Posted on 08/12/2005 9:44:15 AM PDT by Theodore R.
The Real Meaning of Buckeye Special Election Is Ohio Turning Blue? by John Gizzi Posted Aug 12, 2005
In the wake of a Democratic candidate’s narrow loss in the August 2 special election in Ohio’s most Republican U.S. House district, pundits have begun pondering whether the Buckeye State is turning blue.
The problem for Republicans seems to be the stench that has begun to envelop the administration of Ohio GOP Gov. Robert A. Taft.
Republicans have held the Ohio governorship for 16 years and in the last two presidential elections the state has been indispensable in providing an Electoral College majority to George W. Bush. If Democrats can take back the governorship in 2006, however, they would improve their chances of taking the state’s electoral votes in the 2008 presidential contest. In another tight red state-blue state race, that could give the White House to Hillary Clinton or whoever happens to be the Democratic nominee.
The chances of this calamity’s taking place have been enhanced by the investigation into coin dealer Thomas Noe, a Republican contributor, into whose enterprises the state, under two Republican governors, has invested millions of state employee pension funds. In May, the state froze Noe’s assets.
On July 22, the Toledo Blade reported: “Tom Noe stole millions of dollars from the state and used a ‘Ponzi’ scheme to fabricate profits within the state’s $50 million rare-coin investment, Ohio’s attorney general said yesterday.”
“There was an absolute theft of funds going on,” the paper quoted GOP Atty. Gen. Jim Petro as charging.
This week, Noe’s lawyers denied the charge in a court motion, saying that Petro’s court motion was “page after page of speculation, setting forth no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of defendant’s Thomas Noe, Inc., or Thomas Noe.”
After Noe received state funds as investments in his coin business in 1998, according to the Blade, he made $7,000 in contributions to then-Secretary of State Taft, who was running for governor. In total, Noe has given $22,190 to Taft. In 1998, he also gave $2,000 to then-Gov. George Voinovich (R.), who was running for the U.S. Senate that year. In addition, he has given $7,500 to Sen. Mike DeWine (R.-Ohio).
“I think it shows that Tom Noe has become radioactive very rapidly, and politicians want to disassociate themselves from him as rapidly as possible,” John Green, director of the University of Akron’s Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, told the Dispatch.
In late July, Brian Hicks, formerly Taft’s chief of staff and now a Columbus lobbyist, pleaded no contest to charges he did not report taking gifts, in effect, from Noe in the form of undercharged stays at Noe’s $1.3-million vacation home in Islamorada, Fla. According to the Blade, Hicks paid $300 to $500 to rent Noe’s condo, when he should have paid $1,500 to $2,800. Taft himself is now under investigation by the Ohio Ethics Commission for failing to report up to 60 golf outings he received over several years.
The political fall-out from what is increasingly dubbed “the mess in Columbus” has already worked to the detriment of the Republicans. With Democrats sensing their best chance at capturing the governorship in two decades, their leading candidate, Rep. Ted Strickland, has raised a whopping $1 million since announcing for governor two months ago. Moreover, in the special election for Congress August 2,,Democrat Paul Hackett narrowly lost (52% to 48%) to Republican Jean Schmidt in the 2nd District (suburban Cincinnati), the most Republican of Ohio’s 18 House districts. In both debates and mailings, Hackett tied former state legislator Schmidt to Taft and corruption in Columbus.
‘Chicken Hawk’
In focusing on the special election, national media outlets such as ABC News and the Washington Post made much of the fact that the 43-year-old Hackett, a U.S. Marine reservist who had served a seven-month tour of duty in Iraq, was critical of President Bush’s handling of the Iraqi war and the current occupation. At different points, Hackett was even quoted as referring to Bush as a “chickenhawk” and “S.O.B.”
“He did that to draw attention to himself, but Iraq was by no means a big issue here—Taft and taxes were,” said Portsmouth lawyer Eddie Edwards, a Republican activist in the 2nd District. In contrast to his anti-Bush salvoes that were highlighted in the national media, Edwards noted, the Democratic hopeful actually seemed to embrace Bush and the U.S presence on the campaign trail. One Hackett TV spot featured footage of Bush himself, and said: “There is no higher calling than service in our armed forces”—leading Ohio Republican Chairman Bob Bennett to denounce the spot as “a blatant attempt to dupe voters” into thinking Bush endorsed the Democrat. Asked by the Cincinnati Enquirer what his exit strategy for Iraq would be, Hackett echoed Republican Schmidt that the U.S. must “finish the job.”
“I opposed the war, but we’re there now and can’t just leave,” said Hackett. “I propose that we get serious about training the Iraqis and marry them to American units, so that they can defend their fledgling democracy.”
Hackett and the Democrats hit hard at Schmidt as a “rubber stamp for failed policies,” tying her to Taft and noting that she voted for his unpopular sales tax increase. In their final debate July 26, Hackett mentioned Taft’s name in the same sentence with Schmidt 12 times and used the term “rubber stamp” seven times. The Hackett campaign’s two district-wide mailings linked Schmidt to Taft and taxes. The Democrat may also have benefited from last-minute reports that Schmidt, as a state legislator, had lobbied Gov. Taft’s office on behalf of an Internet lottery company owned by one of her contributors, Roger Ach (in whose failing on-line gaming company the controversial Noe was an investor).
Hackett carried four counties that Bush had won handily last year, but Schmidt survived through a big win in her home county of Clermont and by carrying strongly Republican Hamilton County. Taft and “Coingate” nearly cost Republicans a safe House seat. Will they cost them enough to make Ohio “blue” in ’08?
John Gizzi is Political Editor of HUMAN EVENTS.
"The second district is the most Republican in Ohio.We should have gotten 65%.Something is wrong."
True, but don't try using logic with the FRino's here.
Voters in Ohio are mad about Bob Taft's tax increases. Republicans in the 2nd District nominated a candidate who voted for all those tax hikes.
Voters in Ohio are mad at Bob Taft's corruption. Republicans in the 2nd District were dumb enough to nominate a candidate who can easily be tied to him and with ethics problems of her own.
There were 11 candidates, and we just happen to nominate a candidate who is both a taxaholic and the 2nd most unelectable candidate in the field. We can't blame the media for this one. We can't even dish all our blame on Bob Taft, as we could have nominated someone who can't be tied to him. Republicans in the 2nd District, including a number of RINO's on this site, put us in this position.
Not if Blackwell becomes Governor.
If they keep putting up these RINO Republicans and expect to get elected, they will find out the hard way they miscalculated.
Maybe yanking their power from them is what they need at this point.
Ohio won't matter much in the next ten years.
We're losing thousands of people every year, so the Census will drop us in the standings.
yes that is true, but I reject this idiotic notion of a red and blue state as though the way states vote is something permanent.
OH voted DEM in 1976, 1992 and 1996.
Just because they might elect a DEM gov next year doesnt mean squat. CA, IL, PA, WI, MI, OH, NY, NJ, MA all had GOP govs in 1996 and Dole didnt carry a single one of those states.
RED/BLUE is just a way for the media to be lazy and not do any real political reporting
no one has been killed by Tafts incomptence, that was the final straw in IL
He's clean.
He was not part of the Taft-Graft for the very reason that the RINO Mafia was laying the groundwork for Petro or Montgomery to run for Governor - by trying to squeeze out Blackwell, they basically boosted his chances.
he would have looked foolish running against Enron given so many people had been already found guilty.
""Is Ohio turning blue? Possibly. It definitely has become a battleground state""
there is no such thing as a state permanently being a battle ground state.
OH is consistently about 2 points more GOP than the nation as a whole (2004 was the exception). If the election nationally is 50/50, then yes OH is a battle ground state.
if the GOP candidate is winning nationally 55/45, then no OH is NOT a battle ground state. Then states like IL, CA, NJ are battleground states. If the DEM is winning 55/45, then MO, VA become battleground states.
""It seems RINOs are taking over.These days the definition of a conservatives means whatever anyone wants it to mean.What do you think about 08?""
if you think RINOS are taking over you must be very new to party politics. RINOS have less influence in the GOP today than they did back in the 1970s and 1980s.
the problem is that since conservatives have won som many elections since 1980 and have suffered so few set back (1986), they have become very demanding that members of the GOP be philoshopically pure.
Both Senators from ME are called RINOS frequently,m but few here sem to realsie that both Snowe and Collins are more conservative than the constituents they serve.
""The story to the MSM is that 2006 will be like 1994. The MSM just can't get over the fact that the stories they are reporting just aren't matching reality.""
let them think that. One huge thing that aided the GOP in 1994, was the so many DEMs retired.
""Hackett is a lib and he came within 4 points, even while literally and publicly calling the President a POS.""
i dont think you paid much attention to what was going on in the local OH media...that is what he did at the national level, not the local level
The RINO's have certainly taken over Ohio. When the Bob Taft/Jean Schmidt tax hikes passed in 2003, only 8 out of 62 Republicans in the House voted against it. Of course, those 8 are the "bad Republicans" for not supporting their RINO leaders Taft and Householder. The 54 tax-hikers are the good Republicans according to the hierarchy.
I'm still taking a wait-and-see approach for 2008. My inclination is to think we need someone from outside the DC beltway so we can put a fresh face on what will be 6 continous years of Republican-only rule. And besides, Governors run better than Senators anyways. Though I'd support a DC insider if that person was revealed to be the best candidate.
If Jeb Bush ran I'd look hard at him. As long as the Democrats run Hillary they can't bash Governor Bush on the nepotism issue. I'll definitely take a look at any conservative Governor in a blue state, such as Tim Pawlenty in Minnesota. Isn't Carcieri in Rhode Island also conservative?
Things can change in 2 years when the race really gets hot, so I'm not too focused on names right now. I just know I'll be taking a long look at any clean, conservative governor who's popular in their state who isn't a tax-hiker like RINO Bob Taft.
There's a big difference between expecting to get conservatives in Maine and expecting to get conservatives in a conservative Congressional district. I usually don't bother criticizing Snowe and Collins, or the 3 liberal Republican Congressmen from Connecticut, because as you noted, they're probably about as conservative as we'll get from those states. I know that we'll get some votes from them, but not others.
Some districts you might get some conservative votes on economic issues, but not social issues. Some districts you might get conservative votes on social issues, but not economic issues. If it's not a conservative district, that's probably the reality we're facing.
That's what makes it especially important to get conservative representation from conservative states/congressional districts. Our best chance of passing legislation is to start with a good conservative base that we can count on for virtually any vote, then get the rest of the votes where you can.
""There's a big difference between expecting to get conservatives in Maine and expecting to get conservatives in a conservative Congressional district.""
most here cant see it that way.
I'd say Clinton was a much bigger factor. Gays in the military and HillaryCare went over like a lead balloon. It was much more than open seats that were taken, Jim Sasser, Tom Foley and Harris Wofford were taken out as incumbents.
I was liking Allen, until he started criticing the President. Now I don't know. Maybe the rumors are right and Cheney will run. It seems like a longshot, but maybe he can be convinced for the good of the country.
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