And Portman has proven that he has what it takes to win. He has already visited all of Ohio’s 88 counties (seven months ahead of schedule) and has reported fantastic fundraising numbers for the first quarter. He has the work ethic, the financial support and the message to win.

So when an opportunity was presented to join the campaign in a formal role I felt I had to give it serious consideration. And in the end I decided that this was a fight I needed to be involved in and a great opportunity to learn from some very talented people.

I am excited to report that I have agreed to join the Portman for Senate campaign as New Media Secretary. New (or social) Media is a critical component of modern political campaigns and I am excited about leveraging the possibilities to help Rob Portman represent Ohio in the US Senate.

As excited as I am about this new opportunity, however, the down side is that I will not be able to continue blogging here at Ohio Politics Online for the duration of the campaign.

I am sure that is a blow to the dozens of people who read this blog regularly but a necessary step.

I hope all of you will make the Portman for Senate website a regular stop as the campaign kicks into high gear. And of course, you can always keep track of me via Twitter and Facebook.

I am sure the debate and discussion will continue just in a different format.

Fisher never mentioned Brunner by name, even though she was sitting 20 feet away from him. Instead he spoke mostly about the Republican candidate, Portman, calling the former Bush administration official “the architect of policies that dug the deepest economic ditch we have seen in our lifetimes.”

Portman and his Republican allies have fired back at Fisher repeatedly, pointing out that the state of Ohio lost 300,000 jobs in the nearly three years that Fisher was Strickland’s state development director.

“I’m well aware of the jobs that were lost,” Fisher said in a recent interview with the Enquirer. “They were lost because of the policies George Bush and Rob Portman created, giving incentives to companies to send jobs overseas and tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.

I will detail the economic illiteracy involved in arguing that the Bush trade and tax policies are responsible for the current economic climate in more detail in another post.

But just ask yourself honestly whether you really think “shipping jobs overseas” and “tax breaks” for wealthy Americans are behind Ohio’s unemployment rate and long term economic decline.

This is simply a thoughtless liberal talking point and a sop to unions. US Trade policy helped Ohio rather than hurt. And the shipping jobs overseas talking point is myth and bad economics.

But put that aside for the moment. Is Lee Fisher saying that having Strickland-Fisher in office has meant nothing?  When do state level leaders take responsibility for something? When does the blame Bush card run out?

Jennifer Brunner is tragically wrong about every issue I can think of but she is right about one thing. Lee Fisher hasn’t taken a tough stand in his life and he doesn’t appear to be starting anytime soon.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Image via Wikipedia

Steve Stivers has to have a smile on his face today. Why? Well, it turns out what he said in 2008 about Mark Jo Kilroy handing the unions a sweetheart deal was accurate:

In her successful 2008 campaign for Congress, Kilroy fended off accusations from Republican rival Steve Stivers that her ballpark vote was a sweetheart deal for unions at taxpayer expense. Stivers, who is seeking to unseat Kilroy, said yesterday that the court ruling proves that Kilroy abused her discretion.

That’s right, the Supreme Court sided with Stivers on the issue:

Ohio’s top court yesterday rebuked Franklin County’s union-friendly contracting practices in a decision that could force county officials to revisit big-ticket projects such as electrical work at a county animal shelter.

The Ohio Supreme Court said Franklin County commissioners abused their authority in 2008 when they rejected the low bidder for a painting contract in favor of one with a better record of paying union-scale wages.

Commissioners were wrong to reject the Painting Co.’s $770,079 bid for painting at the Huntington Park ball field for one that cost $261,000 more, the court said in its 5-2 ruling. The commissioners, all Democrats, disqualified the Painting Co. because the company had been accused repeatedly of paying workers less than the required prevailing wage.

One of the most frustrating issues in all of politics is how voters – particularly independents and other less engaged voters – seem to miss the fact that unions are 1) bad for the state and the economy and 2) control the Democratic Party to a degree that renders their economic development – and other – policies ineffective when not outright corrupt.

Minimum wage laws, prevailing wage requirements, the size of government, the quality of education – on issue after issue the unions are against what is in the best interest of the state and its long term economic viability.

In the above situation, a company who could provide the job for a lot less was disqualified because it got caught up in the arcane technicalities that is prevailing wage (the complex rules have delayed stimulus spending across the country).  This is not a bug this is a feature for unions.  They want to force the cost of everything up because then they can charge more and knock out more of their competition.

The article also ends on a laughable note:

Kilroy campaign manager Josh Levin defended the ballpark vote, noting that the entire project was finished on time and under budget. He also took a slap at the Ohio Supreme Court, calling it “the most partisan court in America.”

What I find so hilarious about this is the fact that the partisan label gets tossed around so much that it loses all meaning. Dems attacked Ken Blackwell mercilessly for being partisan and then choose Jennifer Brunner – a leftsitst hack in the pocket of ACORN and other activist groups who never misses a chance to abuse the law for partisan advantage – as their candidate.

And no party has been a bigger advocate of using the courts to achieve political victories that would clearly fail in the legislative process than the Democrats. As in so many other issues, the hypocrisy and lack of logic would astounding if it weren’t so common.

Newsflash: if a postion is an elected one affiliated with a political party it will be partisan! That is how democracy works. Politics is the process that results from having partisan – there is that word again – elections. If you don’t want to have partisan courts then change your position on electing judges. If not kindly shut up.

The question is not whether decisions are partisan it is whether they are correct. And in this case the court rightly slapped down an attempt by Democrats to send extra cash to their union bosses.

Let’s hope the voters catch on to Mary Jo Kilroy’s job killing policies and give Steve Stivers the reward he deserves.

It’s springtime in Washington, and that means peak season for earmark requests, not just the famous cherry blossoms.

Two of central Ohio’s lawmakers, GOP Reps. Pat Tiberi of Genoa Township and Steve Austria of Beavercreek, aren’t asking for earmarks in the 2011 spending bills, taking part in House Republicans’ one-year ban on such requests.

But Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy, D-Columbus, has submitted a long wish list to the House Appropriations Committee – more than 50 earmarks totaling more than $115 million.

An earmark is a request by a lawmaker to designate federal dollars in annual spending bills for an individual project usually in his or her district or state.

These two have a history of requests but are looking for more this year:

According to Taxpayers for Common Sense, an organization in Washington critical of earmarks, Kilroy won $18.2 million in earmarks for the 2010 federal spending year, sixth-highest among Ohio’s 18 House members.

Rep. Zack Space, whose southeastern Ohio district stretches into Muskingum and Licking counties, won $13.7 million for earmarks last year.

This year, the Dover Democrat is seeking more than $160 million for more than 100 projects. For instance, Space wants $2 million for the Ohio National Guard to help upgrade the Zanesville Air National Guard Station.

Tiberi and Austria, like their GOP colleagues in the House, deserve props for taking a stand and agreeing to a moratorium on earmarks.  Earmarks often spend money for political purposes, involve waste, and can easily slip into outright corruption.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Despite continuing to be relatively unknown Republican challenger John Kasich leads Democratic incumbent Ted Strickland 42-37 in his quest to be the state’s next Governor.

The numbers seem to be much more a referendum on Strickland than Kasich. 50% of voters in the state say they don’t know enough about Kasich to have an opinion, and those who do are pretty much split on him with 25% holding a favorable opinion and 24% seeing him negatively. Those usually aren’t the kinds of popularity numbers we see for someone leading an incumbent.

Strickland though is an unusually unpopular incumbent. Just 33% of voters in the state approve of the job he’s doing, with 47% disapproving. His own party is not enthusiastic about him with 53% approving, 23% disapproving, and 23% with no opinion. He has poor numbers with independents at 28/54 and with Republicans at 14/69.

The technical term for this sort of position for a sitting governor is SOL:

Right now the Ohio Governor’s race is shaping up as a referendum on Ted Strickland and that’s not going to work out too well for the Democrats,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “Strickland’s either going to have to change people’s minds about him or convince them that Kasich’s worse.

Um, yeah, good luck with that …

Some additional links below.

A sample of some of the headlines that result from this sort of polling:

• Familiarity, But Not Favor, for Ohio Gov. Strickland CQPolitics.com

• GOP’s Kasich Leading an Unpopular Strickland in Ohio Governor Race

• If Ted Strickland Can’t Save Himself, He Can’t Save Any Ohio House Democrats

As I said in the last post, Democrats in Ohio have to be worried.

Being a statewide officeholder is supposed to be an advantage. In elections favorable name recognition is crucial. Having been on the ballot statewide and being in the news more often (you can “make” your own news) is supposed to result in a candidate being more well known which should translate into positive poll numbers. Or at least that is conventional wisdom in these things. Which is why parties tend to support candidates that have this type of experience.

This CW does not bode well for Democratic US Senate primary candidates Lee Fisher and Jennifer Brunner. The latest polling has the Lt. Gov. and former jobs czar and the current Secretary of State not only losing but surprisingly unknown given their offices:

Ohio voters aren’t particularly familiar with any of the candidates running to take George Voinovich’s seat in the US Senate.

66% don’t know enough about Rob Portman to have an opinion, 62% are ambivalent toward Jennifer Brunner, and 55% don’t take a stance on Lee Fisher.

Portman has the early advantage, leading Brunner 38-37 and Fisher 41-36. That is largely due to a 37-25 edge against both Democratic candidates with independents.

I know what you are thinking: Portman has bad name ID too. Sure, but that was to be expected for a candidate who hasn’t run statewide and was not well known outside of his home area (where he is quite popular).

But on the Democratic side it was assumed that being a statewide elected official would be an advantage.  That turns out not to be the case and that is a problem.

You know what else is a problem? The fact that President Obama and the recently passed health care reform bill are also unpopular:

• 53% of the state disapproves of the President’s job performance
• 54%of voters say they’re opposed to the health care reform bill with only 39% in support
• 64% of  independents are against it

Prominent statewide Democratic officeholders haven’t made an impression on voters, they are losing independents and the president and his policies are unpopular. This is not where the party thought they would be just a year ago.

Democrats in Ohio have to be worried.

As they prepare to approve a bill that would ban texting (and Tweeting) while driving, House Democrats wanted to make an example out of one of the legislator’s most active Twitter users.

[...]

Rep. Nancy Garland, D-New Albany, and sponsor of the texting bill, said she was “disappointed in Sen. Jones’ behavior. Perhaps when my texting bill gets to the Senate, she will take the time to understand the potential consequences of distracted driving.”

But Jones said she didn’t write the Tweets while in her car, but rather when she stopped for gas.

“These people are ridiculous,” she said. “It’s a shame this is all they have to do over there is be the First Amendment police. That’s what happens when they base their facts on 140 characters.”

Given the problems facing Ohio perhaps they might be working on more important things than scolding members for their tweets. Sheesh.

I suppose this is just a lame attempt to bring attention to the latest nanny state bill they plan on passing but still. Lame.

Click here to view the embedded video.