Blue Buckeye Blog

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.

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.

Blackwell campaign imploding

Wow.

Via plunderbund:

COLUMBUS – Volunteers preparing for today’s “Republicans for Strickland” press conference at the statehouse were confronted by Matt Naugle, Blackwell’s official campaign blogger, and another young Blackwell staffer.

They had a message for one of the Republicans scheduled to appear at the event:: “Tell Rocky that his father would be rolling over in his grave if he knew he was supporting Strickland”.

The message was passed along to Charles “Rocky” Saxbe, the son of William Saxbe, Richard Nixon’s Attorney General.

When the press conference started, Rocky shared the story with the media, adding: “When I spoke to my father this morning, he didn’t seem to be too upset about it.”

Naugle was later kicked out of the press area

Naugle’s response?

“Go Fuck Yourself”

To be fair, the stress of working on a campaign that is down in the polls by as much as 25 points would probably even get under the skin of better men.  I'm still not sure what was worse - Naugle's filthy mouth or his errant belief that William Saxbe had passed away.

The Plain Dealer also covered the press conference in their Openers section.

Kenny can't raise the campaign cash...

...quite like Ted Strickland can.

The Strickland for Governor campaign announced it raised $2.3 million dollars in the month of August - 40% more than Ken Blackwell raised.  Blackwell's campaign would have performed even more poorly, if it wasn't for an infusion of cash from the Ohio Republican Party.

The Blackwell campaign, not only trailing badly in the polls is also trailing Strickland in the race for campaign cash.  In fact, Strickland now holds a $2.5 million dollar cash on hand advantage.

Blackwell campaign: may we suggest a money tree?

From from WOSU call-in show

Caller on WOSU"s Open Line:

"I've been a registered Republican for twenty years, firm believer in my right to keep and bear arms, fiscally conservative, supported the War in Iraq, don't support its mismanagement, but I can't take it anymore...and I know a lot of people who are like minded.  ...I've supported the Republicans through the last twelve years or so thinking, hoping that there was a plan...I hate to say it, but I think I'm going to switch and I'm not voting for Blackwell or any of the other Republican candidates."

Welcome aboard Nick.

Strickland lays out positive vision for Ohio in first debate

It's a good thing that Ken Blackwell isn't a conductor - an orchestra playing one note all the time would get very old after a short while.

In a debate today that was supposed to focus on everything from job growth to education reform to healthcare, Ted laid out a comprehensive vision to Turnaround Ohio with sweeping, common sense reforms.  Using the resources that Ohio’s current Republican leadership has either left mismanaged or unused, Ted will keep and grow the jobs we have by investing in our state’s strengths and bring new jobs to Ohio by making sure we have the best educated and prepared workforce possible.

In contrast, Ken Blackwell spent most of the debate going negative.

Today, we saw a true contrast in leadership styles.  With a chance to lay out their visions for the state, Ted rose to the challenge and Ken Blackwell sunk to his usual level of attacks and distortions. 

You can read our corrections to Ken Blackwell’s distortions here:

http://www.tedstrickland.com/blog

More law enforcement support for Strickland

Via BSB:

Today the Strickland for Governor campaign received two key endorsements from the Ohio Troopers Coalition and the National Association of Police Organizations.  Strickland was previously endorsed by the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police, the first such endorsement of a Democrat for Governor in well over a decade.

The Ohio Troopers Coalition represents more than 1,600 State Highway Patrol Troopers.  In a poll of its members, 89% said they support Strickland for Governor.  The National Association of Police Oragnizations represents more than 220 police departments in the state of Ohio.

Why won't Ken come out of hiding?

Ken Blackwell has proven quite adept at hiding.  First, he refused to release his tax returns, the first gubernatorial candidate in decades to do so.  Now he's keeping quiet on his affiliation with Common Sense Ohio, a group running negative attack ads against Congressman Strickland.  On top of that, he's now hiding the true cost of his health care plan.

Blackwell’s health care plan announced last week was long on rhetoric and short on specifics, but one element was made clear: “The program would require all Ohioans to have some form of health insurance…”—Ken Blackwell.com, 8/24/2006

“The fact is, Ken Blackwell’s plan would mandate that all Ohioans have health insurance, whether they can afford it or not,” said Strickland for Governor spokesman Keith Dailey. “That amounts to a massive burden on uninsured Ohioans already strapped by rising energy and tuition costs.”

So, Ken - how much will it cost?

Ken Blackwell wrestles bears. Seriously. The guy is crazy.

Ken Blackwell recently gave a speech to a bunch of Republicans on a farm in Fayette County.  No big deal, right?  I'd guess that he'd talk about how he wants to sell the Ohio Turnpike to France, how he owns stock in a slot machine company despite his opposition to gambling, how he owns stock in a company that makes the morning-after pill despite his opposition to abortion, maybe even how he's embracing Bob Taft in a desperate hunt for campaign cash....Right?

No, Ken Blackwell talked about how he wrestled a bear:

The meeting ended as Blackwell, for a number of minutes, described his experience of wrestling a bear

CRAZY!

Local leaders gather in Fremont to blast Blackwell's plan to sell the Turnpike

Local leaders in communities near the Ohio Turnpike have been gathering for the past two weeks to hold open forums to discuss Ken Blackwell's plan to privatize the Ohio Turnpike.  The Port Clinton News Herald tells of such a meeting in Fremont:

Fremont City Councilwoman Karen Wagner said she does not like the idea that a foreign company could gain control over one of the state's most important highways.

"We might as well put a sign outside saying the United States is for sale," she said.

and...

Fremont City Council President Duane Simmons said additional trucks on the highways could lead to safety hazards, increased traffic and damage to city streets as truckers avoid the Turnpike.

"If this happens and you raise the rates, you're going to have these trucks on the local highways again," he said.

What did the 'gang that can't shoot straight' have to say in reponse?

Calls placed to Blackwell's office were not returned Thursday evening.