outlined a plan to let more immigrants work in the United States.
Zellers is active in Republican politics, is a member of the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation and is working with Ohio Congressmen on immigration legislation. But he says he's not sure how he was selected to greet the president. His 1,100-acre farm in Hartville is about 20 miles south of Akron.
And, for the record, you pull and bunch green onions.
--Chris Seper
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Boehner's -- and others' -- booze bills
Throats can get mighty parched after all that jawboning in Congress. Thank goodness for the nearest liquor store, Schneider's of Capitol Hill. And double thanks for all the political contributions that pay for some of the liquor sold there.
Brand-new disclosure reports filed with the FEC show that the new House majority leader, John Boehner of Ohio, or his representatives, spent $1,465 at Schneider's on Feb. 3. Just a day earlier, Boehner had been elected to the mighty leadership post, so a celebration was in order. The bill was paid by The Freedom Project, Boehner's leadership PAC.
The reports, incidentally, also show that Indian tribes certainly do donate for reasons unrelated to Jack Abramoff. The Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana gave $5,000 to The Freedom Project on Feb. 28.
But back to the liquor. Political Money Line's database of FEC records shows that where politics goes, the booze flows, regardless of ideology. Frequent shoppers at Schneider's include the Committee for a Democratic Future, which is the leadership PAC of Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Democrat of Connecticut. Boehner's Freedom Project, however, appears to be the store's best congressional customer in 2006.
But the year's early -- so have another round. Someone on the Hill assuredly is buying.
- Stephen Koff
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Thunder On The Right
Conservative Christian powerbroker Phil Burress keeps an inch-and-a-half thick notebook on his desk detailing every one of GOP Sen. Mike DeWine's votes in Washington, and he doesn't like what's in it.
''He's wrong on so many issues," said Burress, who heads Citizens for Community Values, a suburban Cincinnati group in the forefront of movements against abortion rights and gay marriage.
Burress added in an interview Tuesday that he even has DeWine's old voter registration records, and claims they show that DeWine was a Democrat when he first registered to vote.
''I've often wondered, 'Who is the real Mike DeWine?'' Burress said.
Burress said he intends to vote for David Smith, a Procter & Gamble financial manager from Mason in Warren County, in the May 2 Republican primary. He said Smith is closer to GOP core values than DeWine.
''It's a vote of no-confidence in Mike,'' Burress said, confirming that he's allowing Smith to use his name on his Web site.
Smith is an unknown, as is Bill Pierce, a math teacher who is also on the GOP's Senate primary ballot. Burress admits the two are unlikely to win, but predicts they will get at least 35 percent of the vote.
''I'm looking at a huge anti-DeWine vote,'' he said. ''A lot of Republicans are going to go to the polls and say, ''Anybody but DeWine."
DeWine's staff confirmed he cast his first vote ever in 1968 in Ohio's Democratic primary, when he was 21. He supported incumbent Sen. Frank J. Lausche, a conservative from Cleveland who lost the support of his own party an wasn't renominated for a third term.
DeWine aides hastened to explain that their boss wore an Ike button in 1956, backed Nixon in 1960, Goldwater in 1964 and Nixon again in the 1968 general election.
''The senator is a lifelong Republican,'' said Brian Seitchik, DeWine's spokesman. ''He simply wanted to support Frank Lausche in the 1968 primary.''
--Bill Sloat
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Monday, March 20, 2006 | |
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Strickland likely to oppose casinos
Add Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner Ted Strickland's name to the list of those likely to oppose a casino gambling issue that might be on the November ballot.
In an interview Monday afternoon with Plain Dealer editors, the Lisbon congressman said it is "more likely than not that I am not going to be supportive" of a proposal to allow construction of two casinos in downtown Cleveland and the installation of slot machines in all seven Ohio racetracks.
Although Strickland left himself a bit of wiggle room, he indicated a recent meeting with Sen. George Voinovich helped convince him that Voinovich and others have many legitimate reasons to oppose an expansion of gambling in Ohio.
Strickland's position is a blow to those casino proponents, who were hopeful he would support them in a costly and difficult campaign to convince Ohioans to approve an issue they have twice rejected by overwhelming margins.
Republican gubernatorial candidates Ken Blackwell and Jim Petro strongly oppose casino gambling, as do Ohio's two Republican senators - Voinovich and Mike DeWine.
--Brent Larkin
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Bush takes on public
President Bush upheld the tradition of the City Club of Cleveland Monday by fielding uncensored questions from the audience after a speech aimed at rallying support for the war in Iraq.
The president answered questions for nearly an hour – almost twice as long as his prepared remarks. He responded to questions from people waving from the balcony, holding up their hands for tens of minutes and from people that gave a few shout outs to him.
Bush, leaning on the podium joked several times about the length of the Q&A; session, drawing the biggest applause from the line, “Anybody work here in this town.”
The first question was the oddest one, essentially seeking whether the president believes the war in Iraq is a sign of the Apocalypse. The president, laughing a bit, said, “I haven’t really thought of it that way. I guess I am more of a practical fellow.”
-- Mark Naymik
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DeWine: children's champ or hypocrite?
Sen. Mike DeWine today rolled out his first reelection commercial, which promotes the incumbent Republican as "a true champion for children." The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, helping challenger Sherrod Brown, immediately criticized the ad's claim as contradictory with DeWine's record.
In the commercial, an announcer notes that DeWine sponsored the bill that requires medicines prescribed for children to be tested for pediatric use, not just adult use. A registered nurse in the commercial calls the bill's impact "really astronomical" and says DeWine "is a true champion for children."
The ad does not mention that DeWine rounded up bipartisan support for this bill, with Hillary Clinton a key Democratic sponsor. (In many quarters that would be a plus, but since Hillary is red meat for Republicans, maybe her role is best left unpublicized.)
The DSCC responded to the ad with an e-mail to reporters, noting that DeWine recently cast a key committee vote on a bill to let small businesses and self-employed people band together across state lines to form health insurance pools. While the idea is praised by business groups as making insurance affordable, a number of people who lobby for pediatrics and specific disease treatments say it would preempt existing state laws that require treatments for such things as immunizations and juvenile diabetes supplies.
"It's ironic that Senator DeWine is releasing an ad today bragging about
being an advocate for children's healthcare a week after he voted to
make it easier for insurers to drop health benefits for kids," DSCC
spokesman Phil Singer said in the e-mail.
DeWine spokesman Mike Dawson said that while the senator hopes amendments to require some coverages will prevail in the final bill, "if the choice is no insurance at all versus having coverage, of course you would like them to have coverage."
- Stephen Koff
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Stretch, Pootie-Poot and Landslide
As the City Club's grilling of President Bush drew to a close, Bush jokingly tossed a question of his own to a reporter he nicknamed "Stretch," bantering that he was turning the tables on the White House press corps members who routinely interrogate him.
Several websites list Bush's nicknames for reporters, lawmakers and international leaders. Try here and here.
--Sabrina Eaton
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Bush draws protest, support
While President Bush was speaking to the City Club, about 300 people gathered in Cleveland's Public Square and along Superior Avenue to protest his administration in general and the war in Iraq in particular.
Singing, chanting and carrying signs that read, "Bush Step Down" and "Wake Up and Smell The Fascism," the protesters stood outside in the cold for several hours. There were no problems.
A Cleveland police officer asked a protester to put away a sign that used the F- word. The protester folded the poster to cover the "F," which satisified the police.
"They are offended by the F-word, but they have no problem with Iraqi children being killed and our own soldiers dying," said M.J. Muser, 51, of Cleveland, who held a sign that said "Wake Up and Smell the Fascism."
Rich Matanowitsch, 46, of Wickliffe, carried a battered sign that said "2318 Soldiers dead," which he said he updated hours before the protest.
"I keep having to change the number," he said. "When I started carrying this sign at the Republican National Convention, it read 971."
Four Bush supporters stood in a corner of Public Square with signs that included, "Grow up, hippies."
"We represent people who could not be here today because they are working," said Mare Leber, 56, of Akron. "We're here to show our support for the president."
--Mike Sangiacomo
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Bush stands by war
Speaking at the City Club of Cleveland today, President Bush outlined in detail how American and Iraq forces successfully rid the northern Iraq city of Tal Afar of terrorists, arguing that joint effort represents an optimistic story about operation Iraqi Freedom that's not getting as much attention as car bombs and other violence.
"I understand how some have had their confidence shaken," he said. But a strategy of "clear, hold and build," retooled after earlier mistakes in Iraq, is working, he insisted.
Bush also fielded random questions ranging from the war to immigration to eradicating poverty in America. Bush joked at one point, "Doesn't anybody work in this town?"
-- Mark Naymik
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The Democrats speak
Rep. Sherrod Brown will talk with reporters this afternoon to offer a rebuttal to President Bush's speech. Meantime, he issued a list -- "TEN FACTS THAT SHOW WHITE HOUSE INCOMPETENCE HURTS OHIO."
Bear in mind that some programs Brown cites, such as law enforcement and first responders, are primarily a local responsibility -- though they count on getting federal dollars. Also, NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) passed on President Clinton's watch, although Bush, too, has embraced it.
And now, the list:
1. Ohio has lost more than 175,000 manufacturing jobs since 2001 (Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services)
2. Ohio has lost 49,866 jobs due to NAFTA (Economic Policy Institute)
3. Ohio has lost 58,000 jobs to China between 1989 and 2003 (Economic Policy Institute)
4. As of January of this year, home heating costs were expected to increase by 74 percent throughout the Midwest, with gas prices increasing 33 percent in Ohio since May of 2004 (Energy Information Administration - U.S. Department of Energy)
5. 229,000 Ohioans have lost their employer-sponsored insurance since 2000 (Kaiser Family Foundation)
6. An estimated 674,792 of Ohio's Medicare beneficiaries still lacked sufficient prescription drug coverage as of mid-February, with only two months until the enrollment deadline (Kaiser Family Foundation)
7. Ohio college tuition increased nearly 70 percent since the 2000-2001 school year (Ohio Board of Regents)
8. Ohioans have spent more than $9 billion on the war in Iraq (National Priorities Project)
9. Ohio local law enforcement has suffered $11,879,471 in funding cuts under the Bush administration (DHS)
10. The Bush administration wants to cut 25 percent for first responders in FY 2007 (White House Budget Proposal)
- Stephen Koff
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The long war
Be patient and keep up the good fight: That's George Voinovich's message this morning as Cleveland awaits President Bush's speech on the war on terror.
"If we're not successful in Iraq, then it's a threat to the security of the United States of America and will make homeland security effort a lot more vulnerable," the Ohio senator told the Fox News Channel this morning.
"The war's going to last a long time," Voinovich, a second-term Republican, said. "It's the fourth world war. The third world war was the Cold War, and Osama bin Laden in 1998 declared war against the United States of America, and they have made up their mind that they're going to take over that part of the world, they're going to take over the Ottoman Empire. Once they get that done, they're going to go on and takeover the rest of the world.
"I think America should understand that Iraq is just one of the battles we're going to fight and that we're going to have to be vigilant for a long, long period of time if we're going to secure our homeland."
- Stephen Koff
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Naymik blogs on Bush
President Bush hasn't said a word yet in his appearance at the City Club of Cleveland, but at least one member of the "citadel of free speech" already has a beef with him.
Long-time member Walt Nicholes said the City Club is breaking from tradition by not allowing members to line up at the microphone to ask questions. He said City Club officials at first said members who wanted to ask a question would be picked from a lottery, but now they say Bush will call on people from the floor.
Such a format won't allow for true variety of questions, Nicholes complained.
"How's he going to see me in the back?" Nicholes asked, noting that the tables closest to the podium are filled with corporate leaders likely sympathetic to the president.
Nicholes said he was prepared to ask the president about the growing national debt and what he thinks the impact of trading oil in Euros instead of U.S. dollars would have on the stock market.
P.S. So how tight is security in the Grand Ballroom, which has squeezed tables in every available inch of space short of the bathrooms?
Guests will have to eat fast, because the caterers have been instructed to remove all eating utensils by noon.
-- Mark Naymik
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Sunday, March 19, 2006 | |
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Bush brings war campaign to Cleveland
Cleveland's City Club members and their guests bought more than 1,000 tickets at prices that ranged between $50 and $100 to listen to President Bush discuss the war in Iraq tomorrow. The luncheon speech is sold out at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel on Public Square.
But the attendees won't include some prominent Ohio Republicans.
When a president's popularity plummets as Bush's has, other politicians often avoid public appearances with them. Some, including Sen. Mike DeWine, Sen. George Voinovich and Rep. Steve LaTourette, say they're skipping Bush's speech because of prior commitments.
DeWine is visiting his convalescing father in Florida and accompanying him to spring training baseball games. LaTourette previously scheduled a staff retreat in Washington. Voinovich has meetings in Washington that he couldn't reschedule. Gov. Bob Taft, whose popularity is even lower than Bush's, isn't expected to attend, either. Taft noted that he attended Bush's speech last month outside Columbus, as did Voinovich. Today's event isn't on the schedules of either Jim Petro or Ken Blackwell, the GOP candidates to replace Taft, their spokesmen said.
Bush's chat is part of his monthlong campaign to rebuild flagging support for the war in Iraq. White House spokesman Scott McClellan says the president will discuss how the "three elements of our strategy - the political, economic and security" reinforce one another. Bush will give examples of progress in Iraq and how his strategy is succeeding.
Democrats like U.S. Reps. Dennis Kucinich and Sherrod Brown say Bush has botched the Iraq war and ignored problems, like unemployment, that plague areas like Cleveland. "This administration underequipped the soldiers who went to Iraq, underfunded veterans benefits now that they're home, and is doing little or nothing to help them find jobs," says Brown.
Every president since Jimmy Carter has addressed the City Club. Those without tickets can watch a live Webcast of the speech at www.cityclub.org.
--Sabrina Eaton
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Saturday, March 18, 2006 | |
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Hey, big spender
Youngstown shopping mall heiress Capri Cafaro plans to spend more than $350,000 of her own money on her race for Congress, which means her less-prosperous opponents may be able to raise a little more cash.
By spending such a sum of her own money on the race for the 13th congressional district seat, Cafaro would trigger the so-called millionaire's amendment. That means her opponents may qualify to accept up to $6,300 from each of their own contributors, compared to the $2,100 contribution limit that is typically permitted.
Look for Cafaro to spend a lot more than $350,000 on her bid to go to Congress.
"She is prepared to spend whatever is required to communicate her message between now and May," said Vic Rubenstein, her campaign spokesman. The primary election is May 2.
--Steve Luttner
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Friday, March 17, 2006 | |
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It's Congress -- so don't expect logic
Yesterday's vote-a-rama in Congress offered something for everyone -- including a John Kerry-like lesson on how a congressman can be against the war but for the war, and against a bill that supports ANWR drilling but for amendments in that bill that help NASA Glenn. Whether they're just being logical or talking out of both sides of their mouths, the lawmakers' votes should make them immune to attacks. Consider:
* In the House, Sherrod Brown, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Tim Ryan, Marcy Kaptur and Ted Strickland -- who in 2003 voted against Iraq war spending -- voted yesterday to give the Bush administration more money to fight the war.
Cleveland's Dennis Kucinich was the only Ohioan against the bill, saying, "Congress should say enough is enough and provide not one more
dime for this administration's ill-conceived, ill-advised, misguided and
failed Iraq policy."
So did the other Democrats cave? Or was it a matter of hating the war but loving the troops, and of supporting the bill's other objective of boosting Hurricane Katrina reconstruction? Either way, it was a well-crafted bill -- one that made it hard to say "no."
* In the Senate, Ohio's George Voinovich voted for a big budget bill, one that busts the bank, expands debt and takes government spending to a new dimension. The bill contained, thanks to an amendment by Mike DeWine, restoration of $179 million for aeronautics research at NASA, which really could help the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. DeWine also won amendments for money to help newborns and pregant women, and for medical education and safety programs.
Yet DeWine then voted "no" on the overall bill that contained his amendments -- because he opposed it's promotion of Alaskan drilling and its cuts to education.
No one ever said Congress was simple.
-- Stephen Koff
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Andrew in the cards
Cincinnati-area Republicans hope the ''fatigue factor'' doesn't claim White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card before he headlines a major fundraising event in Southwest Ohio later this month.
Card is the alpha dog among President George W. Bush's core group of advisers, but he might be hearing footsteps. This week, the president was getting unsolicited advice from GOP senators that he needs to shake up his inner staff, some of whom have been working constantly at his side since before the 2000 campaign versus Al Gore.
There was talk of burnout and fatigue among Bush intimates like Card, deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, counselor Don Bartlett, speechwriter/senior advisor Michael J. Gerson and budget director Joshua D. Bolten. Card starts his days shortly after 4 a.m. and is often at his post until after 11 p.m.
He's due at the Sharonville Convention Center in suburban Cincinnati on March 27 for the Butler County GOP's Lincoln Day Dinner. Tickets for a 5 p.m. reception and dinner start at $250. Last year, Rove headlined the event.
With Bush's poll numbers as low as airline and newspaper company stocks, some Republican grandees openly suggest Bush needs to bring new blood into the White House. They think his second term could be a flop if he doesn't raise his numbers, the lowest of any second-term president in the last 50 years.
If Card makes it through the next 10 days, it will be interesting to see what he might say in Ohio about the president's prospects.
--Bill Sloat
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Take that, you gnat!
After saying your OPEN correspondent falsely reported that Rep. Bob Ney turned down six debate dates proposed by the League of Women Voters of Athens County, Ney's spokesman Brian Walsh now concedes that the League did propose six dates after all. But he says Ney isn't going to debate his Republican primary opponent, James Brodbelt Harris, no matter how many dates the League proposes.
Between his congressional duties and campaign events in the 18th district to which he's already committed, Ney doesn't have time to debate Harris, Walsh said. Besides, he said, Harris isn't a credible candidate because he hasn't registered with the Federal Election Commission, meaning he hasn't raised $5,000 yet.
"His campaign consists of sitting around his apartment in Zanesville, sending out bizarre attacks on Rep. Ney on his computer," Walsh said. "I think the whole thing is a little silly. The congressman, like 99% of the people in the district, has not the slightest idea who Mr. Harris is."
Harris' response to Walsh's contemptuous dismissal of his candidacy?
“I’m a farmer’s son," he said. "I’m frugal with my campaign dollars and, if elected, I’ll be frugal with our taxpayer dollars. I’m in this race, I’m serious and I’m going to take my shot.”
If Ney agrees to a debate, the 36-year-old financial analyst said he's even willing to forgo any mention of the criminal investigation swirling around Ney's association with indicted political fixer Jack Abramoff. Until then, he said, he'll promote himself as a true Republican -- a member of the party of Lincoln -- pointing out that Ney and his high-rolling "porkbrokers" belong "to the party of Lincolns."
--Ted Wendling
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Thursday, March 16, 2006 | |
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Harsh judgment
Franklin County Judge John Connor expects to march in the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Columbus Friday as the Irishman of the Year, even though some see him as Public Enemy Number 1.
Connor sits at the center of a national firestorm over his lenient sentence for a child sex offender, with conservative cable TV host Bill O’Reilly fanning the flames of outrage. Adding fuel to the fire is Connor’s history of drunken-driving convictions.
State Republican politicians — including Gov. Bob Taft, Attorney General Jim Petro and Auditor Betty Montgomery — have rushed in to call for the removal of Connor, a Democratic Common Pleas judge who says he doesn’t intend to resign.
In an odd twist, the sex offender, Andrew Selva, has contributed thousands to those same politicians’ campaigns, according to state records. Selva gave $1,000 to Taft in 1997. In 2001 and 2002, Selva gave $2,250 to Petro, who has given the money to charity. Selva gave $1,825 to Montgomery in 1994.
— T.C. Brown
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The talk on terror
Ohio members of Congress couldn't wait for President Bush to deliver his speech on the war on terror in Cleveland on Monday before delivering their own riffs on the topic.
Cleveland Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich sent a letter to Bush today urging the president to take time during his visit to "get out and see Cleveland and meet the many people who are in great need of your help."
"The people of Cleveland are familar with the 'war on terror,' " Kucinich continued. "They are familiar with the terror of joblessness, the terror of cut backs in pensions and health care, the terror of foreclosure, the terror of trade policies that have gutted our manufacturing base, and the terror of economic policies that have left many of them behind."
In a different vein, Ohio GOP Sen. Mike DeWine introduced a bill that would impose a legal framework for President Bush's controversial wiretapping program and subject it to oversight from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
DeWine said he recently examined the surveillance program and was "convinced of the absolute necessity of continuing."
"It is something that if the average American could see, they would be immensely proud of their fellow citizens who are carrying out this awesome and immense duty, day after day, in furtherance of protection of their fellow citizens," DeWine said.
The American Civil Liberties Union immediately blasted DeWine. The head of its Washington legislative office said the bill amounted to a whitewash of Bush's unlawful activities, when "the proper response is a full and independent investigation."
DeWine said people he's talked to in Ohio support the surveillance program.
"They believe that if a terrorist is calling into Cleveland or Detroit, or L.A., we ought to be listening," DeWine said. "Very few people disagree with that."
- Sabrina Eaton
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Sidekick joins Blackwell
Carlo LoParo, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's long-time spokesman, has left his state post, but he hasn't gone far. LoParo, who, in a parallel comic-book universe, would be Robin to Blackwell’s Batman, is joining his boss’ gubernatorial campaign as head of communications.
LoParo doesn’t wear tights, but fights crimes committed by Democrats and wayward Republicans, he said.
-- Mark Naymik
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NRA and Cafaro
The National Rifle Association has endorsed Capri Cafaro for Congress at a time when the 28-year-old Youngstown shopping mall heiress says she is thinking about packing heat.
Cafaro, a Democrat, who says she is a dedicated defender of the Second Amendment, opposes the assault weapon ban and favors Ohio's concealed-carry law. She also plans to take a class to learn how to fire a handgun, and might carry a weapon after she completes the course.
"As a woman who comes from means, I'm in some tough neighborhoods sometimes," she says.
An official with the NRA estimates the organization has about 15,000 members in the 13th congressional district, where Cafaro is running. The district includes parts of Summit, Cuyahoga, Medina and Lorain counties.
--Steve Luttner
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Hit me
They hate the idea of gays marrying and want to abolish abortion, but you'd better not try to shut down that poker game -- unless it's on the Sabbath.
That could be the message from "value voters," better known as religious conservatives, according to a survey released today by the Family Research Council, which promotes the values of those voters.
In a poll of more than 1,000 adults, 41 percent of them self-described evangelical Christians, barely half said they oppose expanding legalized gambling. This could have implications for Ohio, considering that the poll's sponsors -- and the group polled -- successfully promoted Ohio's gay marriage amendment in 2004.
The value voters' 52 percent opposition to gambling expansion pales compared to their 74 percent support for raising fines for indecency on the airwaves, and their 73 percent support for measures to protect the unborn. Even Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, says he was surprised by the lukewarm opposition to gambling.
"I was disappointed that it was not stronger than that," he said when asked at a Washington news conference. "But I think that it shows how pervasive it is in the culture, and how desensitizing gambling can be."
Or perhaps the pollster just interrupted a friendly game of blackjack when he called.
- Stephen Koff
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Wednesday, March 15, 2006 | |
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Kucinich in the bullpen
Wanna trade a bride and groom Kucinich for a Marine Kucinich?
Pocket-size Kucinich trading cards, a favorite of newlywed Cleveland Congressman Dennis Kucinich, are popular with the whole Kucinich clan. The congressman's brother Gary, in his own race for Congress in Ohio's 13th District, has cards of his own.
One card shows a young Gary alongside his older brother Frank in 1954, outside of 1377 E. 30th Street in Cleveland -- "one of 21 different places my family lived in, including a couple of cars," the card's back side says. "Times are tough today for many families. I know what it is like."
Another card, titled "Semper Fi" on the back, shows three men in uniform: Frank J. Kucinich Sr., Gary, and Gary Jr. Three generations of the family have served in the Marines.
"I enlisted in 1968 because I believe in honor, courage and commitment," the card says. It goes on to say that it's time to bring the troops home from Iraq -- time for honor, courage and commitment.
Politics is a lot like baseball, come to think of it. There are curves, fastballs -- and in the 13th District, a candidate, Capri Cafaro, who can buy the whole team and hire new umps.
But hey, she doesn't have cards. Batter up!
- Stephen Koff
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Flannery throws mud
The Democratic race for governor turned ugly today when long-shot candidate Bryan Flannery accused front-runner Ted Strickland of employing a sex offender on his congressional and campaign staffs, though he offered no proof to support his charge.
Flannery didn’t at first identify the Strickland employee, who Strickland said hasn't worked for him since 1999.
Flannery said in a statement that the employee is “a friend and political protégé on the taxpayer’s payroll who has plead (sic) guilty on at least four occasions of exposing himself to children” in Athens County.
Flannery’s campaign spokesman, Anthony Fossaceca, identified the employee but could not say when he worked for Strickland, though the statement implies that the man is still employed. The campaign provided one date on which the employee was arrested but no records to support it. Fossaceca said Flannery is satisfied the charges are true.
Flannery's statement said court records about the offender are missing and hinted that Strickland’s campaign might be involved in their disappearance. Flannery said he has asked the Athens County prosecutor to investigate “who might have had a hand in the disappearance of the records.”
Strickland said in an interview from Washington that during his 1998 re-election campaign he received an anonymous letter accusing a campaign employee, who had earlier worked on his congressional staff, of a exposing himself in public. Strickland said he confronted the employee, who denied the charge, and he let the matter drop. The employee left on his own accord around September 1999, Strickland said.
Asked why he didn’t check court records at the time he received the anonymous letter, Strickland said, “I don’t typically react to an anonymous letter in a heated campaign. I just dismissed it."
Strickland said he had “absolutely no knowledge” of the man's criminal background when he hired him in 1997 for his congressional staff.
Strickland refused to comment on Flannery’s decision to publicize the case.
“I don’t want to characterize what he has chooses to do,” he said.
--- Mark Naymik
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The peace and harmony campaign
They entered and left separately, but you shouldn't read anything into that because the other congressmen came and went separately too.
Sen. Mike DeWine and Rep. Sherrod Brown, political rivals, sat across the table from one another in a U.S. Capitol meeting room today. They not only got along, but agreed on the need for the entire Ohio congressional delegation to work together.
Of course, that delegation will exclude one of the two after this year's Senate election.
Meantime, DeWine, Brown, Sen. George Voinovich and Reps. Dennis Kucinich, Ralph Regula and various staffers gathered to meet with officials from NASA's Glenn Research Center and discuss how to fight NASA budget cuts.
The meeting, in an ornate Senate appropriations room, was closed to the press, but no one showed signs of animosity as they came, went and took breaks. Inside, says a source who was there, the talk was of unity and bipartisanship.
Maybe this will be the kumbaya campaign.
On second thought -- nah.
- Stephen Koff
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Washingtonienne hits HBO
The exploits of Jessica Cutler, who was fired from Sen. Mike DeWine's mailroom for using his office computer to write a blog about her sex life, are about to become the subject of a new HBO comedy.
The entertainment trade publication "Variety" reports that actress Sarah Jessica Parker will produce the half-hour comedy based on Cutler's "Washingtonienne" book. Her book was inspired by the "Washingtonienne" blog Cutler kept about her trysts with six men, several of whom paid her for sex. DeWine fired Cutler after her blog was publicized by the popular "Wonkette" website.
The project's screenwriter, Vanessa Taylor, told Variety that the character in Cutler's book is "both hedonistic and very pragmatic. She does what she wants, and if she can get something from it, terrific. (But) she's not using people brazenly. She just doesn't care what other people think."
Variety says there are no plans for Parker to act in the project, although Cutler will serve as a consultant. DeWine spokesman Mike Dawson declined comment on the show.
Don't expect to see DeWine's re-election ads on HBO.
--Sabrina Eaton
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Hackett does the Daily Show
Former Ohio Senate candidate Paul Hackett appeared in a spoof on running for office that was broadcast Tuesday night on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show."
It features a fake campaign video where Hackett boasts: “I believe we should take care of the environment. That’s why I’m standing in front of a river."
You can see the clip here and here
A colleague in Hackett's law office told The Plain Dealer the episode will be rebroadcast at 8 PM tonight.
-- Sabrina Eaton
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Teeing off on Bob Ney
Frustrated by his inability to get Rep. Bob Ney's attention, his Republican primary opponent, James Brodbelt Harris, is striving to communicate in a dialect Ney should understand. Call it "golfese."
Ney, of course, is the congressman who accepted a $166,000 golf trip to Scotland in 2002 that was financed by the Capital Athletic Foundation, a sham charity formed by Washington lobbyist Jack "We're f'ing gold!" Abramoff.
Ney recently informed the League of Women Voters of Athens County that he couldn't "accommodate" their request for a debate, even after the League offered him a choice of six dates.
So Harris is making this offer: "I’m willing to give him a mulligan on his recent refusal to debate me if he’ll get serious about some meeting times," Harris said in a news release. "And so long as he is not indicted of (sic) any crime against America, I am willing to offer him a handicap on the Abramoff issue during the length of any debate and to tee-off only on economic policy differences."
Harris also considers it "unmanly" for Ney to turn down an invitation from the League of Women Voters.
"That’s just not right," he said.
--Ted Wendling
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Petro's tuition plan
Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Petro will unveil a plan in the coming days to lower college tuition costs at public universities and community colleges by up to 30 percent.
Under his plan, the state would essentially "buy back" tuition by giving schools money that could be applied only to reducing tuition bills. Petro estimates the state will need to underwrite about $520 million of tuition costs in the next couple of years to bring Ohio’s education costs in line with national averages.
“Right now our tuition costs are 50 percent higher than the national average and within he next 36 months the state has to take states to bring tuition costs down to ensure access and affordability,” he told PD editors this week.
Petro claims his proposals to restructure state government and Medicaid will save the state $2 billion that could be invested in education. He’s already called for eliminating costly duplicative programs at the state’s universities.
-- Mark Naymik
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Hackett back in D.C.
Paul Hackett dropped out of the U.S. Senate race, but he's not dropping his interest in politics. Tomorrow, he'll appear at the National Press Club in Washington to endorse congressional candidates as part of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Political Action Committee. Hackett is on the PAC's board of advisors.
No Senate candidates will get the nod; it's strictly a House affair. That's not a Hackett knock on any particular Senate race (not that those have been lacking). Rather, "with Paul Hackett dropping out, there are no Senate candidates to endorse," says the PAC's Eric Schmeltzer. The PAC is only backing veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- Stephen Koff
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Mason jarred
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason's incredibly clumsy handling of the search for a candidate to oppose a judge he dislikes tends to confirm that gubernatorial frontrunner Ted Strickland made the right decision in bypassing Mason in favor of Lee Fisher as his running mate.
Mason supports Christine Agnello Russo in the May 2 Democratic primary against Cuyahoga Common Pleas Judge Ann Mannen - despite revelations by The Plain Dealer that Russo brings to the race considerable legal and personal baggage, including a conviction for drug abuse and and a tape recording in which she apparently complains she is tired of laundering a relative's drug money.
If Mason were Strickland's running mate, those revelations would have engulfed the presumptive Democratic gubernatorial ticket in a firestorem of controversy.
Many Mason supporters were stunned and angry when, on January 26, Strickland bypassed Mason for Fisher. But it's now clear their anger was misplaced.
There are only three possible explanations for why the top law enforcement official in Ohio's largest county would recruit a candidate of Russo's caliber:
1) He has horrible judgment.
2) He trusts people with horrible judgment.
3) Both.
--Brent Larkin
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Tuesday, March 14, 2006 | |
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Love is in the cards
He may not look much like Jim Thome or Coco Crisp, but Cleveland Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich has distributed baseball-card type photos of himself since he first ran for Congress. Vintage Kucinich cards show him posing with his high school football team and meeting Santa Claus in 1953. The latest bears Kucinich's glossy wedding photo emblazoned with the message: "We found each other." Its back contains the "Prayer to St. Francis" and notes that he and his bride, Elizabeth, recited it at their August 21 wedding. A grinning Kucinich passed them out to acquaintances Tuesday outside a Capitol Hill hearing.
--Sabrina Eaton
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Blackwell speaks
Gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell said he had a “frank and transparent discussion” today with members of the United Pastors in Mission, whose members peppered him with questions during a 90-minute luncheon at Cleveland's Antioch Baptist Church. The event was not open to reporters.
Blackwell, secretary of state and a black Republican, faced some obvious ones: Why blacks faced long lines in some parts of the state during the 2004 presidential election and how he could be a non-partisan election official while serving as honorary state co-chair for President Bush’s re-election campaign.
Blackwell noted that the head of the elections board in Franklin County -- which botched predictions about where voting machines would be needed, thus creating unconscionably long lines – is a black Democrat.
In an interview after the meeting, Blackwell said, “There was some lingering concerns about 2004,” but that he believes the group was satisfied with his explanations.
“For the majority of the people in the room, we put that to rest,” he said.
Rev. Otis Moss, the pastor of Cleveland’s Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, asked Blackwell if he believed President Bush’s economic policies are good for the black community. Blackwell didn’t answer directly but talked about better managing Ohio’s economy.
“Whether or not they felt any better about the president, they understand that I understood how economies work and that we can only control what we can control,” he said after the meeting.
Blackwell also faced questions about his controversial plan to limit state spending.
Blackwell said he was not asked about his close association with conservative ministers in Ohio or his support of a ban on gay marriage, although he acknowledged that the issues have been raised elsewhere by Rev. Marvin McMickle, an active member of the group and pastor of Antioch.
Blackwell thanked the Democratic-leaning group, which has not endorsed in the race for governor, for the chance to lay out his plans. He said their meeting contributed to “the recreation of a competitive two-party system – where no party can take you for granted.”
Two ministers attending could not be reached for comment.
-- Mark Naymik
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Courting the NRA
A Republican House member who hopes to move to the Senate is currying favor with the powerful National Rifle Association by seeking passage of a law to expand the acceptable use of deadly force.
Under current law, the so-called "castle doctrine" states that most people who intrude into into a home can be justifiably shot by residents. Rep. Steve Buehrer wants to extend the doctrine to intruders who enter an occupied car.
The NRA has been pushing similar proposals nationwide, arguing that the change would tilt laws in favor of victims. Critics maintain that the change would open the door to more violence.
Buehrer's office circulated a memo seeking co-sponors for his soon-to-introduced bill. The memo went to all 99 House members - plus one lobbyist, the NRA's John Hohenwarter.
The Senate seat Buehrer hopes to capture favors Republicans, but he first must win a primary against fellow House member, Rep. Jim Hoops. The NRA is expected to be a key player in the primary battle.
--Sandy Theis
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Blackwell bars reporters
Ken Blackwell’s appearance before an influential group of Cleveland’s religious leaders drew plenty of attention from television and newspaper reporters, who were interested in hearing the conservative black Republican answer questions from the traditionally Democratic-leaning group.
The problem: Blackwell didn’t want reporters to hear the exchange. He offered interviews after the event but refused to let them attend the session with the United Pastors in Mission.
Rev. Marvin McMickle, whose Antioch Baptist Church hosted the event, said he had no problem with letting the reporters listen. But Blackwell did, noting to reporters before the meeting that their presence might inhibit ministers from speaking freely. (Anybody who has ever attended one of the group’s meetings knows its members never hold back in front of reporters.)
But there’s another possible reason for Blackwell’s position: Some members of the group, wary of his conservative policies and close association with right-wing evangelical ministers, might have grilled him pretty hard during the meeting.
-- Mark Naymik
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Monday, March 13, 2006 | |
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No capri pants?
Capri Cafaro has prompted the creation of a new clothing line, but it offers nothing that the Youngstown shopping mall heiress would wear.
Coventry Township artist Karen Kilroy is selling a wide range of garments and other items emblazoned with the phrase "Anybody But Capri." Items for sale include T-shirts, bumper stickers, sweatshirts and even an Anybody But Capri thong.
Cafaro, a Democrat, is running for election to the 13th congressional district seat. Kilroy thinks that a preoccupation with Cafaro's substantial wealth is limiting discussions among the other candidates about issues such as the war in Iraq.
"I think she should go home," Kilroy said.
Vic Rubenstein, Cafaro's spokesman, said the anti-Cafaro items are bizarre.
"It's horrible," Rubenstein said. He said he suspects Republicans or liberal Democrats who think Cafaro is too moderate are behind the derisive duds.
Kilroy said she designed a website for John Wolfe, a Democrat running for the same seat, but she said she is not aligned with any candidate.
"I did this all by myself," she said. The items are for sale on the net through a company called cafepress.com.
- Steve Luttner
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Take me; no, take me
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland and his running mate, Lee Fisher, got a chance to preach to about 15 mostly black ministers during an informal breakfast Monday morning at the Cleveland Playhouse.
The Democrats were eager to sell their ticket before Republican Ken Blackwell meets a larger group of clergy Tuesday.
The United Pastors in Mission, a group of leaders from 50 churches in Cleveland, invited Blackwell to talk. A conservative black politician, Blackwell hopes to win over the socially conservative but traditionally Democratic-leaning ministers.
Several of the group's key leaders did not attend Monday's morning meeting. The group has not endorsed any candidate and likely will hold a formal meeting with Strickland at a later date.
-- Mark Naymik
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Pierce gets fierce
Republican Senate candidate Bill Pierce has laid claim to the support of anti-DeWine Republicans by attacking conservative rival David Smith as a carpetbagger who has run in three states since 2002.
Pierce says Smith, a Procter & Gamble finance manager from Cincinnati's suburbs, ran for Congress in Utah in 2002, Tennessee in 2004 and Ohio's 2nd District last year. He wants Smith to drop out of the GOP Senate primary, which would give him a solo shot at Mike DeWine. A third anti-DeWine Republican, John Mitchel of Beavercreek, quit the race late last week.
Smith, who is en route to the Lake County Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner tonight, confirmed during a cell-phone conversation that he ran in Tennessee in 2004. He said he never appeared on the ballot in Utah in 2002, but did flirt with running for Congress in that state.
''He's got a lot of venom towards us,'' Smith said of Pierce. ''He's upset and he's started taking shots at us.''
Smith said he's moved around the country a lot because of job transfers. Pierce said he's not slinging mud, just pointing out that Smith has lived in Ohio for only a year.
''We have to stop beating around the bush on this issue -- it is real,'' Pierce said.
--Bill Sloat
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Strickland goes broadband
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland proposed today to connect Ohio’s poorest communities to the Internet by increasing use of existing high-speed fiber-optic lines that run around the state but remain largely “dark,” or unused.
His proposal, dubbed the “Ohio NextGen Network,” would increase access to the Internet network owned and used by Ohio’s research universities, which use only a small fraction of the network’s capacity to transmit information.
Strickland said the state would have to spend about $50 million to create access to this network in counties that lack what are often referred to as on-ramps to the information highway. He proposed selling bonds through Ohio’s high-tech Third Frontier initiative to pay for the program.
Strickland said extending the state’s network would allow private Internet carries to piggyback on the state’s infrastructure. To reach rural customers, Strickland proposed making available another $50 million -- through the sale of bonds -- to private companies willing to connect to the most remote areas.
Strickland’s proposal includes creating a new state agency to coordinate the purchase of high-speed access by its myriad of offices and departments. By renegotiating the purchase price of Internet access from private companies, the state will save between $20 and $40 million over the next four years. And by linking to the expanded state network, local governments and Ohio's court system, which is trying to create its own Internet system, could collectively save up to $60 million over next five years, Strickland said.
--Mark Naymik
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Blackwell suit dismissed
A federal judge in Columbus has thrown out a lawsuit accusing Secretary of State Ken Blackwell of violating the federal Family and Medical Leave Act when he laid off 15 call-center employees in 2004.
In a ruling issued Friday, U.S. District Judge Gregory L. Frost dismissed charges that Blackwell laid off the employees and outsourced their jobs to RDI Marketing Services because he was upset about the high rate of absenteeism in the office.
Blackwell, who is running for governor, argued that he subcontracted out the work -- which involved answering questions about incorporating businesses, corporate liens and other matters -- after a consultant's report determined that he could save $250,000 a year. The employees then filed a complaint with the Department of Labor, which determined that the layoffs were not improper or retaliatory.
Frost's ruling says eight of the 15 employees had used FMLA leave before their layoffs, but that none were on FMLA leave on Aug. 6, 2004, the day they were terminated. The FMLA provides workers with up to 12 weeks a year of paid leave for serious health conditions that render them unable to perform their jobs.
--Ted Wendling
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Mitchel bows out
Former Air Force Lt. Col. John Mitchel, who received nearly 200,000 GOP votes in 2004 as a conservative insurgent versus Sen. George Voinovich, has abandoned his quest to unseat Sen. Mike DeWine in the May 2 Republican primary.
Mitchel lives in DeWine's home county and is a member of the Greene County GOP central committee. He has always enjoyed pointing out that he spent less than $300, including his $150 filing fee, to roll up that big anti-Voinovich vote in 2004. He considers Voinovich and DeWine as "RINOs" -- Republicans in name only.
This year, however, he wasn't drawing much notice on the campaign trail, and finally posted word of his withdrawal on his web site. He did not endorse either Bill Pierce or David Smith, the two anti-DeWine candidates still in the race, but he thinks one should quickly follow him to the sidelines so DeWine's foes can find someone to rally behind.
''Unless one withdraws soon, it's likely the status quo will remain in place,'' Mitchel said.
--Bill Sloat
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Friday, March 10, 2006 | |
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Backing Blackwell
When Ken Blackwell, a Republican and the only black candidate for governor, meets with Cleveland’s influential black clergy next week, Alexandria Johnson Boone is certain to be lurking about.
Boone, a local flack, contacted black members of the press this week to promote Blackwell's visit before the United Pastors in Mission, a group of leaders from 50 churches in the Democratic stronghold of Cleveland.
Boone’s news release said “short private interviews and photo opportunities with Ken Blackwell are possible” and she asked reporters to RSVP.
So, is Boone working for Blackwell? When asked directly, she dodged. In a follow-up interview, she tried to clarify.
“I’m a concerned citizen that’s volunteering to help because I have great respect for Ken,” Boone said.
Blackwell’s campaign did not return several calls asking for an explanation.
-- Mark Naymik
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No surprise
Former Oklahoma Congressman J.C. Watts praised Secretary of State Ken Blackwell Thursday night at the Grove City Church of the Nazarene.
“I believe America is looking for an official -– a Ken Blackwell kind of official -- that is confortable in his own skin,” he said.
Watts was the guest of the Ohio Restoration Project, an affiliate of the Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster, which has honored Blackwell for backing 2004’s constitutional ban on gay-marriage.
Mindful of the attention the Ohio Restoration Project has attracted from critics, who say it is mixing religion and politics too closely, Watts waited until he left the church to endorse his longtime friend.
In statement released Friday by Blackwell’s campaign, Watts said what was clearly implied Thursday, “"Ken is a true conservative, who will protect the family and the taxpayer in everything he does as governor.”
-- Mark Naymik
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The hidden hand?
Some Republicans see the hand of Cleveland's liberal icon Dennis Kucinich behind a news story in The Hill this week that ripped U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt.
Kucinich's daughter, Jackie, a reporter at the Capitol Hill weekly, dredged up some juicy comments Schmidt made as a 32-year-old delegate to the GOP national convention in 1984.
Schmidt, now 54, was quoted comparing young Republicans to Hitlerites, bashed Elizabeth Dole and said she wanted to be an aerobics instructor like Jane Fonda, who was then cranking out hit exercise videos.
Jackie Kucinich's recounting of Schmidt's 22-year-old remarks triggered conspiracy theories from some GOP rightists, who seemed to think that Dennis used his daughter to smack Schmidt, who is in a tough primary contest in Ohio's 2nd Congressional District.
Some right-leaning blogs today noted that Jackie Kucinich once worked at The Nation, a decidedly left-leaning publication, but others suggested Schmidt's foes in Cincinnati fed Jackie Kucinich the 1984 story in order to help former Rep. Bob McEwen, her primary opponent.
--Bill Sloat
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Republicans to strike first?
Republican strategists have formed a new special-interest group with the express purpose of influencing Ohio’s statewide elections this year.
The Arlington Virginia-based group, Promoting American Values for Everyone, organized Feb. 24, according records filed with the Internal Revenue Service.
Edward Brookover, a Republican consultant and former political director of the National Republican Congressional Committee, will head the new group, according to IRS records. The group’s primary purpose: “to impact state elections in Ohio.”
While it only exists on paper at the moment, the group will likely raise money to air commercials critical of Democrats. Special-interest groups, mostly Democratic-leaning, poured millions of dollars into Ohio to influence the 2004 presidential election.
Though the groups are prohibited by law from coordinating activities with specific candidates, they are often just as partisan.
-- Mark Naymik
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Internal polls, for what they're worth
Tom Sawyer might wish that the Democratic primary election in the 13th congressional district would be held today instead of May 2.
His campaign says a recent poll by Global Strategy Group shows Sawyer - a former Akron mayor and congressman - leading the race with 36 percent of the vote, followed by 11 percent for Youngstown shopping mall heiress Capri Cafaro and 10 percent for Elyria Mayor Bill Grace.
Cafaro hired Zogby International to do a poll for her, and it shows the well-known Sawyer winning if the race were held today. But her people report that the poll also shows those polled are much more supportive of Cafaro when the pollster explained her campaign platform to them. In that case, she reportedly got 50 percent of the vote, compared to 17 percent for Sawyer.
Cafaro has loads of cash for campaign ads that will run between now and election day. Vic Rubenstein, Cafraro's campaign spokesman, predicts she will win the Democratic primary with 43 percent of the vote.
--Steve Luttner
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Scandal redux
Rob Steinbuch, a former aide to Sen. Mike DeWine who played a lead role in a 2004 sex scandal that captivated Capitol Hill, was back in Washington today to testify before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on defective products.
Steinbuch’s trysts with co-worker Jessica Cutler were described in explicit detail on the infamous “Washingtonienne” blog that landed Cutler a book deal after her raunchy musings were publicized and DeWine fired her.
After filing a lawsuit against Cutler for violating his privacy by revealing his sexual penchants on the blog, Steinbuch moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he is an Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas’ William H. Bowen School of Law.
Steinbuch, who now sports a salt and pepper beard, advocated imposing criminal penalties on corporate executives who knowingly approve the sale of harmful products "with reckless disregard for life."
His lawsuit seeking damages from Cutler is pending in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
-- Sabrina Eaton
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Thursday, March 09, 2006 | |
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Dual endorsement
Both Republican candidates for governor were endorsed by Ohio Right to Life today, but Attorney General Jim Petro was the first to get word of it to the media, with a press release citing the endorsement and touting himself as "the only candidate for Governor with a pro-life record of accomplishments."
Secretary of State Ken Blackwell followed up about an hour later with his own release, which included pointed reminders to pro-life voters of Petro's "all too recent pro-choice past," including Petro's endorsement in 1998 by NARAL.
Interestingly, Petro mentioned in the first paragraph of his release that the endorsement went to both candidates; Blackwell buried that information well down in his.
--Ed.
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Betty beats Tim
Republican candidates for attorney general used vastly different strategies Wednesday night in their attempts to win the Cuyahoga County party's endorsement.
State auditor Betty Montgomery, the former attorney general, stood before several hundred insiders and delivered an emotional but nuanced speech opposing abortion that one party member described as “being all over the map.”
Grendell, a state senator from Chester Township and the more conservative of the two, didn’t bother playing the values card. He played the Cleveland card, noting he attended the area's St. Ignatius High School, John Carroll University, and Case Western Reserve University’s law school.
State party chairman Bob Bennett spoke on Montgomery’s behalf. He said she deserved the endorsement for her loyalty to the party, noting how she knocked off then-Democrat Attorney General Lee Fisher in 1994 when no other Republican would run.
In the end, Montgomery won the endorsement by voice vote, though Grendell had his share of vocal supporters.
The party didn’t hear from the gubernatorial candidates: it had already backed current Attorney General Jim Petro. The party also earlier endorsed former county party chairman and state representative Jim Trakas for secretary of state. He faces Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Greg Hartmann in the primary.
In Ohio’s race for treasurer, incumbent Jennette Bradley, whose progressive views on social issues have turned off some party members, won the endorsement over conservative Sandra O’Brien of Ashtabula.
-- Mark Naymik
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Bush to visit Cleveland
President Bush has scheduled a March 20 appearance at the City Club in Cleveland, a Washington source says.
Developing .....
-- Sabrina Eaton
UPDATE:
Republican sources who requested anonymity because the White House hasn’t officially announced the trip said Bush plans to deliver a speech focusing on the fight against terrorism. A City Club spokeswoman referred questions on the appearance to the White House, where a Bush spokeswoman said the president’s schedule hasn’t been released.
Bush’s most recent Ohio visit was on Feb. 23 when he attended a $4,200-a-ticket fundraiser for Sen. Mike DeWine in Cincinnati. On Feb. 15, the president was in Ohio promoting health savings accounts in a speech at the Dublin headquarters of Wendy’s restaurants.
The Cleveland trip would be his 41st public appearance in Ohio since taking office, according to a tally compiled by the Ohio Republican Party. The last president to address the City Club was Bill Clinton, who made an October 1994 speech on the economy, says club spokeswoman Missy Toms.
-- Sabrina Eaton
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A news blackout?
Republican Senate candidate Bill Pierce, a conservative unknown who has gotten some traction in rural Ohio against Sen Mike DeWine, thinks he's become the victim of a news blackout.
He says it has been imposed by some of the largest newspapers in southern Ohio, including his hometown Cincinnati Enquirer, which has yet to mention he's won some county GOP endorsements.
''They're ignoring a challenge to Mike DeWine and they are ignoring the challenger who is making inroads,'' Pierce said, adding that only reporters from The Plain Dealer and the Toledo Blade, plus several political bloggers, have taken time to cover his race. He said he is canceling his subscription to the Enquirer.
Pierce said the lack of attention in southern Ohio means the area of the state holding the most Republicans ''has been left in the dark, and that the news blackout continues the assault on fair and balanced reporting."
--Bill Sloat
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"Abramoff's fixer"
That's how U.S. Rep. Bob Ney is described in Vanity Fair's new article about disgraced superlobbyist Jack Abramoff.
So why has Ney, widely understood as the "Representative No. 1" mentioned in Abramoff's indictment and other court documents, still not been publicly targeted?
"Rather than go after Ney immediately," author David Margolick writes, "prosecutors appear to be encircling him...."
Also featured: U.S. Rep. John Boehner, the House majority leader.
--Ed.
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Wednesday, March 08, 2006 | |
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No endorsement
Butler County voters are so Republican they handed President Bush nearly half his 113,000-vote Ohio margin of victory over Sen. John Kerry in 2004. It is the home base of House Majority Leader John Boehner, and a pledge of support later this month from the county's powerhouse GOP would have been an important coup for Ken Blackwell or Jim Petro in their primary battle.
But there won't be an endorsement issued in this Republican bastion. Scott Owens, executive director of the county party, said Wednesday the organization is staying neutral in all statewide races, including Sen. Mike DeWine's contest and the Blackwell/Petro gubernatorial brawl.
Owens said the party would have had to change its bylaws to make endorsements. It had planned to issue some later this month, but abandoned the process.
For Blackwell and Petro, it's a wash. But neutrality is clearly a setback for darkhorse Senate hopeful Bill Pierce, a conservative Republican who thought he might have a chance of nailing down support from the party leadership in Butler County.
How so? Pierce had already beaten DeWine in nearby Clermont County, which delivered almost as many votes for Bush as Butler in November 2004. He felt it was a sign that conservative Cincinnati-area Republicans are tilting against the senator.
If so, neutrality is probably good news for DeWine, who won't have to risk another embarrassing loss in Southwest Ohio, the state's GOP heartland.
--Bill Sloat
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Capri, Janet, whatever
Congressional candidate Capri Cafaro, who joked in a campaign ad about legally changing her name to "shopping center heiress," actually changed her name to "Capri" as a teenager.
The future politico was called Janet (pronounced Jan-AY) at birth by her parents, but found that name too close to that of her sister, Renee, and her mother, Janet, whose name is pronounced more conventionally, says spokesman Vic Rubenstein.
Rubenstein says Cafaro's friends began calling her "Capri" when she was about 13, and that she legally changed it as a teenager, before attending college.
"She just got the nickname Capri from her friends, and nobody seems to know how that happened," Rubenstein explained.
Cafaro, who seeks the Democratic party's nomination for the congressional seat currently held by Sherrod Brown, was a colorful youngster, if early press clippings about her are to be believed. While attending a July 1986 "Money Management Camp for Kids" at the luxurious Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, she was mentioned in the New York Times, St. Petersburg Times and on ABC's "World News Tonight."
"My name is pronounced JanAY," Janet Cafaro of Youngstown, Ohio told the St. Petersburg Times. "And, yes, my father is rich."
The article continues: "Janet-pronounced-JanAY, 10, made a grand entrance at the Breakers Thursday wearing hot-pink shorts, hot-pink socks, and hot-pink shirt, all infested with rhinestones and sequins. Her eyes were hidden behind rhinestone Madonna sunglasses. She wore Elvis Presley rhinestone collar tabs. She had sequins on her sneakers."
When ABC reporter Al Dale asked young Cafaro "What does having money mean?" she replied: "Well, it means you have power. It means you can do mostly whatever you want with it."
"Some day, I would like to buy Walt Disney World for myself," she told him.
Although Cafaro currently lists her birthday as November 21 1977, which would have made her eight years old in July, 1986, she told ABC and the St. Petersburg Times that she was 10. The St. Petersburg piece indicated the camp did not accept children under age 10.
Cafaro issued a statement today that indicated she doesn't recall telling the news outlets that she was 10 years old, and doubts most people can remember everything they said as children.
"The bottom line is that I don't recall a time in American politics where a candidate has been attacked for something he or she did or said when they were eight years old," her statement said.
"The voters won't be judging me by where I went to summer camp, how old I was when I was there, or the choices my parents made for me as a child. They'll evaluate me for who I am today and what I can do to shape tomorrow for our working families, our senior citizens, our veterans and our youngest children."
- Sabrina Eaton
UPDATE: Read Capri Cafaro's statement to The Plain Dealer about her name change.
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No Luck for Noe
Beleaguered former coin dealer Tom Noe lost another round today when Ohio Supreme Court Justice Thomas Moyer denied Noe's request to disqualify every judge in Lucas County from hearing his case.
Looking at both sides of the coin, Noe, a prodigious Republican fundraiser, claimed the judges were all either political enemies or political friends, depending on their parties of choice.
A grand jury indicted Noe, a former Toledo-area resident and chairman of the Lucas County GOP, on 53 felony counts connected to his managment of the $50 million investment in rare coins held by the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation.
Judge Thomas Osowik, assigned to the case, denied having any bias or prejudice. James Bates, the administrative judge for the Lucas County court, also rejected the claims on behalf of all the other judges on the bench.
Moyer said that Noe's use of the term "political enemies" to describe Osowik and other Lucas County judges "perhaps reflects the defendant's own views about the judges, but it tells us nothing about Judge Osowik's views of the defendant."
Osowik immediately scheduled a hearing for 9 a.m. March 17, St. Patrick's Day.
--T.C. Brown
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Talkin' dirty in the 18th
With all of the FBI agents he's got nipping at his heels these days, Rep. Bob Ney has a lot to worry about. But he's got one persistent political chihuahua who won't let go of his pant leg.
James Brodbelt Harris, a Zanesville financial analyst who has never held public office but is running against Ney in the 18th Ohio Congressional District primary, is growling about a dismissive comment Ney's spokesman made to the Chillicothe Gazette about Harris' Ohio roots.
After Harris claimed credit for pressuring Ney to vote Tuesday to renew the USA Patriot Act, Ney's spokesman, Brian Walsh, told the Gazette: "Congressman Ney could not even tell you which borough of New York City Mr. Harris has been living in the last 10 years before moving to Ohio, let alone where he stands on particular pieces of legislation."
In high dudgeon, Harris dashed off a news release today, proclaiming that he "nearly missed being targeted by Arab terrorists" because he was scheduled to attend a meeting of the New York Society of Securities Analysts at the World Trade Center on the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001.
He went on to commend New York as "a great American city," trashed "our horrific enemies" and concluded with this: "I shall never allow any politician to get away with questioning my enormous Ohio roots."
Obviously, this campaign has descended into the gutter.
- Ted Wendling
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Larkin's view
Sen. George Voinovich's curious obsession with raising funds for a possible re-election campaign in 2010 is leaving the impression with many Republicans that he cares more about his own political fortunes than he does about the GOP's struggle to retain the governorship and Ohio's other U.S. Senate seat.
At a time when Sen. Mike DeWine, the Republican candidates for governor and other GOP officeholders are in very real danger of defeat and desperately need campaign funds, Voinovich continues to shake the Republican money tree.
Voinovich seems oblivious to the fact it might be polite to wait until after the Nov. 7 election. This week, he sent out yet another fundraising letter - even though his term doesn't expire until the end of 2010.
Voinovich has not said he will seek re-election to a third term, but has been aggressively raising money since last year. At the end of a third term, Strom Voinovich would be in his 81st year.
--Brent Larkin
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Brunner throws the gauntlet
Ohio Democrats, led by their Secretary of State candidate Jennifer Brunner, appear to be preparing a court fight to overturn a new state law that forces voters to show some kind of ID to cast a ballot.
The requirement takes effect June 1, but would not really come into play until the November general election.
Brunner is a former Franklin County Common Pleas Court judge who wants to succeed Ken Blackwell as the state's top election official. Last weekend, she told a roomful of party regulars at a candidate;s forum in Clermont County that requiring IDs at the polls is a Republican effort to intimidate voters loyal to her party, and said she would sue to stop it.
''It's voter discrimination, it's voter suppression'' Brunner said. ''I will be fighting in court to make sure it doesn't happen."
She said those most affected will be the poor, residents of nursing homes and college students, whose campus identity cards aren't legal IDs under the new law. A driver's license will work, as will a paycheck, bank statement, utility bill stub or any government document with a name and address.
Brunner said Blackwell and the Republicans stopped Democrats from voting in 2004 in order to help President Bush carry Ohio, and that the new law is designed to help them hold the state in 2006.
''Ken Blackwell did everything he could to stop people from voting,'' she said.
--Bill Sloat
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Tuesday, March 07, 2006 | |
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Dropping hot potatoes
House Majority Leader John Boehner hasn't yet taken a stance on whether a Dubai company should manage key ports in the United States despite telling reporters what he'd like to see happen with the controversial deal:
"I would like to see it go away," the Republican from West Chester told a press conference this afternoon, predicting his colleagues will address the issue in an upcoming funding bill. "We are into one of those situations that has become a very hot political potato."
When queried about another hot political potato, lobbying reform, Boehner declared that he opposes a proposal floated in the U.S. Senate that would establish an independent public integrity office to oversee congressional ethics.
"I think Members are in the best position to judge other Members, just like journalists are in the best position to judge other journalists, and engineers to judge other engineers," Boehner said.
-- Sabrina Eaton
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Republicans are people, too
Capri Cafaro presents herself as a true Democrat who is a friend of the working man and woman, but there was a time when she circulated among some powerful Republicans.
The 28-year-old Youngstown shopping mall heiress is a Democratic candidate for the 13th congressional district seat. When she was in high school she worked briefly in the office of Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House who the Almanac of American Politics described as an "insistent, impolite and persistent battering ram" who butted heads with the Clinton Administration.
Her father, J.J. Cafaro, has contributed to Democrats and Republicans. In 2001 he gave $100,000 to help pay for President Bush's inauguration. In 1993 he held a 50th birthday party for Gingrich at an expansive Cafaro house in suburban Washington, D.C. A spokesman for Capri Cafaro said Tuesday that she studied both sides of the aisle as a youth, but ultimately decided to become a Democrat. "She is a proud Democrat," the spokesman said. "She is passionate about who government must serve - our seniors, our working men and women, our veterans and our young children."
-- Steve Luttner
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Taking one for the party
Democrats will avoid another costly primary in a statewide election this year now that Mahoning County treasurer John Reardon has decided to drop out of the auditor's race. That leaves state Rep. Barbara Sykes of Akron as the lone Democratic candidate for the post.
In a one-page release that does not mention Sykes, Reardon said his decision was difficult but "a necessary move for party unity." He said he didn't think it was wise to engage in an expensive primary, which might weaken Democrats in the run up to November. Reardon pledged his support for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland "and the rest of the Democratic slate."
Ohio Democratic Party Chair Chris Redfern called Reardon a "team player" who "sometime in the future will make an excellent statewide elected official."
There are two Republican candidates for auditor.
- Reginald Fields
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A miscommunication?
An influential House colleague has asked U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt to stop claiming he's ''endorsed" her as she campaigns in a tough fight for the Republican nomination in Ohio's 2nd Congressional along the Ohio River.
Schmidt's website says she has the backing of Rep. Tom Tancredo, a Colorado Republican who heads the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus. But Tancredo's spokesman says that's flat out wrong.
''We do not customarily endorse congressional candidates and we did not endorse Congresswoman Schmidt,'' said Will Adams, who added that the Schmidt camp has been asked to pull the claim off its website.
No word yet from the Schmidt camp to explain what might have happened.
But Adams said Schmidt met with Tancredo last week and joined his immigration caucus. That might be where she got the impression he was supporting her in the May 2 primary against former U.S. Rep. Bob McEwen.
"It definitely appears to be a miscommunication,'' Adams said. As for McEwen: Adams said Tancredo's not backing him, either. "We'll follow our custom of not endorsing,'' he said.
- Bill Sloat
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LaTourette's 5th
Concord Township Republican Rep. Steve LaTourette and his wife, Jennifer, celebrated the birth of a daughter on March 1. It is the fifth child for LaTourette, who has four children from a previous marriage.
Emerson LaTourette showed up at George Washington University Hospital at 5:12 p.m. She weighed in at 7.08 lbs, and was 19.5 inches long. The family plans to call her "Emma," said LaTourette spokeswoman Debbie Setliff.
"Everybody is happy and healthy," Setliff said.
LaTourette was back at work the next morning leading a group from Mayfield Middle School on a tour of the House of Representatives, even though Cleveland Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich volunteered to substitute for him if he couldn't make it, Setliff said.
- Sabrina Eaton
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Blackwell in the house
Ken Blackwell, the state’s top conservative Republican and a candidate for governor, will have a chance to sell himself to a group of influential religious leaders in the heart of Democratic territory next week.
United Pastors in Mission, a group of leaders from about 50 Cleveland-area churches, is holding a private question-and-answer session with Blackwell on March 14 at Cleveland’s Antioch Baptist Church.
Rev. Marvin McMickle, Antioch’s pastor, said the group is also inviting other area clergy to attend. Though McMickle, a Democrat, has been friendly toward Blackwell, he said the meeting is not an endorsement but a chance “to create a dialogue” with him.
-- Mark Naymik
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Static for DeWine
Things have still gotten a bit bumpy for Republican Sen. Mike DeWine across pockets of rural Ohio as he campaigns for reelection.
Two county GOP organizations have voted not to formally endorse the senator, and another has agreed his unknown opponent is equally qualified for the job.
Bill Pierce, a conservative math teacher and engineer who hopes to rise from political obscurity, tied with DeWine in Preble County last Thursday, which means the county executive committee there has officially chosen not to support the sitting senator. Preble County is on the Indiana line west of Dayton and might best be described as solid Midwestern farm country.
Earlier, Pierce picked up the county endorsement in Knox County, and he was rated ''highly qualified" by the Clermont County GOP. In Clermont, Pierce actually received more votes than DeWine and fell just a few short of the number needed for a full endorsement.
''I never thought I would get support and help within the party structure,'' says Pierce, admitting he's slightly amazed that he's been able to ding DeWine.
''So far, I've gone head-to-head with him four times and come out on top twice, tied once and lost in Miami County."
--Bill Sloat
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Monday, March 06, 2006 | |
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Can you slander a scorpion?
Fresh from the stranger-than-fiction court blotter, we bring you this lawsuit, filed today in Franklin County Common Pleas Court:
Danny's Gold Fox Inc., dba Danny's Gold Fox Show Bar v. Phil Burress and Citizens for Community Values.
The charge? That Burress, Ohio's relentless anti-pornography crusader and all-around cultural bluenose, slandered the Columbus-based "adult-entertainment" club when he told the Kentucky Post in 2004 that strip bars are "fronts for prostitution, drug laundering, drug use and other sorts of criminal activity."
The suit also accuses Burress of slandering the entire strip-club industry when he told the Cleveland Free Times later that year that "there are no strip bars in Ohio or any other state where there's not something illegal going on inside them."
Wonder how Burress knows that? He's a self-professed "recovering porn addict" who says he ruined his first two marriages because of his infatuation with smut.
Wonder also how Burress' comments injured the sensitive folks at Danny's Gold Fox? Well, the lawsuit doesn't say exactly, although it does claim that Burress' false statements and the "values in action" briefings he's posted on his Web site "have adversely affected plaintiff's business interests and reputations."
Danny's is asking for more than $100,000 in damages.
--Ted Wendling
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My boss made me do it
Thomas Swidarski, the new chief executive of Diebold Inc., whose subsidiary makes electronic voting machines, said he will not play politics like the company’s former leader, Wally O’Dell.
O’Dell, who resigned last December, was a top fund-raiser for President Bush. He ignited a national controversy when he promised in a 2003 fund-raising letter to help “Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president,” a phrase that caused election officials and voters to question the company’s integrity.
Swidarski, a long-time Diebold executive, said he will not contribute to politicians and forbids his top executives from doing so either.
So how does he explain the $2,000 he contributed to Bush’s re-election campaign? In essence: His boss made him do it.
“There was someone running the company who was a major fund-raiser and let’s leave it at that,” Swidarski said Monday.
Swidarski said he had not given money to a politician before the 2004 election and has not contributed to anyone since.
Diebold Election Systems, which makes voting machines and other related equipment, is Diebold’s smallest business division, generating about 3 percent of its revenues. Swidarski wouldn’t say whether Diebold – one of the world’s largest automated teller machine makers -- was committed to staying in the voting business.
“I can’t answer those things right now,” he said. "I am in the process of taking a look at all aspects of our business."
-- Mark Naymik
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Bob Ney's French kiss
Sacre bleu! Is Bob Ney cozying up to the French?
In 2003, the Ohio congressman helped gin up anti-French fervor in the U.S. over France's opposition to the war in Iraq by ordering that french fries served in the House cafeterias be renamed "freedom fries." Now he wants to put the mug of a Frenchman on a commemorative U.S. silver dollar.
Ney is the co-sponsor of a bill that would honor Louis Braille, the blind Frenchman who invented the Braille Code. Passage of the bill would require the U.S. Mint to issue 400,000 silver dollars in 2009 -- the centennial of Braille's death -- bearing the likeness of Braille on one side and the word "braille" written in the Braille code on the other. Money raised from a surcharge would go to the National Federation of the Blind.
What's next? Letting a company from the United Arab Emirates operate U.S. ports?
-- Ted Wendling
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Jobs and regress
Four-term GOP Gov. James A. "Jobs and Progress" Rhodes claimed (and his success seemed to confirm) the one issue voters really cared about was "jobs" – and who in Columbus was creating them.
One Rhodes trophy was the Honda complex northwest of Columbus, America’s first Japanese-owned auto plant when it opened in 1982. Now, ranked by the company’s number of Ohio employees, Honda is Ohio’s 10th-largest employer, outranking even Ford and Procter & Gamble.
If – despite guns-gays-abortion rhetoric – jobs remain the Ohio issue, Republicans may be in trouble this November. According to George Zeller of Cleveland’s Center for Community Solutions, in a telling if grim report, "December 2005 was the 117th consecutive month when Ohio's job growth was below the USA national average. This is by far the longest streak of sub-par Ohio job growth in the history of job statistics in the United States."
— Thomas Suddes
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The high-flying life of a congressman
Have you ever flown on a Gulfstream or a Learjet? If the answer is yes, you're doing extraordinarily well in life -- or you're a congressman.
It's no secret that certain congressmen like the high-flying, fine-dining, great-golfing life, as The Plain Dealer has detailed before. Now PoliticalMoneyLine has examined congressional use of corporate aircraft from 2001 to 2005. Not surprisingly, Rep. Mike Oxley of Findlay came in second among incumbent congressmen, following only Roy Blunt of Missouri.
Oxley has reimbursed companies $108,710 for the use of their jets. That's a good deal for him, since reimbursement rules don't cover what it really costs to operate a jet.
Oxley, a 13-term Republican, is leaving Congress at the end of the year. Bidding for his services in the private sector should be intense and he already has friends on Wall Street, since he is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. All kinds of job offers are probable -- even one that comes with a car and a corporate jet.
- Stephen Koff
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Sloppy seconds
James Brodbelt Harris, a financial analyst from Zanesville, continues to delight political and linguistic wonks with the "I-may-be-a-nobody-but-I'm-better-than-Bob" campaign he's running against U.S. Rep. Bob Ney in Ohio's 18th congressional district.
In a news release he sent out today, the 36-year-old neophyte issued this clarion call to state and national GOP leaders: "If Ney is indicted, then endorse me."
Harris notes that state GOP Chairman Bob Bennett has already said Ney should resign if he is indicted in the continuing Jack Abramoff public corruption investigation: "The Ohio Republican Party has honorably issued a statement drawing a political line in the sands of integrity. We Republicans of Ohio will not support an incumbent who is charged with a federal felony by a Republican administration. . . .
"I personally think Ney should retire now, but if my opponent is charged with a felony, then it will be obvious to all that Ney must step down -- and I would expect all officials of the Republican Party to stand behind me as I fight for our party’s future and our state’s honor.”
We're nominating "political line in the sands of integrity" for the primary season's Tortured Syntax Award.
--Ted Wendling
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Boehner repeats himself
When the Cincinnati Enquirer put together a ''special report" Sunday on the No Child Left Behind Act, House Majority Leader John Boehner was asked to contribute an op-ed piece about the law.
Boehner is a powerful Republican from suburban Cincinnati who pushed No Child Left Behind through Congress. His bylined article ran under a six-column headline across an entire page that proclaimed, 'No Child' act historic shift for America.'
But what Boehner delivered for the Enquirer wasn't news and certainly wasn't original. He had already written the same piece 26 months earlier for TruthNews, which bills itself as a Christian-operated Internet news magazine.
The Enquirer wanted Boehner ''to react to the findings of our special report on No Child Left Behind." It looks like he punked the newspaper by plagiarizing himself.
Here's Boehner's opening paragraph for the Cincinnati Enquirer on March 5, 2006: ''Recently, we marked the fourth anniversary of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) education reforms. Ever since President Bush came to Hamilton to sign this measure into law, much has been made of the progress and promise of NCLB. And for good reason. It represents the single greatest shift in federal education policy in more than a generation."
Here's Boehner's opening paragraph for TruthNews on Jan. 9, 2004: "Recently, we marked the second anniversary of the No Child Left Behind education reforms. Ever since President Bush came to Hamilton to sign this measure into law, much has been made of the progress and promise of No Child Left Behind. And for good reason. It represents the single greatest shift in federal education policy in more than a generation. It was President Bush's first domestic policy initiative -- and continues to be his most important."
It goes on like that from start to finish, with almost every word in the Enquirer taken verbatim from TruthNews.
Boehner even ends both articles with the exact same sentence: ''A high-quality education is within reach for more children now than ever before."
--Bill Sloat
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Saturday, March 04, 2006 | |
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Channeling Bob Hope
Cuyahoga County Juvenile Judge Peter M. Sikora showed wonderful comic timing Saturday during a Democratic candidates' forum in Clermont County.
Skewering Republicans from Gov. Bob Taft on down, Sikora seemed to embody the great Cleveland comedian's talent for sassy political wit.
About Coingate, Tom Noe and $13.5 million in missing state money: "We have investments in rare coins. Some are seemingly so rare they don't even exist."
About GOP claims to make government efficient: "Republicans have told us for years they wanted to run government like big business. Who would have guessed they would have modeled it after Enron and Halliburton?"
Sikora's lines drew guffaws from the Democratic audience, and other candidates including U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown, in this county bordering the Ohio River outside Cincinnati. The Cleveland judge is running for a spot on the Ohio Supreme Court in the May 2 primary but doesn't have the endorsement of the Ohio Democratic Party.
That makes him a long shot for the high court. Maybe he should
become a gag writer instead. Bet he knows a few lawyer jokes.
--Bill Sloat
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Can Democrats win in Ohio?
Last preview, Sherrod Brown:
Ohio Democrats might have had difficulty getting elected, but it's not because they're out of step. "I think Democratic voters are out of step with editorial boards, but I don't think they're out of step with Ohio voters."
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Brown preview No. 2
Sherrod Brown is proud of his support from labor: "Yeah, I get support from organized labor. And who does organized labor represent? It represents home care workers making $7 an hour. It represents people who work in school cafeterias making $9 an hour."
Listen to the complete interview tomorrow....
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Sherrod Brown preview
Here's an audio excerpt from the full Sherrod Brown interview that we'll be running tomorrow.
Sherrod Brown says he's getting his name out in areas where he's not well-known: "I am writing off nowhere."
Check back later today for a couple more audio clips.
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Friday, March 03, 2006 | |
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Red-faced over pink plates
You know it's an election year when no fewer than 11 bills are introduced in the Ohio General Assembly to drop the legislative hammer on sex offenders. They include bills to lengthen prison terms for child rapists, increase penalties for public indecency, use global-positioning devices to track paroled offenders and, until recently, require sex offenders to have pink license plates on their vehicles.
Oops. The choice of color in the latter bill didn't go over well with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, which has all but trade-marked the color pink in its "Sharing the Promise" campaign.
A spokesman for Sen. Kevin Coughlin, the Republican from Cuyahoga Falls who sponsors the sex-offender license plate bill, said Coughlin's office is drafting a substitute bill that will change the color of the plate from pink to "flourescent SORN green." SORN is Ohio's Sex Offender Registration and Notification law.
--Ted Wendling
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Petro fires back
After letting Ken Blackwell slap him around pretty hard in two limited-release commercials, Jim Petro finally struck back yesterday with a hard-hitting ad of his own.
"Shame" reels off a list of quotes from Ohio newspapers and GOP Chairman Bob Bennett criticizing Blackwell's tactics in the increasingly bitter contest with Petro for the Republican gubernatorial nomination.
Ted Strickland is no doubt taking notes.
(Patience required: The ad takes a while to load.)
--Ed.
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Heading off a protest
The Ohio Job and Family Services Directors' Association is warning county human services agencies across the state to brace themselves for protests for failing to comply with the National Voter Registration Act -- the so-called Motor Voter law.
In an email sent today to county departments of job and family services, association Assistant Director Judith Chavis warns that ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, plans to stage protests in the parking lots of county agencies for failing to give applicants for public assistance information on how to register to vote.
The email includes a link to the chapters in federal law that require public-assistance agencies to give people a mail-in registration application form when they apply for assistance -- something few county agencies do. Instead, most county agencies in Ohio practice what's known as "passive voter registration" -- if you ask, they'll tell you how to do it.
Chavis' memo says the state will send county agencies more information in the near future. "In the meantime," she wrote, "OJFSDA staff wanted to give directors a 'heads up' that this issue is 'percolating.' Stay tuned!"
--Ted Wendling
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Noe filing, Part deux
Besides bragging about his success in electing Republicans, Noe also boasts of his prowess in intimidating Democrats in a recent filing with the Ohio Supreme Court.
“Perhaps the most effective way I found to obtain earned media was to vigorously pursue enforcement of Ohio’s election and campaign finance laws by filing, encouraging to be filed, or threatening to file legitimate complaints against Democrats.”
He noted several such cases, including a grievance that he and his wife filed in 2002 against Democratic Supreme Court candidate Janet Burnside alleging that her television commercials were misleading. “Probable cause was found, and Ms. Burnside stopped running the offending commercials.”
Nowhere does Noe mention that he himself might have violated campaign finance laws: A federal grand jury indicted him in October on charges that he illegally funneled $45,400 to President Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign.
-- Mark Naymik
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Noe wants his friends back
While Republicans try to distance themselves from Tom Noe, the GOP fund-raiser and coin dealer at the center of Ohio’s government-corruption scandal, Noe refuses to let them get too far away.
In recent court papers, he tells the Ohio Supreme Court that he deserves credit for helping elect Republicans, most notably Betty Montgomery, the state’s former attorney general and current state auditor.
“The significant electoral victories for which I am widely credited include: In 1994, Betty Montgomery defeated Lee Fisher in the race for Ohio Attorney General,” he wrote in an affidavit filed recently with the Supreme Court.
Noe is trying to disqualify Lucas County judges from hearing his corruption case because they are either his friends or enemies.
“Most observers credit Ms. Montgomery's uncharacteristically strong showing in Northwest Ohio as the key to her victory," Noe continuted in the affidavit. "The string of Republican electoral successes that I worked to bring about between 1992 and 1995 was largely broken once I stepped down as chairman."
Such boasting can’t be good for Montgomery, who’s seeking the state’s top cop job again and has called for aggressive investigations of Noe. She faces State Sen. Tim Grendell in the Republican primary.
Montgomery spokesman Mark Weaver dismisses Noe’s boasts as a total exaggeration.
“Tom Noe was a county party chairman and we were proud to have had support of all 88 (chairmen), but he played no role beyond that,” Weaver said. “I was the lead strategist at the time and I didn’t even meet Noe until years later.”
-- Mark Naymik
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A hill of (Lima) beans
That stray e-mail from Republican Attorney General Jim Petro's gubernatorial
campaign -- suggesting he “was not inclined to waste time” in Lima -- drew laughter, and not just from Ohioans who don’t consider Allen County a resort. (Aides said the disdain was a campaign worker’s, not Petro’s.)
Good thing: Allen County is GOP bedrock. True, its seat, Lima, backed John Kerry in 2004 (by fewer than 100 votes). But no other Allen city or township did. While Ohio gave President Bush 51 percent of its 2004 vote, Allen gave him 66 percent. And in 1964, Allen was one of just five (of 88) counties to back Barry Goldwater; the last time a Democratic presidential candidate carried Allen was in 1936 (Franklin D. Roosevelt). Moreover, it appears Allen hasn’t backed a Democrat for governor since about then, either.
Bottom line: Bystanders won’t remember this week’s cyber-tizzy -- but, at least till their May primary, Petro and his rival, Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, won't forget Allen's pool of potential GOP votes (perhaps 33,000, given Bush's tally).
— Thomas Suddes
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Taft and Petro: Separated at birth?
While pledging to continue an issue-oriented campaign, GOP candidate for governor Ken Blackwell noted that he views ethics among the top issues in this year’s race.
His latest TV ad and a companion radio spot contrast his ethics with those of GOP rival Jim Petro.
But the ads' main goal is to link Petro with Gov. Bob Taft, whose record-low favorability ratings and conviction on misdemeanor ethics charges have transformed him from party standard-bearer to pariah.
“Why has Ken Blackwell taken off the gloves?’’ the TV ad asks. “Because Ohio needs change.’’
The ad notes that Blackwell fought Taft’s sales tax increase but Petro supported it. (It does not mention that Blackwell’s running mate, state Rep. Tom Raga, supported it, too.)
The radio commercial slaps Petro over his appointment of special counsel and notes that the FBI has been interviewing lawyers who said they lost the work because they did not donate to Petro's campaigns.
Both commercials begin Sunday in limited markets. Blackwell is Ohio's secretary of state. Petro is the attorney general.
--Sandy Theis
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Thursday, March 02, 2006 | |
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Cheney targets Ohio
Wanna know how badly the Republicans want to take U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland's congressional district from the Democrats? They're bringing in Vice President Dick Cheney to stir the financial pot.
Cheney, whose fund-raising visits can command thousands of dollars a head, is slated to headline a March 20 fundraiser for state Rep. Chuck Blasdel, the Republicans' favored candidate to take the seat Democrat Strickland has left open to run for governor.
The fight for Strickland's open seat most recently made news when Blasdel's Democratic rival, state Sen. Charlie Wilson, flubbed his qualifying petitions, forcing him to run as a write-in. Fundraising figures out just before "Petitiongate" broke showed Wilson had raised $474,000 to Blasdel's $370,000, with five other candidates far behind.
Invitations out today say the Cheney event will take place at the historic Spread Eagle Tavern & Inn in Hanoverton, a one-time stagecoach stop for Abraham Lincoln and home to the local justice of the peace. Its web site says the building was no doubt the site of countless weddings.
No word, Mr. Vice President, on whether any of them were performed shotgun.
-- Julie Carr Smyth
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Email goes astray
Jim Petro's gubernatorial campaign stumbles again, and here's the reason.
--Ed.
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House minority shrinks
Democrats in the Ohio House are so divided over who should replace outgoing state Rep. Dale Miller that they're going to leave the question to May primary voters.
Newly named House Democratic Leader Joyce Beatty said in a statement that Miller's seat will have to remain vacant until Election Day because her 39-member caucus "did not reach a firm consensus" on whom to pick.
Miller, a Cleveland Democrat, has moved to the Ohio Senate to take the seat of state Sen. Dan Brady, who was given a sendoff yesterday -- along with long-time aide Jada Brady (no relation) -- as he heads to a new job as a utilities adviser to Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson.
Five people will vie for Miller's seat: Mike Foley, Erin Sullivan Lally, Susan Mahon, Bill Ritter and William McGivern.
-- Julie Carr Smyth
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On the road
This Sunday, The Plain Dealer begins an occasional series of profiles of major statewide candidates with a look at U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown, who is trying to unseat GOP Sen. Mike DeWine. And beginning Monday, Brown blogs on the OPEN MIKE.
For a multimedia preview of Sunday's profile, watch Dale Omori's slide show from Brown's recent campaign swing through Southern Ohio.
--Ed.
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The wrong kind of job creation
Gubernatorial hopeful Bryan Flannery, a Lakewood Democrat, put out a tongue-in-cheek statement today congratulating Secretary of State Ken Blackwell for creating jobs... for crooks.
Flannery was among those whose Social Security numbers were made available on Blackwell's state-run web site as part of its routine posting of public Uniform Commercial Code filings. Blackwell's office cannot say how many possible thousands of social security numbers appear, and is reviewing legal and logistical options in going back to redact the personal information.
Meantime, Flannery wrote, Blackwell is "creating opportunities for identity thieves who cost taxpaying Ohioans untold sums of money, time and aggravation every year."
Blackwell's chief of staff Sherri Dembinski notes that she received not a single complaint about the Social Security numbers during the 10 months they were actually being posted between 2001 and 2002. Forms rolled out nationally at that time left space for a Social Security number (with a note that it "may be required" in some states), but they have since been replaced, she said.
Blackwell is vying for the Republican nomination for governor.
-- Julie Carr Smyth
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Wednesday, March 01, 2006 | |
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DeWine down
More Ohioans disapprove of Sen. Mike DeWine's performance than anytime since last May -- that is, if you believe the latest numbers from SurveyUSA, which is tracking every senator and governor in the country through a monthly poll.
This latest random telephone survey of Ohio adults shows DeWine with 44 percent disapproval and 43 percent approval. You could read that several ways; one is that the Republican senator is in trouble in his race to hold onto his seat against Democrat Sherrod Brown's challenge.
But the poll's 4.5 percent margin of error, and the fact that 13 percent of respondents said "not sure," means the Republican senator is not sunk, either. While any incumbent hopes to have far greater than 50 percent approval rating, consider that the weighted average approval for all incumbent senators in the SurveyUSA poll is only 52 percent.
George Voinovich's approval rating is 49 percent, his disapproval, 42 percent. As for governors, SurveyUSA puts Bob Taft's approval at a laughable 14 percent -- and his disapproval at 82 percent. Those are new lows and highs, respectively. Ouch.
The DeWine campaign notes that other polls show DeWine doing better, although some of those methodologies raise questions, too.
"There's going to be a lot of polls between now and election day, and some will be better than others," says DeWine campaign spokesman Brian Seitchik. The polls are "all over the place, and we fully expect to see that."
Check out the SurveyUSA Senate poll here.
- Stephen Koff
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The coveted endorsement
The two Republican candidates for governor will share the coveted endorsement of the Cincinnati Right-to-Life Political Action committee - support that came after both modified their positions on abortion to foreclose almost every option for women seeking one.
Secretary of State Ken Blackwell recently stated that he would not allow abortions even to save a woman's life, a departure from his previous position.
Attorney General Jim Petro, who once supported abortion rights, opposes abortion in all cases except to save the woman's life. After he joined the anti-abortion camp, Petro at first embraced exemptions in cases of rape, incest or when the woman's life is in danger.
Ohio Right to Life endorsed both Petro and Blackwell in 2002 and the two have wage a fierce campaign to win this year's endorsement. An announcement is expected soon.
Although Right-to-Life's Cincinnati chapter supports both, Blackwell's campaign used the announcement to point out that Petro received the 1998 endorsement of the National Abortion Rights Action League and urged voters "to be cautious of Petro's all too recent pro-choice past.''
--Sandy Theis
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Blackwell Hires Schiavo Figure
There's been a lot of back and forth between Attorney General Jim Petro and Secretary of State Ken Blackwell about lawyers hired as special counsel for state agencies. The vast majority are Ohio-based and not well known.
But that can't be said of Robert A. Destro.
A year ago this month, Destro, of Arlington, Va., was a major player in the nation's biggest court fight: he represented Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Terri Schiavo's parents in the battle to keep her alive.
Destro, an Akron native and law professor at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., got an unbid $75,000 state contract through Blackwell's office on Jan. 9. He is special counsel for the Ohio Secretary of State in legal issues with county board of elections about electronic voting machines.
Blackwell is active in the right-to-life movement, and Destro is a promiment lawyer in that cause.
Destro was all over the airwaves last March contending that Terri Schiavo should not have her feeding tube withdrawn because she might recover someday from a brain injury.
The Florida woman died March 31 after the feeding tube was removed at her husband's request, an action Destro fought all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. A subsequent autopsy showed she had had so much brain damage there was no medical possibility she could ever regain her senses.
Destro could not be reached for comment. His office said he is out of the country.
--Bill Sloat
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DeWine: no flip
Sen. Mike DeWine has not changed his position on expanding stem cell research, despite what an article said today in "The Hill," a Washington newspaper.
A stem cell bill sponsored by Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, of Pennsylvania, has only five GOP backers. But The Hill article, citing unidentified backers, said more supporters are in the wings, including DeWine, a pro-life Republican facing a reelection challenge from Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown.
Such a possiblility -- a DeWine flip-flop -- excited Democrats this morning, because it could create trouble for DeWine with GOP conservatives.
"If DeWine is really supporting the Specter bill, he'll have to update his website and remove the declaration that he opposes any bill that expands embryonic stem cell research, as well as the claim that he 'strongly opposes' the very bill he now reportedly supports," said an e-mail from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
But the website is still accurate, says Mike Dawson, DeWine's comunications director. "I don't know where they got it from," he says of the claim that DeWine will support the bill.
Here's what DeWine's website says, and what Dawson says is still accurate: "Senator DeWine opposes embryonic stem cell research, as well as the purposeful destruction of embryonic stem cells in the name of 'science.' Senator DeWine will oppose any bill that would expand existing policy by allowing the government to pay for studies on embryos in frozen storage at fertility clinics, even if the couples who conceive them certify that they would otherwise discard them. Senator DeWine strongly opposes the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005, which passed the House by a vote of 238-194."
- Stephen Koff
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Flannery on the web
Democrat gubernatorial candidate Bryan Flannery launched a new campaign web site today.
The site features links to the Lakewood Democrat's ideas on "the three E's" of ethics, education and the economy. It also wastes no time getting to the football references.
Both Flannery and his running mate, Frank Stams, played for the University of Notre Dame. The site doesn't tout Flannery's spot, a-hem, on the Irish's 1988 national championship team. The football image that flashes continually on the front page relates -- of course -- to the power of teamwork.
Flannery faces U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland on the May primary ballot.
-- Julie Carr Smyth
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