Doom of Ohio GOP?

If the political views of Cleveland are decidedly liberal, then Cleveland is about to get its way in Ohio. The Republican Party has held a majority in the Ohio House of Representatives and the Ohio Senate since 1992. Ohio has also had 15 years of Republican governors and most of the statewide offices such as Attorney General, Secretary of State, etc. have been held by a Republican for most of the past two decades. It is possible that the next election cycle will be the end of the GOP show for a while. Mired in corruption scandals involving $215 million “lost” dollars and blatant mismanagement of state investment dollars by a firm, Governor Taft’s administration is in big, big trouble. Without getting into all the details, I would say that this is the biggest political corruption scandal in Ohio history. This makes Celeste’s bank scandals look like CandyLand. (Without the mighty Princess card.) The central player, Tom Noe, was a big Republican donor, so this potential problem extends to most big name Ohio Republicans. Democrats are all over it, trying to capitalize big on the next cycle.

My take on the consequences when this all plays out: Petro, Montgomery, and Blackwell all vying for the GOP nod for Governor. Petro is the most tainted; there is even a small possibility that he could face indictment. Montgomery was in charge of a State Audit of the BWC (the bureau that held these investments funds) and it was a complete whitewash job, further separating her from a more conservative party then she would like. (She is a so-called “moderate”) Blackwell is the most removed, Democrats consider him the most beatable. (Most likely an underlying strategy of the Dems is to torpedo Petro/Montgomery so they face Blackwell statewide.)

The biggest fish to fry here, of course, is Taft. I would not be surprised, if before it is all said and done, he is either indicted, impeached or both. Although his 19% rating isn't exactly a Wilsonian mandate, this bodes poorly for Republican fortunes nonetheless.

Other statewide offices may be vulnerable now, especially if Lee Fisher steps up for one of them, although he may be eyeing the Senate. I don’t believe the House or Senate will change hands in Ohio because of the way the districts are drawn. However, I smell a shakeup, so get ready if you want some of the old-time Dems returning to do battle. (Celeste can stay in Colorado and continue to mess up his college. Or go back to India. Or get into another bank scandal.) The mayor of Columbus, Michael Coleman, ruined his campaign for governor by telling Glen Beck he wasn’t outraged by the rape of a girl in a Columbus City School. So, that leaves Sherrod Brown and Ted Strickland. (Unless, gasp, Jerry Springer shows up) Sherrod backed out before this scandal broke. My take again: Strickland is a big Clintonite, Clinton both made him and credits him for delivering the very important (to the Ds) rural Ohio vote. Governor Strickland could help the Clintons posture for ’08 bigtime. (And they could wield some influence) Brown was self-made, my money says he was asked to step out to be “taken care of” later.

Well, I just confused myself with this rambling. Maybe I’ll clear it up later. Additionally, my humble suggestion is that members allow comments to be posted on their blog entries. I have wanted to post comments a few times, but that option was not selected by the poster. It is under the post window, the default setting is apparently no comments allowed. That way the blog can feel less like a message board, and message related items (such as the location, circumstances and nuances of any aforementioned article) can go through blog comments instead. If possible.