WP, David Broder: For the GOP, a Heartland Plunge

[DeepModem Mom]

For the GOP, a Heartland Plunge
By David S. Broder
Thursday, August 17, 2006; Page A25

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- When the Columbus Dispatch's respected poll recently reported that Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell was trailing Democratic Rep. Ted Strickland by 20 points in the race for governor of Ohio, there was dismay but no shock among his fellow Republicans. Those I interviewed during a recent visit here said they had seen it coming for a long time....

***

What I heard here -- and in subsequent interviews at the National Governors Association convention in Charleston, S.C. -- from one Republican after another signaled serious trouble for the GOP across a broad swath of states from Pennsylvania to Oklahoma in key midterm election contests for House, Senate and governor.

The impression these Republicans had is that support for GOP candidates had nose-dived this summer -- in part because of the chaos conveyed by the daily televised scenes of destruction in Iraq and Lebanon and in part because of the dismal reputation built by the Republican Congress that is home to many of the endangered GOP candidates....

***

A leading Minnesota Republican told me that polls there show "the bottom has dropped out" of Rep. Mark Kennedy's challenge to Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar, the Democratic candidate for an open Democratic Senate seat. Kennedy has company among the corps of Republican congressmen who thought this would be a good year to move up. In Wisconsin, Rep. Mark Green is lagging slightly behind Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle. In Oklahoma, Rep. Ernest J. Istook Jr. is far worse off in his challenge to Democratic Gov. Brad Henry. And in Iowa, Rep. Jim Nussle, the strong early favorite to capture the open governorship from the Democrats, now finds himself in a real battle with Democrat Chet Culver.

For all of them, service in this Congress has turned out to be a handicap rather than a benefit to their chances of advancement. The reason was explained in blunt terms by the Republican governor of one of the states where a congressman of his party is struggling for statewide office. "What has this Congress done that anyone should applaud?" he asked scornfully. "Nothing on immigration, nothing on health care, nothing on energy -- and nothing on the war. They deserve a good kick in the pants, and that's what they're going to get."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/16/AR2006081601425.html?nav=hcmodule

[Rowdyboy]

1. Good piece.....Glad to hear things are swinging the right way, especially

in Iowa's governor's race. That's one that could go either way-we need to win.

[Iowa]

10. Yep, Nussle would be a disaster for Iowa.

He's one of the very worst... a chimperor lackey whose mentor was Newt Gingrich. He left his wife and kids (daughter with downs syndrome) after using his daughter in ads to win his congressional seat - a real family values kinda guy. Anyone remember the ad where he sang "The Itsy-bitsy Spider" with his daughter?

I'd love to see this jerk go down.

[Blue Gardener]

14. I remember that one

It never ceases to amaze me that the fundies still support him after he dumped his family for a Washington lobbyist. It proves what a bunch of hypocrites they really are.

[femrap]

18. I would be shouting his dismal failure

as a father and husband to everyone in Iowa....seriously, everyone I talked to you, I would mention, "Hey, do you remember what that guy did to his wife and daughter? How do you think he is going to treat his constituents who are just strangers?"

I would start a very loud Whisper Campaign on that!

What an asshole! Just like Newt. How do these evil guys get away with that type of behavior? WE LET THEM. Don't let this jerk get away with it. Please.

[Iowa]

30. Yep, I agree. I talk about it at every opportunity.

[hatrack]

21. Wasn't he the guy who appeared on the House floor with a bag on his head?

I'm pretty sure it was Nussle.

[Iowa]

31. Yes, that was Nussle.

[melissinha]

32. As a Luther Alum who had to put up with Repuke...

YEah back when they consolidated congressional districts and ran two incumbents for that seat, it was difficult for me to have to put up with the snarkiness of the College Republicans that thought it was so great that they had a real congressman as an alum.... F>U> jerks. I don't care that Newt's wife went to Luther either.....

Go put that paperbag back on your head Nussle! Who's ashamed now?


Sorry I don't remember the ad, I have a bad memory or I didn't watch much TV in college.

[RonHack]

26. More the reason.....

.... why we need to keep the pressure up, up, up, UP, UP!

The Repubs may not look good, but they ain't concedin', either.

Let's keep the Hammer down, folks!

[Arugula Latte]

2. Wow. You run a country into the ground and people actually notice?

Will wonders never cease ...

We'll see how much rigging/suppression goes on in November, though.

[OzarkDem]

16. No kidding

The media GOP apologists seem sincerely shocked at how disenchanted Americans have become with their corruption, greed and incompetence.

Are they really surprised?

[Vincardog]

3. How did that go? Oh yeah "As yea Sew.. So shall ye reap"

You can only get so far spreading fear and death before you get some on your shoes.

WUH that SMELL CAN'T YOU SMELL THAT SMELL
The smell of death surrounds them

[calimary]

35. Yep! If you spend all that time slinging shit, you're gonna step in a lot

of it, too. And while you're slinging, the wind eventually WILL change... kind of like David Broder's latest column indicates!

All of a sudden, I feel pretty good about things!

But it makes sense. They're RESPONSIBLE for a tremendous bloodbath - and that's just the one in Iraq, not to mention any number of other places, figuratively and literally. Figuratively in New Orleans, too, if we recall. So it only stands to reason that they should taste that kind of misfortune themselves.

What goes around comes around, dear darling republi-CONS!!!

[barb162]

4. 20 points is extremely impressive

[OzarkDem]

17. Strickland is great, he will win

His years in Congress make him an excellent candidate, Ohio will turn around again.

Its still likely that, even if Strickland wins for governor, he will still face a predominantly GOP General Assembly and Supreme Court.
He will still be able to get things done. He's already researching which actions he can take to turn the state around using Executive Orders. He's not messing around, he and his team will hit the ground running.

[Raster]

5. Memo to the vote riggers and election fraudsters:

You want to see riots in the streets, just try stealing 2006. There isn't a person with a pulse that believes that blackwell will legitimately win the Ohio governor's seat. Not.A.One.

[intaglio]

13. I feel guilty ... I'm a Brit and commenting on your pain seems unhelpful

Seen this article from the Washington Post? Click here

Selected Quotes
CLEVELAND -- Problems with elections in Ohio's most populous county are so severe that it's unlikely they can be completely fixed by November, or even by the 2008 presidential election, a report commissioned by Cuyahoga County and released Tuesday says.

The absentee ballots had been improperly formatted for new optical scan voting machines.

vote memory cards disappeared

four sources used to keep track of vote totals on machines did not always add up.

[femrap]

20. Hello from across the pond!

This Corporate e-voting is something else, isn't it? Actually I am glad to see articles like this....we need to get this info out to the voting public so they know how screwed we are.

We're going to fight for paper and pen ballots....it's cheap and makes sense.

Corporate e-voting and corporate takeover of the media are our biggest problems in the US, IMHO.

How is voting done in Britain?

[intaglio]

25. UK method

Registration - forms sent to all, only disqualifications are, non-resident, non-national, lunatic (ie sectioned under the mental health regulations mental deficiency is not enough to disqualify), under 18, in prison but not ex-prisoner or criminal subject to non-custodial sentences or finally and famously a member of the House of Lords (a sorta second chamber not currently elected but virtually powerless except to delay legislation)

In the polling station a curtained booth a desk with a Chinagraph pencil. You take the voting slip into the booth and mark it with a cross. Just candidates names no propositions (THAT's something we need). Everything goes into the polling box which is sealed.

Polling boxes are taken to the constituency (district) count hq where each vote is counted by hand. The local candidates or their representatives together with appointed scrutineers patrol the count. Result in metropolitan areas come through in 3-8 hours. for some of the very remote areas it can take a day

[DeepModem Mom]

33. Thank you so much for this info, intaglio -- and welcome to DU!!!

[femrap]

36. Sounds so dignified and empowering.

What percentage of registered voters actually vote usually?

[intaglio]

37. Turnout varies a lot, for general elections

'97 when everyone wanted the Conservatives out it was 71%
'01 when no-one wanted change (the Cons were dead in the water) 59.4
'05 Conservative in full self destruct but Tony B. Liar starting to lose his gloss 61%

Those are the raw figures but warnings should be attached to them. Firstly as a very small number of constituencies normally change hands ('97 was an earthquake) people in constituencies considered "safe" for one party tend not to vote if they support the other party. This can lead to non-voters (I privately use another, ruder word) feeling their vote will not make any diference. There are very tentative moves to introduce proportional representation for this reason. Generally the party out of power wants PR and the one in power "needs to investigate the proposal carefully" whatever they believed before their elevation.

Political advertising, as such, is banned on television and radio. Parties are allowed a number of promotional broadcasts based to a degree on their share of the vote in the last election. These are advertised as part of the regular program schedule and last 10 or 15 minutes. Mostly people turn them off. No special interest group is allowed to make adverts with what might be construed as "political" content. This may also lead to voter apathy. Newspaper and poster advertising probably has far more effect.

[femrap]

39. No TV or radio advertising.....what bliss!

I hope that someday we can truly reform campaign finance....will the US ever have leadership that will stand up to the greedy Corporate CEOs? Of course that means the citizenry will have to begin to see the great damage that the corporatocracy is doing to us and the world...they might be catching on, I hope.

Every now and then I catch your parliament (I believe) on c-span....I love watching them yelling and ridiculing and laughing at each other. Our Congress is so staid and boring....it frustrates me....I can't watch it. I enjoy a debate.

[Cha]

38. That sounds so civilized and

inspiring confidence that your vote actually counted.

Thank you for that account and Welcome to DU!

[asthmaticeog]

24. Hello from Cleveland!

Don't feel guilty for pointing it out. People need to know what's going on here, it's a travesty of democracy. I'm absolutely dreading the election. 2004's presidential election was terrible here, and 2005's off-year mayoral election was just as preposterous despite a much smaller turnout. And it's only getting worse: it's my understanding that they're putting the elections in the hands of the state lottery chief, which to my mind only serves to underscore what a gamble it'll be whether or not any given vote is counted.

Welcome to DU, and thanks for helping to spread the word about Ohio.

[newyawker99]

27. Hi intaglio!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[jaysunb]

6. speaking of immigration....

they let their boy Lou ( Dobbs ) run wild with it, now it's coming back to bite them in the ass.
Too bad...So sad and fuck you ! :evilgrin:

[Kurovski]

7. K&R!(nt)

:kick:

[w4rma]

8. It would be nice if even just *one* of these articles were written from

the Democratic perspective, instead of from the worried Republican perspective.

[ejbr]

9. They are going to steal the elections anyway

The MSM doesn't seem phased by Kennedy Rolling Stone piece, so why not just go for it? Eighteen points, schmeighteen points. Didn't Ohio have a poll a few days before the election where it was 65% to 35%, but somehow the election results ended up the reverse to the repugs favor? But that story has disappeared, if it ever hit the radar. No, I think they will steal these elections too and everyone will just shrug.:shrug:

[NEOBuckeye]

11. Blackwell is a walking disaster

The Ohio GOP would have been much better off keeping Blackwell out of the race and running State Attorney General Jim Petro. Alas, Blackwell won the support of the "Christian" zealots during the primaries over Petro, who ran a surprisingly inept campaign. However, Blackwell's almost exclusive catering to the "Christian" zealots in the general campaign has backfired upon him tremendously. That, and his decision not to release his tax returns to the public, which Strickland has done, suggesting that Blackwell has something to hide. Ohioans are paying attention to the details this year. They're tired of the corruption and want level-headed leaders with integrity back in charge.

[StClone]

12. A "Heartland Purge" would make a nice

Headline for Republican come November. America needs it, we need it.

[Olney Blue]

15. The Heartland has some great Dems to contribute!

[Bosso 63]

19. Mark Kennedy

Total Bush tool is trying to back away from Bush as fast as he can, but its to little too late.

[3reddogs]

22. Ken Blackwell

This Ohio voter is encouraged by Ted Strickland's 20-point lead over Ken Blackwell but I'm devoutly hoping that it gets much bigger. In fact, if there's any justice, J. Kenneth Blackwell, who's still in charge of Ohio elections even though he's running for governor, will get CLOBBERED by Ted Strickland (and Sen. Mike DeWine will be sent packing by Sherrod Brown).

It's impossible to overlook what Blackwell was able to do as Secretary of State and chief elections officer in 2004 though. A 20-point lead will mean absolutely nothing if the people who want to vote for Ted Strickland can't or aren't allowed to actually vote. There's no reason to believe that Blackwell won't make sure that there's not enough voting machines in Democratic precincts again this year, just as he did in 2004. (How many people are going to be willing to wait in line for hours to cast their vote in a mid-term election?) If that's not depressing enough, problems with our new electronic voting machines were rampant during the May primary, especially in Cuyahoga county (heavily Democratic Cleveland and surrounding suburbs). With Blackwell in control of the election, can you guess which precincts will get better hardware and which poll workers will get better training? In addition to the expected problems with the voting machines (availability and accuracy), expect provisional ballots to be a big problem/issue too since many Ohio voters may not be aware that thanks to new legislation passed by our GOP-controlled state legislature, they're now going to be required to present an ID before they'll be allowed to vote in November. It's my understanding that people who don't have a valid ID will be turned away and if there's discrepancies between your voting address and the address on your ID, you'll be forced to cast a provisional ballot (something that usually flummoxes most Ohio poll workers!). And would anybody be surprised if the ID requirement was much more strictly enforced in Democratic precincts than in Republican precincts? That would be classic Blackwell!

Fortunately, I live in neighboring Summit county so my vote may not be as much at risk in November as voters in Cuyahoga county but I'm not taking any chances. In Ohio anyone can request a good old-fashioned paper absentee ballot and I plan on doing exactly that. Ken Blackwell or one of his minions may toss my ballot into the trash when it arrives but at least it won't be rattling around inside some corrupted Diebold voting machine.

By the way, although I'm going to be mailing in my vote, I plan on taking a vacation day on November 7th if my application to be a poll worker is accepted. I've spent the last 25 years working in data processing so I think I can easily spot any funny business going on with the electronic voting machines and I plan on bringing my digital camera with me to document any irregularities!

x(

[newyawker99]

28. Hi 3reddogs!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[DeepModem Mom]

34. Thank you for this on-the-scene report, and for your willingness...

to use your expertise at the polls -- AND welcome to DU!

[Hawaii Hiker]

23. What are the latest numbers in the Ohio senate race?

Of course it's great that Strickland is leading Ken "hand Ohio to George Bush" Blackwell...Does anyone know the latest poll numbers re: the Ohio Senate race?...I'm hoping Democrats can win (at the minimum) Ohio, Montana, Pennsylvania....I did hear Santorum has made grounds on Casey, though Casey has led in every poll I've seen...But Casey needs to start attacking Santorum more, I'm hearing he hardly has run any ads & basically is just sitting back hoping people will vote against Santorum..
Come on Mr. Casey, mix in an ad or two!..

Democrats should run ads & have pictures & quotes from Ann Coulter, (basically saying she speaks for the republican party), to show how deranged the republican party is...

[3reddogs]

29. Ohio - Brown / DeWine Poll Numbers

The most recent SurveyUSA poll (taken 8/5-8/6) shows Sherrod Brown leading DeWine by 8 points (49% to 41%), statistically unchanged from an identical survey taken in June. Actually, that's a good sign since every time I turned around during the month of July I was seeing a Mike DeWine ad running on every local station here in the Cleveland area. I have YET to see a Sherrod Brown ad but at least the Ohio Democratic Party did run one for about a week rebutting DeWine's attack on Sherrod Brown as being weak on national security. (Gee, what a new and different idea, attacking the Democrats as being weak on terror.) Interestingly, DeWine's ad was eventually pulled when it was revealed that he had doctored the pictures of the burning Twin Towers. Now I have to listen to Mike DeWine patting himself on the back for voting for Medicare Plan D (prescription drug coverage for seniors). How I'd love to see Sherrod Brown run an ad asking why DeWine helped remove the language in the bill that would have allowed Plan D to negotiate lower drug prices from the big pharmaceutical companies!

[opihimoimoi]

40. The Pubs worried??? Tough shit...they made their bed and now

people know the Pub Party is full of shit..

That they still back Bush is so revealing of their selfishness...

Whatever happened to the phrase FOR THE COMMON GOOD, WHATS IN THE BEST INTEREST FOR THE NATION?, AND SO ON???

For their lack of concern re the Common Folk, the Pubs gonna burn.

Serves them right for sticking to the BushCo.