Blue Buckeye Blog

New ODP website and blog

Today, the Ohio Democratic Party launched a new website and blog, PaintOhioBlue.com. This will be a new grassroots and netroots center for Ohio Democrats for the 2006 election cycle. The site will provide information on volunteer opportunities, resources for registering to vote and early voting, multi-media viewing, and a new blog.

This year marks a new era for the Ohio Democratic Party. We have the strongest slate of candidates in a generation and we are poised to turn around Ohio in 2006. But we need your help to continue our momentum through November. I urge you to go to www.PaintOhioBlue.com and find out how you can help turn around Ohio in 2006.

I look forward to working closely with all of Ohio's great online activists.

Thanks,
Todd Hoffman
Online Communications Director

Please click here to go to the new ODP blog.

A message from President Clinton

No New Ideas.

Toledo Blade:

But the only statewide candidate not to offer Ohioans a major policy proposal this year is Republican U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine.

...

"You vote for Mike DeWine, you get more of the same," Mr. Brown said. "You get more tax cuts for the wealthy. You get more special interest government. In some sense, it's the Republican playbook this year. No new ideas."

I'm not sure which Republican is worse, Mike DeWine and his lack of ideas, or Ken Blackwell and his abundance of gimmicks.

Ney, "The Fat Man", and the $75,000 bribe

or, Zack Space, the citizens of the 18th District, and an Ethics Pledge.

The difference between Zack Space and Bob Ney is night and day.  Ney, who entered a guilty plea for public corruption charges, accepted $75,000 in casino chips as a bribe to try to relax sancations on Iran so Fouad al-Zayat a Syrian-born criminal could sell airline parts to the Middle East nation. (Newsweek)

Zack Space signed an ethics pledge stating he will not accept free trips, gifts and meals from lobbyists.  Zack Space also pledged to put the interests of the citizens of the 18th Congressional District first.  Who did Ney put first:  Foreign criminals who want to do business with Iran.

Night and day.

(HypoSpeak)

Official Ohio Democratic Party homework assignment

I almost fell out of my chair in disbelief when I was reading an article about Ken Blackwell's recent stop to Mt. Vernon to visit the Knox County Republican Party HQ.  Blackwell is going around claiming he's poised for a victory.  Why?  Because he's in the exact same position President Bush found himself in against John Kerry in '04.

“I’m in the exact same position against Mr. Strickland that the president was against Mr. Kerry,” he said. “And we are going to do the same thing.”

Is Ken Blackwell seriously suggesting that polls in mid-September showed John Kerry leading Bush by 21 points?!?!?

So, class (Republicans out there, including Ken Blackwell's staff, please feel free to participate)here is your weekend homework assignment:  find me a poll that showed Kerry leading in Ohio by 19-25 points in September of 2004.  Leave the results of your work in the comments.

Ohio poised for Democrat Take-Aways

The third full week of September has brought a wealth of polling data - all polls showing strong leads for the TurnAround Ohio team of Ted Strickland and Sherrod Brown.  Today, we get the latest SURVEYUSA polling numbers, and...no suprise here, Ted and Sherrod are stronger than ever and Democrats are poised to take away the Governor's office and the Senate from Republicans.

The numbers?  Ted by 21 and Sherrod by 10.

• Ted Strickland 56 Ken Blackwell 35
• Sherrod Brown 52  Mike DeWine 42

Yesterday I used a baseball analogy to imply that Ken Blackwell has struck out, based on the three previous polls (three strikes) released this week.  Today we'll switch to football - it's like Blackwell and DeWine went for it on 4th down only to be sacked by Strickland and Brown deep in their own zone.

One, Two, Three Strickes and Blackwell's Out!

3 days.  3 polls.  3 double-digit leads for Ted Strickland.  Ken Blackwell, you're out.

Monday brought the release of the Rasmussen Reports polling, showing Ted Strickland leading his Republican challenger by 19 points.

Tuesday brought the release of the Quinnipiac Poll, which gave Ted Strickland a 21 point lead.

Finally, Wednesday brings us the release of the Ohio Poll, the most reliably conservative poll in Ohio, which showed Strickland with a 12 point lead.  Strickland's lead is double his lead in the previous Ohio Poll, taken in May. 

Want to see a graphical representation of the polling for the Gubernatorial race?  Check out pollster.com's page on the Ohio Governor's race.

Down and out in the Ohio River Valley

Used boots fetch $3 and old salt-and-pepper shakers bring in a buck at a makeshift flea market along Highway 27, presumably not what President Bush and Republicans have in mind when they herald a vibrant economy.

Times are "very good for the rich and very, very bad for the poor" who "can't afford to live," laments Larry Mitchell, 43, a now-and-then merchant peddling his wares recently in a submarine sandwich shop parking lot. He says the middle class is "having a hard time."

In the Ohio River Valley, where people decry high gas prices, stagnant wages, lost jobs and factory closures, many don't buy the claim that the economy is humming along.

Read the rest of the Associated Press article here.

New poll shows Strickland with 21 point lead

Released on the heels of a Rasmussen Reports poll showing a 19 point lead for Congressman Ted Strickland in the Ohio Governor's race, a Quinnipiac University poll shows Strickland has a commanding 21 point over Republican Ken Blackwell.

"Rep. Strickland's lead is solid and uniform. He is ahead among men and women and the critical independent voters. And his supporters are more likely to say they won't change their mind than are Secretary of State Blackwell's," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

From September 11 - 17, Quinnipiac University surveyed 876 Ohio likely voters, with a margin of error of +/- 3.3 percentage points. The survey includes 260 self- described white evangelical Christians, with a margin of error of 6.1 percent.  Bush won Ohio with 76% of support from white evangelical Christians in 2004, according to Quinnipiac.  Blackwell only receives 53% of support from white evagelicals, a normally overwhelmingly Republican voting bloc.

As a side note, the topic of discussion on 610WTVN AM this evening was Rep. Bob Ney and the new polling numbers.  In one hilarious call, a Blackwell supporter tried to explain the poll numbers showing Strickland ahead were bunk.  Expressing contempt for the Quinnipiac poll of "only" 876 Ohio voters, he exclaimed that "anyone" could gather 800 people and convince 400 of them to strip naked and smoke marijuana. 

The Blackwell supporter really said that.  What that proves and how that debunks poll after poll after poll showing Strickland with double-digit leads is beyond me.  Probably just some weird Republican fetish.

Brown, Strickland have large leads over Republican opponents

We've seen the latest polling results from Rasmussen Reports - and it's nothing but good news for Ohio Democrats.

Sherrod Brown is pulling away from Mike DeWine and Ted Strickland continues to lead Blackwell by an incredibly large margin.

• Brown:  47 / DeWine 41
• Strickland:  54 / Blackwell 35

Previously Brown lead DeWine by a three-point margin.  Strickland's nineteen-point lead shows little change in polling numbers over the course of the past two months.  A Columbus Dispatch poll taken in mid-July showed Strickland with a twenty point lead.