How are things looking for DeWine in 2006?

[Tweed]

Or should I say 'Da Whiner'? I think we can beat this guy. What kind of popularity does he have?

[Philostopher]

1. He's an evangelical Christian.

In Ohio. Already in office. And since he's a Republican, he'll be massively funded by evangelical Christians and the GOP.

So, considering those things -- who do you think could beat him? Not that I'm saying he can't be beat, mind you -- anything is possible -- but who do you think has the cachet to run against him?

Jerry Springer wants to run for governor in '06; I think Eric Fingerhut might also want that, though I suppose if the Ohio Dem Party preferred that he run for senate, they might encourage him to go after DeWine, instead.

One thing I see as a good thing in Ohio -- all the big state-level Republicans were very publicly against Issue 1, which is something that definitely could be used against them. I respect them for sticking with their pro-business principles to encourage people to vote for it, and I was against it myself, but I'm starting to think we're going to have to play just as dirty and down-low a game as they do. That might be a hell of a wedge to drive into Ohio Republicans, that most of them didn't want it to pass, to split off the Taliborniagain contingent from regular Republicans.

Have you looked at Springer's web site at all?

http://www.jerryforohio.com

I don't know how I feel about this yet, though the Mr. said last night he thinks as much rolling around in the mud as was done during the presidential campaign this year, it's entirely possible that the Springer Show might no longer be held against Jerry.

The person I want you to pay attention to, if you ever go read the weblog there, is Jene Galvin. If you're not familiar with him, Jene's a homegrown populist from Clermont County, near Cinci. I've been reading his commentary one place and another most of my life -- my late father knew him from county Democratic meetings, though just as a speaking acquaintance, not really well. He's brilliant, and so is his brother -- articulate, well-read and very, very determined and deliberate.

Most importantly, I guess, Jene and his brother, Jerry are the token liberals on the air on Cincinnati radio right now. One of them, I think Jene, also used to write a column in one of the suburban weeklies out there. He used to get mountains of hate mail, apparently, by which he was able to determine he was doing something right (or left, as the case was).

I don't know -- I suppose I shouldn't take as dim a view of our chances in Ohio as I do. Dayton could be a hell of a lot worse than it is, though I think Mike Turner is a scab on the face of the universe. Locally, it's not quite as bad. I think local is the way to go -- cultivate the good ones locally, hope they can eventually make their way up.

Sorry for the rambling, and for the generally dark tone -- I'm exhausted with all the crap that happened, right now, and really still quite pissed about what Ken Blackwell did here on Election Day. I don't know if I'll ever quite get over it.

[jcv1]

2. Ohio will never go blue

Until Dems start controlling the local boards of election and prevent Diebold from contracting with every county to install voting machines. I'm sure there's been a movie plot out there somewhere about voting machines being programmed for "THE PARTY" and that appears to be what is happening. I'm not too upset by DeWine because he appears to be one of the few Repug moderates but you are right, Ohio needs to be taken back. The only way to do it is, control the apparatus (sp?), control the message, control the state.

[Philostopher]

3. Personally, I wish we could get rid of the system here ...

that allows raving partisans to totally control the electoral process. I'm talking about you, Ken Blackwell, you slug! He's a menace to the democratic process, allowing ideology to trump everything else. You're right -- the board of elections needs to be totally non- or bi-partisan, and the person who's the 'tiebreaker' shouldn't be an ideologue like him.

The state BOE is, in fact, a bipartisan committee -- someone on here who works for a local Ohio BOE filled me in on the nuts and bolts of it. Most local boards of election are, likewise, bipartisan. It's just the fact that the (partisan elected) SOS has ultimate veto over anything that screws it up.

Until that's different, you're probably right. Unfortunately, as you probably know, things don't get changed in Ohio until they're so hopelessly screwed up they don't work for anybody anymore. As long as they're working just fine for the Ohio GOP, there's nothing in it for them to reform it.