Image via Wikipedia
Good for Congressmen Pat Tiberi and Steve Austria:
Tiberi, elected in 2000, hasn’t gone after taxpayer dollars for central Ohio projects since 2007. Austria says he is not pursuing earmarks in his first year in office “due to [...]
Image via Wikipedia
Sobering column from Froma Harrop in the Dispatch. It sums up my problems with Issue 3 very well: unlikely to lead to economic development and yet has huge social cost. Voters in Cleveland and Cincinnati where swayed by [...]
US Senate candidate Tom Ganley’s campaign manager Jeff Longstreth is confused:
Longstreth said that he views the primary as similar to the special election earlier this month in New York’s 23rd congressional district, where a moderate Republican dropped from the race under pressure from conservatives. Since Portman has the “backing [...]
Is the GOP primary to replace Senator Voinovich about to being in earnest? It seems that at least an opening salvo is:
Republican Tom Ganley, a Cleveland area car dealer, launched a statewide television ad campaign in his bid to upset GOP favorite Rob Portman for the Ohio Republican Party [...]
Congressman Bob Latta’s (R-OH) statement after voting against Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s government takeover of our nation’s health care system.
Click here to view the embedded video.
[...]
Image via Wikipedia
So the highest ranking elections official in Ohio has made such a mess that it has confused the Federal Election Commission to the point where it refuses to offer an opinion! You have to admit that is a [...]
Democrats offer college kids five bucks to vote and bring a friend:
Click here to view the embedded video.
[...]Offline concerns have kept me from keeping this blog current but I wanted to offer this video as food for thought on the health care debate going on in DC these days:
Click here to view the embedded video.
[...]US Senate candidate Rob Portman continues to do well in the fundraising department:
The Portman for Senate Campaign today announced that it ended the third fundraising quarter with more than $5.14 million cash-on-hand. The campaign raised $1.3 million in the third quarter and doubled its total number of individual donors [...]
I have long argued that conservatives need to be strategic in their thinking when it comes to elections. While I will fully admit that balancing “the most electable” with “the most conservative” is rarely easy it is still a critical [...]
I have been too busy with work related stuff to post here regularly (if you are interested in contriuting to the site please drop me a note) but wanted to note this incredibly lame response to John Kasich. Here is the article in the Vindy:
When asked later about Strickland, [...]
I have an article on the subject over at Human Events:
Can George W. Bush still affect the outcomes of elections in 2010? Democrats clearly think so in the battle for an open Senate seat in Ohio.
Rob Portman, former congressman and cabinet official under George W. Bush, is the [...]
I know what you are thinking. Of course Obama’s speech didn’t convince those right-wing crazy’s who disrupt townhalls and yell things during presidential speeches; they’re close-minded yahoos.
But it seems the president’s strident insistence that action be taken has failed to convince the very people he needs to win over: Blue [...]
Yet another example of the twisted and ineffectual nature of the stimulus:
Yes, so-called shovel-ready projects deserved consideration for federal stimulus money, but those that serve relatively few people at tiny airports shouldn’t have been given priority over spending that would benefit travelers to and from large metropolitan areas.
Port Columbus [...]
I talked with these folks while at the Energy Summit and they are doing good work. Check out this video they did at a Columbus Clippers game:
Click here to view the embedded video.
[...]You don’t have to be an economist to understand the situation in Ohio. Unemployment has hit double digits and is growing (340,000 jobs lost since Ted Strickland and Lee Fisher took office) and everyone is paying the price. The stimulus has accomplished nothing (In the neighborhood of 100,000 jobs [...]
Apologies to anyone trying to use the Ohio Politics Hub recently (all three of you). It was producing some errors over the weekend. Should be fixed now.
[...]I didn’t see it but apparently a YouTube video on “Why We Need Government-Run Universal Socialized Health Insurance” was all the rage last week. As is so typical of these arguments it was full of non sequiturs and strawmen. There are far too many to be able to debunk [...]
Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Good advice to Governor Strickland from State Senator Jimmy Stewart in the Zanesville Times Recorder:
Since February, the Department of Development — the agency responsible for economic development and [...]
Image by OZinOH via Flickr
Ted Strickland seems to be having trouble just keeping his cabinet organized and functioning:
Gov. Ted Strickland this morning ousted the battling heads of the Ohio Department of Public Safety and the State Highway Patrol.
Public Safety Director Henry Guzman and [...]
Image via Wikipedia
Jennifer Brunner makes it clear why the lefties love her and why she would be a terrible Senator:
“I would be standing very strongly in favor of a strong public option,” she said when asked about proposed reform. “When [...]
Remember me? I am the guy who used to post regular content on this site. Sorry about the radio silence of late. I have been busy with other projects and haven’t had much time to write here. Hope to get back to a post a day or so soon.
Free trade [...]
I write a story on health care and how Mary Jo Kilroy thinks you are stupid.
Rich Lowry writes a column: Stupid Nation: Just how stupid do they think we are?
The Obama team is saddled with a foundering health-care strategy. But it has a fallback plan — relying on [...]
If you are looking to find out just how many ironies, non sequiturs, and assertions presented as facts can be stuffed into a Democratic press release, Erie County Democratic Party Chair Amy Grubbe’s is a good place to start:
As Rob Portman joins the mob of angry protesters today in [...]
Few things cause me to chuckle quicker than the self-righteous indignation of lefty bloggers:
I’m sorry Ted, but the good ol’ boy southern Ohio culture war horseshit you are tip toeing around has to stop. We are not Republican neanderthals in the Ohio Democratic Party. And we aren’t going to [...]
Image via Wikipedia
The Dispatch offers this short report on Mary Jo Kilroy’s health care tele-townhall:
U.S. Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy last night insisted that congressional Democrats are not considering “socialized medicine’” in their efforts to approve a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health-care system.
In [...]
Image via Wikipedia
More good stuff from Sam Staley at Reason on the high speed rail boondoggle:
Even House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who voted against the stimulus bill, now wildly praises rail’s job-creation potential, writing, “It is estimated [...]
The Dispatch offers yet another story about how the stimulus is affecting local communities. The angle is clearly aimed at making the funding distribution controversial:
With budget cuts already forcing layoffs this year, Union County Sheriff Rocky Nelson was certain that he could qualify for federal stimulus money to hire [...]
In case you haven’t noticed, I am on vacation (well, sort of). Posting here might be light to non-existent. Just an FYI.
[...]
Image by aflcio2008 via Flickr
First is was turning to labor unions to fix the auto industry, now Ted Strickland is looking to his labor union cronies supporters to help job seekers find government help.
You read that right. Strickland is [...]
Image via Wikipedia
I don’t have time to go into much detail at this point, but I wanted to make a quick note anyways.
There is a lot of talk about the recession being over or hitting bottom or whatever. This may or may not be true in [...]
Last week I noted Sherrod Brown’s rather arrogant attitude on health care reform. Frustrated with complaints about a lack of bi-partisanship, Brown had this to say about the issue:
They lost we won, but we’re right where the public is. That’s what the elections said, that’s what the polls say [...]
I am busy with some new projects so posting might be light as I get organized and up to speed but I wanted to leave you a few links to read this morning.
–> New Ohio legislation goes to extraordinary measures to enable voter fraud
3BP writer Johnny Utah is back [...]
Image via Wikipedia
Zach Space talks a good game. He knows how to say what he thinks voters want to hear. The problem is that his votes don’t line up and his rhetoric is slippery.
A perfect example is health care [...]
It really goes without saying that holding important press conferences or releasing breaking news late Friday afternoon won’t win you any plaudits from the press. But if there was any questions I think this DDN story puts that to rest:
Who needs Hollywood when over at the Statehouse, we’ve already [...]
Image via Wikipedia
Say what you will about Mike DeWine, and there is much that can be said, but he was right about the budget and about the stimulus back in February.
On the stimulus:
Whatever you think about the federal economic-stimulus plan, [...]
Back in February Zach Space argued in the Columbus Dispatch that, contra former US Senator Mike DeWine, the stimulus bill was necessary to turn things around in Ohio. Here are a few key points Space makes:
Where DeWine’s analysis falls short is with regard to the American Recovery and [...]
Image by OhioProgressive via Flickr
I can see why Ohio elected Sherrod Brown to the US Senate. It was clearly his unique leadership ability:
“So this is a bipartisan bill. Republicans say they didn’t win on the big questions, but they lost [...]
Image by republicanconference via Flickr
I am sure Progress Ohio sees this as a scathing attack on Congressman Pat Tiberi but I am afraid they are just helping an awful lot of conservatives get excited about helping him beat Paula Brooks (once she, [...]
I have been calling on the left to push the Blue Dogs to vote for as many liberal policies as possible. This seems like a great path for a Republican majority.
Kim Strassel has an article that lines up with this nicely. It focuses on Rep. Walt Minnick a [...]
Democrats and their lefty blog supporters have been trying to pin whatever negative association they can find on Rob Portman. The primary one being that he worked for George W. Bush (in one giggle inducing stunt they called him the “architect” of the Bush economy which was news to [...]
This Dispatch article has that terrible must-discuss-both-sides mushy muddle structure to it but it seems obvious to me that far too many cities in Ohio are going to take the wrong lesson from the recent passage of Issue 1. Namely that keeping your taxes high is fine if not [...]
Calling Jonah Goldberg! It seems that elected officials have moved on from referring to constituents unhappy about the massive government intervention in the economy are no longer being labeled with a sexual slang term but instead as Nazis and Brownshirts:
Over 10 years in Congress, U.S. Rep. Brian Baird [...]
Joshua Channey over at Politics Daily has a long article about how Zach Space is defending his position on health care. I think most of this is posturing. So called Blue Dogs are trying to lessen the political fallout from having to vote for a massive health care bill [...]
That is just what this state needs to turn things around, a political organization:
In an effort to rebound the struggling auto industry, Gov. Ted Strickland Wednesday announced the creation of Ohio Auto Industry Support Council, a new public-private partnership designed to help grow the state’s auto sector.
“Now more than [...]
What with Ted Strickland taking all the heat from left and right while the economy makes Taft’s time in office seem like an oasis of prosperity.
The folks over at the Education Gadfly had the bright idea of talking to him about his new found perspective. And it produced some [...]
Image via Wikipedia
This issue has been gaining remarkable steam of late:
As some Democratic U.S. senators push for a federal ban on text messaging while driving — with financial consequences for states that don’t go along — a proposal [...]
I guess we avoided people dying in the streets but I find it rather depressing that Mayor Coleman, The Dispatch, and the Chamber of Commerce threatened the city residents into raising their own taxes out of fear that the failure of Issue 1 would mean unsafe streets and all [...]
Day 85 – Haze
Originally uploaded by margolove
What do you think of this whole photo of the day idea? Leave a comment.
[...]For the few of you who haven’t seen this from Drudge and elsewhere.
Warning the video is a bit cringe inducing, but Democracy ain’t always pretty as Steve Driehaus is finding out.
Click here to view the embedded video.
[...]Is Congressman Tim Ryan giving aid to pro-choice Democrats and weakening his pro-life stance? The Weekly Standard has the story:
On July 21, Congressman Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) sent a letter to Nancy Pelosi pushing for a “common ground” solution to disagreements about abortion coverage in the health care bill. [...]
Image via Wikipedia
At its most basic level Issue 1 is a failure of political will mixed with the lure of corporate welfare and a willingness to deceive voters. Mayor Coleman and City Council simply lack the will to propose real budget solutions in order to [...]
I am not shy about criticizing the Columbus Dispatch when their coverage or editorials deserve it. But they also offer some good coverage and some worthwhile editorials. So in the interest of fairness allow me to point out today’s example.
All day kindergarten is a favorite of the liberal spend more [...]
When I covered the Portman Campaign’s RV tour I shot some footage of the ODP cameraman that had been following Portman all day. I didn’t post it as I wasn’t sure it was all that news worthy and the quality was bad.
But then Matt reported on a ODP [...]
Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood
Originally uploaded by Rand McNally Pix
I thought it might be interesting to post photos of Ohio to add a bit of color to this blog. At the bottom of the Ohio Politics Hub [...]
I just love how the Democrats trot out past associations as some kind of magic talisman: Portman = Bush or Kasich = Lehman Brothers so Democrats win. I wonder if they really think that guilt by association like this is going to work with 11% unemployment and the recent budget [...]
Certain lefty bloggers were triumphantly claiming that John Kasich was backing away from getting rid of the Ohio income tax. Of course, they ignored that the idea was just an example of the kind of new thinking needed to really spur innovation and erase Ohio’s high tax ant-business reputation. And [...]
Funny and frightening Hannity clip about how President Obama plans to cut a tiny sliver of government spending. Bonus John Kasich appearance. I think the quip about the government some people want to run health care just discovered paper has two sides should make you laugh and then cry.
This afternoon I took a trip to downtown Circleville to catch a stop on Rob Portman’s just launched RV Tour. Rob spoke to grassroots leaders from the area and stressed the importance of this race; and Ohio in general in 2010.
He stressed how important it was to avoid giving President [...]
Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Go ahead. Just keep insisting that all the Democrats elected in conservative districts vote for every liberal Christmas tree bill that comes down the pike in Washington.
It seems that lefty bloggers have dropped the Rob Portman = George W. Bush message; for a few minutes anyways. They have picked up a new hobby. The all important web site redesign analysis! That’s right, lefty bloggers have found the hidden key in Portman’s web site.
I probably shouldn’t admit this as I am sure most readers will vehemently disagree, but I have the burden of being a University of Michigan football fan. Have you stopped laughing now? OK, good.
Well, if I needed a reason to stoke my dislike of Jim Tressel it looks like I [...]
If your econ background is a little weak the folks at CEI are here to help with a new video series that explains complex policy issues. In this episode Ryan Young, Regulatory Studies Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, talks about the economics of federal stimulus spending.
After alll, if a GOP politician was the subject of this DDN article the left would be in full throated outrage at the pay-to-play scheme:
Just a week after winning a new contract from Ohio Treasurer Kevin Boyce, Key Bank officials are hosting a $500-a ticket political fund-raiser for him [...]
Ohio Capital Blog has posted this YouTube video of Tom Ganley running for the US Senate seat being vacated by George Voinovich:
Click here to view the embedded video.
A few thoughts:
His ideas about tax incentives for creating jobs seem like a stretch to me in the current environment. They may [...]This thing just keeps on going and going:
Did someone at the Ohio Department of Taxation conduct some politically motivated snooping — and leaking — in an attempt to find embarrassing information that could harm the U.S. Senate aspirations of Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner?
That’s what an attorney representing [...]
UPDATE: instead of visiting the lame parody site why not check out Rob Portman’s new website instead.
How else do you explain this incredibly lame parody site that is supposed to hurt Rob Portman?
First of all, I am sure it is news to Rob that he was the “Architect [...]
Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Great quote from Rob Portman:
That road to recovery is not going to come from bigger government and more bureaucracy. Government can not spend its way into prosperity. It never has. It [...]
In response to some comments by George Voinovich regarding the Democratic health care push, Lee Fisher sends out an email which reveals his ignorance:
Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, a Democrat who’s running to replace the soon-to-retire Voinovich, sent out an e-mail to supporters capitalizing on those comments and urging [...]
As relevant as the day it was written:
I will not willingly cede more power to anyone, not to the state, not to General Motors, not to the CIO. I will hoard my power like a miser, resisting every effort to drain it away from me. I will then use my [...]
Local government encourages a business to consider government assistance and tax incentives for its renovation. The manager spends some time discussing and considering options but ultimately decides against government help. In Chris Redfern’s world this is cause to issue a press release accusing Rob Portman, [...]
Well, all the snipping and accusations were fun but unless Jennifer Brunner gets a sudden influx of cash she is in deep trouble. According to the Politico:
Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner (D) has been under fire over her weak fundraising since announcing she was running for the [...]
Image by ProgressOhio via Flickr
The Dispatch has the details as the snipping escalates:
It started with a Brunner news release that called on Fisher to “explain why he left the critical post as director of the Ohio Department of Development in the midst of [...]
Links to this PD article were flying around Twitter this morning. One almost throw off line seems to encapsulate Strickland’s economic policy perfectly:
Strickland said he hopes the economy turns around by the time the stimulus money runs out.
Vintage Strickland: passive, almost resigned, vague and not [...]
Some links you should be reading if you haven’t already:
Lee Fisher’s Research Dumping (Or, How Liberals Finally Decided to Care about Joe “the Plumber”) Driehaus (of all people) Disses Republican Integrity on Cap and Tax Cynicism: Obama’s hidden enemy [...]
Image by Ohio AFL-CIO Labor ‘08 via Flickr
Joe Hallet’s column starts off sounding like the inside baseball perspective on Governor Strickland which paints him as a strong candidate and having escaped the GOP plot to get him despite [...]
I am still fighting some weird virus or bug that is sapping my energy so not sure how much posting I will be able to do.
But for your mid-morning viewing here is Ohio House Minority Leader Bill Batchelder discussing “the state budget and the Republican solutions that have largely [...]
Sorry for the radio silence around here. I have come down with some nasty bug that has me laid up in bed and out of commission. I should return to blogging once my body fights off whatever is trying to kill me.
[...]When the media uses the word “trounces” in the headline in reference to your fundraising lead over your opponents that is a good thing:
Republican Rob Portman raised $1.7 million for his U.S. Senate campaign during the second quarter of 2009 — more money than both his Democratic rivals combined.
“I’m [...]
The Dispatch is in high dungeon:
But the machinations that went into the two-year budget deal reached Friday and approved Monday were particularly odorous, because the goal and result was a betrayal of Ohio voters. While lawmakers and lobbyists scrambled to decide what few privileged interests would reap how much [...]
Awesome video illustration on the federal budget deficit and the shrieks about Bush and the shrugs over Obama:
Click here to view the embedded video.
[...]
Image by Getty Images via Daylife
First, it was lefty blogs wondering why Lee Fisher was sending dirt to the Plain Dealer’s Mark Naymik about old – and irrelevant – Brunner family tax issues. But the story has gotten [...]
Don't worry about those taxes ... Getty Images via Daylife
For highly competent lawyer types, the Brunners sure have trouble keeping things straight:
Rick Brunner, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner’s husband, has a history of making late property tax payments on [...]
Image via Wikipedia
Jon over at 3BP takes the time to explain to Joe Hallet why gubanatorial candidate John Kaisch did the right thing by not getting involved in the budget debate:
Simply because Kasich has announced his candidacy does not [...]
Since announcing the organization of a campaign for governor next year, I’ve had the opportunity to listen to people from across Ohio. They are rightly concerned about the future of our state and the direction in which our country is headed.
I’m grateful to my family, and to so [...]
The folks over at 3BP have a YouTube slamming Strickland for his slots flip-flop. You have to think this kind of thing is going to be offered regularly as we get closer to 2010.
Click here to view the embedded video.
[...]
Image by OZinOH via Flickr
The Dayton Daily News isn’t buying the slots as budget solution:
Gov. Ted Strickland is recklessly, obstinately and selfishly putting Ohio on a horrible course.
He refuses to give up on his plan to help balance the state budget by allowing [...]
I was a guest on the Radio Deli with Dirk Thompson this afternoon discussing Ohio politics as well as new media and social networking. I have uploaded the audio from my portion of the broadcast for your listening enjoyment and edification. Feel free to take pot shots in the [...]
When you first start reading this Dayton Daily News piece on the budget your begin to be worried that it is just another puff piece where liberal interest groups come out and argue for raising taxes. And sure enough, you have Zach Schiller and Richard Sheridan arguing for tax [...]
My first take is that the Senate didn’t have the votes or the stomach – or both – to fight for cuts and savings instead of gambling. This was always about Strickland seeking to avoid the opinion of voters and force the legislature to sign on to his last minute [...]
Someone posted this to Twitter in an attempt to tweak Kasich for not supplying the details, but I thought it was good enough to post. This is not about putting out a white paper on how you can eliminate the income tax in eight years or something like that. This [...]
