[From the Columbus Dispatch, June 14, 2007]

Armbruster abused office, ethics probe finds
Ex-senator should face prosecution, report says

Former state Sen. Jeffry Armbruster abused his office by mixing legislative business with efforts to reduce workers' compensation rates for his own company, the Joint Legislative Ethics Commission said today.

In what Armbruster's attorney Donald Brey called a completely unjustified decision, the bipartisan 12-member committee sent a report to Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien saying the Ridgeville Republican violated Ohio ethics law in early 2006. It was the first time in its history that the ethics panel has referred a lawmaker (or former legislator) for prosecution.

Tom Noe, the Toledo-area coin dealer who embezzled over a fourth of the $50 million rare-coin fund he managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, was sentenced to eighteen years in prison this morning.  Noe will begin serving his sentence after he finishes a 27-month federal sentence for illegally funneling over $45K to George W. Bush's reelection campaign.

From the Columbus Dispatch:

http://www.dispatch.com/...

According to an analysis by the Columbus Dispatch, Mary Jo Kilroy would cut Deborah Pryce's lead in half by the time all outstanding ballots are tallied, but she will still fall short.

If yet-to-be-counted votes follow patterns of those already tallied in the 15th Congressional District, Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy would gain almost 1,800 votes districtwide on incumbent Deborah Pryce but still fall short.

A precinct-by-precinct Dispatch analysis of uncounted absentee and provisional ballots in Franklin County shows Kilroy gaining more than 2,000 votes.

If uncounted votes in Madison and Union counties follow countywide trends, Pryce would pick up more than 250 votes.

The result: Kilroy would cut in half Pryce's still-unofficial 3,536-vote margin. The election, one of the closest in the country, would result in Pryce returning to Washington for an eighth term.

According to the Ohio Secretary of State's web site, the current totals in the race for Ohio District 15's seat in the U.S. House of Representatives are as follows:

Franklin County
Mary Jo Kilroy:  87,661 (51.43%)
Deborah Pryce:  82,771 (48.57%)
Total:  170,432
Margin:  Kilroy by 4,890

Madison and Union Counties
Kilroy:  10,439 (35.62%)
Pryce:  18,865 (64.38%)
Total:  29,304
Margin:  Pryce by 8,426

District 15
Kilroy:  98,100 (49.11%)
Pryce:  101,636 (50.89%)
Total:  199,736
Margin:  Pryce by 3,536

Reports of Mary Jo Kilroy's demise in this central Ohio race may have been exaggerated.  According to the Ohio Secretary of State's web site (as of 1:12 am on Nov. 9), the votes are as follows...

Pryce (R):  101,636 (50.88%)
Kilroy (D):  98,100 (49.11%)
Write-In:  19 (0.01%)
Total:  199,755

Current margin:  3,536 votes (1.77%)

FWIW, these figures do not match those currently posted on Kos; these figures give Pryce 119,208 votes to Kilroy's 107,847.

Close but no cigar, right?  Maybe not...

According to Survey USA's latest approval rankings for the 100 members of the U.S. Senate, the bottom three are all Republicans up for reelection this year, and all are trailing by significant margins in their respective polls.

http://www.surveyusa.com/...

OK, I'm not really surprised that Ohio's Greatest Home Newspaper came out in favor of Ted Strickland.  But considering the last Democrat it endorsed for president was Woodrow Wilson in 1916, I wouldn't have bet the mortgage on it.

According to the Dispatch editorial board...

Ohio is falling behind in jobs, education and optimism. It has been riven by bitter and closely decided presidential elections. More than anything, the next governor of Ohio must be someone who can bridge political gulfs and enlist the help of all Ohioans to make the state a national leader again. For this reason, The Dispatch urges voters to elect Democrat Ted Strickland on Nov. 7.

The lead story in this morning's Cleveland Plain Dealer had plenty of good news for Ohio Democrats.  According to Mason-Dixon...

Ted Strickland leads Ken Blackwell, 53-36, in the Ohio governor's race.  These figures are very much in line with other recent polls on this race, including the recent Columbus Dispatch poll.  PD columnist Brent Larkin reporetd that 23% of Republicans plan to vote for Strickland, while only 7% of Democrats plan to vote for Blackwell.  (Who are these people?)  Blackwell's favorable/unfavorable numbers are 32/45, compared to Strickland's 46/20.  Larkin went on to state that "candidates with Blackwell's type of unfavorables don't usually lose.  They always lose."  

Stick a fork in Blackwell.  He's done.
 

Tom Noe, the man at the center of the Republican fund-raising scandal in Ohio, was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison today.  From the Toledo Blade...

Tom Noe, the GOP fund-raiser at the heart of Ohio's biggest political scandal in a generation, was sentenced today to 27 months in a federal prison for illegally funneling money into President Bush's re-election campaign.

U.S. District Court Judge David Katz also ordered Noe to pay $136,200 in fines for sending more than $45,000 into a 2003 Bush fund-raiser by using two dozen friends and associates -- including several current and former local Republican elected officials -- in violation of federal election laws.

The two major-party candidates for governor of Ohio met in the first of four scheduled debates this afternoon in Youngstown.  From Ohio's Greatest Home Newspaper...

In a feisty first debate, the two candidates for governor today sought to portray themselves as reformers, alternately attacking each other for lacking the vision to revive Ohio's economy.

The hour-long debate at WFMJ-TV focused on the agendas Republican J. Kenneth Blackwell and Democrat Ted Strickland have proffered throughout the campaign and neither candidate emerged as a clear winner.

   

Provisions of Ohio's new voter registration rules that would have required the person who registered the new voters to turn in the forms him/herself or face criminal penalties have been thrown out by a U.S. district judge.  From the Columbus Dispatch...

A federal judge threw out new state rules governing voter-registration drives yesterday, saying they appear to violate the First Amendment and hurt efforts to sign up new voters.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen O'Malley issued an order from the bench halting enforcement of the registration rules. She said she planned to issue a detailed written order next week.

Ken Blackwell, who trails by 25 points in the latest Rasmussen poll, is taking steps to shore up his base. From the Columbus Dispatch...

Saying they are exercising their constitutional rights as citizens, a group of about 30 conservative pastors from across the nation stood behind Republican J. Kenneth Blackwell yesterday to endorse him for Ohio governor.

The pastors, who are both black and white and call themselves "Clergy for Blackwell," pointed primarily to Blackwell's stands against abortion and same-sex marriage.

The clergy members include the Rev. Russell Johnson of Fairfield Christian Church in Lancaster, who leads the Ohio Restoration Project; Bill Owens, director of the Coalition of African-American Pastors in Memphis, Tenn.; and Bishop Harry Jackson of Hope Christian Church in Maryland.

From the Columbus Dispatch, July 11, 2006...

Paul Hackett endorsed onetime rival Rep. Sherrod Brown yesterday as the incumbent Republican that both Democrats hope to see defeated this fall launched a new campaign ad.

Meanwhile, Brown attended a "Democratic unity rally" with Hackett, the Iraq war veteran who was going to run for Senate but reluctantly stepped aside several weeks after Brown got into the race.

Hackett made a name for himself as an outspoken newcomer to politics and endeared himself to many Democrats nationally when he almost won a special election last summer to replace former GOP Rep. Rob Portman of Cincinnati in an overwhelmingly Republican district.

Lat month, Rasmussen gave Ted Strickland a 52-36 lead over Ken Blackwell in the race for Ohio governor.  More recently, SurveyUSA gave Strickland an identical 16-point lead, 53-37.  So, Blackwell must be itching to debate Strickland in order to to cut into that lead, right?

Well, not so much...

Last week, a bill that could have placed the responsibility for drawing legislative districts in Ohio in the hands of a nonpartisan panel was defeated.  Oddly enough, Democrats shot down first a Republican plan, then their own plan.  Confused?  So am I...  

The Columbus Dispatch editorial page had some choice words for Ken "I was for TEL before I was against it" Blackwell on today's op-ed page...

It looks like the Tax Expenditure Limitation (TEL) amendment, once the crown jewel of Ken Blackwell's gubernatorial campaign, is on its deathbed.  And Blackwell's GOP comrades are waiting to pull the plug.

Further developments on the Ohio GOP's effort to run as far away from Ken Blackwell's Tax and Expenditure Limitation amendment as it can.  See background at the following link...

http://www.dailykos.com/...

The heat in the kitchen must be unbearable for Blackwell and the rest of the Ohio GOP.  According to today's Columbus Dispatch...