Campaign Notebook

Plenty has happened that I haven't covered. Most of it slid because Buckeye State or Plunderbund or Psychobilly or someone else got it up with little for me to add. But a few things have slipped under the radar and have only gotten half-drafted here at the House of Pho. So, taking a page from Fred, I'm emptying out my Temp Blog Bookmarks file and uploading my semi-coherent notes.

Mary Taylor Trying to Have it Both Ways.

Mary Taylor got a little uncomfortable when she was accused of lobbying for funds that might have helped a building project. So then she’s decided that she’s not really a small business owner. The response to the allegations of unlawful interest in a contract, her lawyer (and its never good when a candidate has to speak through a lawyer) filed paperwork saying that Taylor and here husband had divested themselves of the construction company in question.

Problem is, she's been calling herself a small business woman throughout the campaign. So now, the Elections Commission has found Probable Cause that Taylor made false statements in the campaign.

Through this all, I’ve felt that Taylor's major sin was saying out loud what everyone knew to be the case – that Republican donors set the agenda for the state.

Meanwhile, Taylor's pitch has been that she's an accountant, and therefore better at managing the state's business. Um, doesn't losing track of whether you own a business kinda work against that?

Richard Cordray is Freaky Smart

State Treasurer candidate Richard Cordray is the most blog-friendly candidate since Subodh. A few weeks back his campaign called to let me know he would be in town; would I like to meet. As it happens we had MTB: Judy Hanna scheduled the same day, so he came by Cafe Momus for a chat when we were done with Judy. It was, I believe, YellowDogSammy, Redhorse and myself.

I literally walked from the back room where we interviewed Mr. Cordray to the front room where I met with Tom Sawyer and he hired me, so this post went by the wayside in a hurry. Pretty much no idea where my notes are, and the results of the interview were long ago posted by YDS and revisited by Callahan.

What I took away from the interview is that Cordray is just crazy smart. A tiny slice of the population gets into a top-five law school (I don't remember which one for sure but I'm thinking Chicago.) A small slice of each class -- generally around 10 percent -- gets on law review. One person each year is chosen to be Editor in Chief. Richard Cordray was that guy.

That guy generally doesn't seek elective office -- there are much easier ways to make far more money if you have that kind of game. If you haven't voted yet, you must vote for Cordray.

I'm Mrs. Candidate and I Approved This Message.

Village Green first alerted me to the odd phenomenon of candidates getting testimonials from their wives. In VGs case it was Kevin Couglin's wife. Here at the House of Pho, Prof. W got a nearly handwritten letter from Tom Cousineau's wife:


I could snark heavily on this, but mostly it instructs why challengers need to run "negative" ads. Everything Dr. Cousineau says about her husband could be said about Brian Williams -- OK, not the bit about still looking like he could play football, but everything else. Not that I approve of everything Cousineau and his allies have said about Brian, but it's folly to expect challengers to "just run on their own qualifications."

No Respect, Pt. 1: Pete Crossland.

Here it is, your Summit County Dem sample ballot:
Look closely and you might notice that someone is missing: Council-at-Large member Pete Crossland. I knew that Crossland got crosswise with folks in the party thanks to his acquiescence to the Repub. charter change proposals (the stuff in the red). But I didn't know it was this bad.

No Respect Pt. 2: Lew Katz.

Got a sample ballot in the ebag from Working America, a labor umbrella group. Here's the Congress list, copied directly from the email piece:

U.S. House
CD 1 - John Cranley (D)
CD 2 - Victoria Wells Wulsin (D)
CD 3 - Stephanie Studebaker (D)
CD 5 - Robin Weirauch (D)
CD 6 - Charlie Wilson (D)
CD 9 - Marcy Kaptur (D)
CD 10 - Dennis Kucinich (D)
CD 11 - Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D)
CD 12 - Bob Shamansky (D)
CD 13 - Betty Sutton (D)
CD 15 - Mary Jo Kilroy (D)
CD 16 - Thomas Shaw (D)
CD 17 - Tim Ryan (D)
CD 18 - Zachary Space (D)

No idea why Lew Katz in the 14th is the only one missing. LaTourette infamously sold out at the last minute on the CAFTA vote. Given that long-since withdrawn candidate Stephanie Studebaker is still on the list, it may well be an oversight, though you would think someone would notice a missing number.


Deborah Owens Fink: Fundamentally Dishonest.

Ohio 2006 has the info on D.O. Fink's last minute anti-Sawyer blitz. Meanwhile, her appearance on WCPN still sticks in my craw.

She continues to claim that the whole Intelligent Design controversy was just an artifact of the scientists overreacting to perfectly reasonable science standards. In fact, the science standards sounded reasonable, but left in vague language about "critically examining" evolution. Scientists didn't like it -- they were concerned the language could be used as a toe hold for ID curriculum. And when the "critical examination" lesson plan was proposed, it was indeed straight ID.

It's all well and good to believe in Creationism or Intelligent Design or that Thetons brought us here to work as slaves. But be honest about what you are doing so people can make informed decisions.