I Have a Question

I do Meet the Bloggers. I do candidates night and town halls and even call into the occasional radio interview with a candidate. And I know that political staff people read this blog.

As much fun as it might be to draft the ultimate "gotcha" question, my position with regard to the above gives me a chance to try something better -- I can try to nudge the political conversation in an important direction. I'm putting out a question that will be my first question to every candidate I come into contact with from here out. The answers will be compiled here and (hopefully) discussed.

Here, then, is The Question:

In light of the scandals surrounding Republicans here in Ohio and nationally, Democrats have an opportunity to make real gains analogous to the opportunity the Repbublicans had in 1994. I am convinced that Democrats cannot win simply by running as the Notrepublicans. The Republicans ran on a reform agenda in 1994. Democrats need a similar reform agenda -- whether campaign finance reform, lobbying reform, government reform or a combination of all of the above. Do you have any reform ideas aimed at stopping the corruption we see?

If this sounds familiar, I touched on the issue in a windy omnipost about a week ago. I've been doing what I can to research the issue (in between vacuous posts about missing bloggers, of course.) In particular, I've been following this thread at TPM Cafe.

BTW, a couple of candidates have been asked an earlier version of The Question and, apparently, misinterpreted it. You now have The Question. Be prepared next time.

If someone notices my absence at a Meet the Bloggers session, feel free to ask The Question, but if I'm there, kindly get your own damn Question.

Hopefully, this will get candidates, bloggers and readers thinking about a reform agenda. Such and agenda would be good for Democrats and -- far, far, far more importantly -- good for the State and the Country.