Ohio's recent Republican primary
has revealed a lot about this so-called battleground state. Democrats are
looking forward to winning Ohio's electoral votes in 2008, smelling victory
resulting from scandals including Governor Taft being reprimanded in court for
not reporting golf outings, bad investments in rare coins through a Republican
and party donor
coin dealer and six-term rep. Bob Ney getting caught up in
the
Jack Abramoff scandal.
Taft's
administration scandals probably ended his political career. Although the
term-limited governor won 60% of the votes in his last election, he did not run
for any office in the 2006 primary, not even for the US Senate seat held by
Mike DeWine (R-OH), who is viewed as being too liberal by conservative
Republicans. DeWine won the recent primary with 72% of the vote, as his
challengers did not put up much of a fight, which is odd because Ohio is
becoming more and more conservative every year. Ohio's other Senator, George
Voinovich, was re-elected with 64% of the vote in his last election, thus
demonstrating both the strength of the Ohio GOP and the weakness of the Ohio
Democrats, who in their last run for the governorship could only find
Tim
Hagan, a county commissioner whose only statewide claim to fame is being
married to actress Kate Mulgrew who played Captain Janeway in a Star Trek
series. Some
newspaper articles discussing the recent scandals claim
Republicans will lose votes because of Taft, yet do not detail which voter
group the projected vote loss will come from.
While
Ohio was the home of ultra liberal Senator Howard Metzenbaum until he retired
in 1995, four statewide initiatives in 2005 called 'Reform Ohio' by its
supporters aimed to neuter Republicans control of Ohio by creating unelected
bi-partisan committees, yet were each defeated by about 74% of the vote. These
ballot initiatives were largely financed by Ohio billionaire insurance mogul
Peter B. Lewis who, along with George Soros, is no stranger to the DNC top
brass fundraisers.
Ohio is now a predominately a
Republican state with the Cleveland area being an oasis for the Democrats. In
2002, Cleveland area Rep Stephanie Tubbs- Jones (D) soundly defeated Republican
challenger Patrick Pappano, yet she lost the predominately Jewish suburb of
Beachwood because she consistently votes against her own constituents by not
supporting Israel issues. She continues to win re-election because her
district, despite Beachwood's Democrat residents disdain for her, is
overwhelmingly liberal, as is the entire county. These entrenchments give most
Cuyahoga County and surrounding area Democrats the false sense that the entire
state votes just like they do. Incidentally, Tubbs-Jones was active in the
re-election efforts of Capitol Hill Police-puncher Cynthia Mckinney (D-GA)
who's father made national news for his anti-Semitic comments. Many articles
have been written questioning if McKinney's views of Jews resembles that of her
father.
Meanwhile, Ken Blackwell won the Ohio's 2006
Republican gubernatorial primary with 60% of the vote. In his last
gubernatorial run, Taft won 58% of the overall vote. Considering the growing
strength of the Republican Party in Ohio, Blackwell will not only be the next
governor of Ohio, but will be the first black governor outside the south.
Blackwell won the primary because he is seen as a conservative Christian, thus
Blackwell received the votes of religious Christians and Jews as his base.
Blackwell's campaign was unconventional, as he avoided debates. He also irked
many Ohio Republicans by supporting an
Ohio constitutional amendment to limit spending which many
mayors are against because while it also lowers taxes, it lowers state money
sent to municipalities.
And which Democrat is
running against Blackwell? Six-term rep.
Ted Strickland who
has his district offices in world-renown cities such as Wheelersburg and
Martins Ferry. Ohio's Lt. Governor slot is usually occupied by a virtual
politically unknown, and Strickland tapped the politically washed-up and failed
Ohio Gubernatorial candidate Lee Fisher who has been out of office for years.
Why? Well, Fisher is from the Cleveland area and has been desperately trying to
make a comeback for years.
"If you read the
newspapers, you will get the impression Blackwell is a radical religious
zealot" says Rob Frost, the
Cuyahoga County
Republican Party Chairman. The Cleveland Plain Dealer, for example,
appeared surprised at Blackwell for
linking
God and politics in a speech in a church on the National Day of Prayer,
just days after his primary victory. Did the newspaper expect him to speak
about baseball in a church?
These newspaper attacks
only appease the senses of Lewis and Soros, who will once again seek a chance
to win Ohio's Electoral Votes for the Democrats despite the fact that the
numbers do not bear that out as possible. Lewis is anything but a humble
altruistic philanthropist. A building he donated to Case Western Reserve
University bearing his name can best be called
Metal on a Bad Hair Day considering its roof; and when he
donated an aquatic
therapy center to retirement community, he did do with the condition that
he has 24 hour access plus
priority access over all residents and programming. While
that may sound like a small price to pay for a major donation, what it really
boils down to is Lewis getting his name on a private tax deductible Olympic
sized swimming pool, and the retirement center may never ask him for another
penny per the donation agreement.
Lewis will surely
sink money into Ohio's Democratic efforts for 2008 with the illusion of a
victory projected by liberal newspaper dreams and by living in an area that
makes him feel as if all of Ohio is liberal. This does not worry the GOP which
will be happy to have the Democrats dollars spent in Ohio to try and defeat
Blackwell in 2006 and whoever the 2008 GOP presidential candidate will be, thus
diverting dollars away from actual contestable states. "It's all in the
numbers" as Pappano said after he lost his congressional race. As it stands
today, the Republicans in Ohio have the numbers, even if the Democrats deny it.
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| Fred Taub is a boycott consultant and is the
President of Boycott Watch (www.boycottwatch.org) which monitors and
reports about consumer boycotts, and Divestment Watch (www.divestmentwatch.com) which
exposed the illegal nature of the divest-from-Israel campaign as well as why
divestment is bad for the US and is anti- peace. |
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