Ohio 2nd Blog

Kos, the 800 pound gorilla of the liberal blogosphere, is threatening to “out” any Democrat associated with K Street lobbyist Steve Elmendorf over this crack:

“The bloggers and online donors represent an important resource for the party, but they are not representative of the majority you need to win elections,” said Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic lobbyist who advised Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. “The trick will be to harness their energy and their money without looking like you are a captive of the activist left.”

Interestingly enough Sherrod Brown is very close with Mr. Elmendorf, since he just held a K-street fundraiser for the Congressman in December.

Now here’s what’s really interesting to me. One of the key points in Mr. Elmendorf’s resume are his efforts fighting FOR NAFTA back when he worked in the House. Isn’t it interesting how Sherrod Brown is now begging for money from the very lobbyist who worked to pass the anti-worker legislation that Sherrod Brown has devoted his career in the House fighting against. The very legislation that has devastated Ohio’s manufacturing base. I guess those AFL-CIO donations just aren’t what they used to be.

I think that radg1 in the comments is right, and this is totally off.

Candidate Bob McEwen is reported to have stood up the University of Cincinnati College Republicans, TWICE. They are not pleased.

McEwen is a mystery to me. He has the potential to run a competitive race, yet every time he seems to be sleeping through it. The one thing I’d think he’d be desperately looking for was a way to inject some youth into his campaign.

Why bother? Someday someone with more experience than me will have to explain why people run for office when they have no intention of winning. There must be some hidden motive to it.

UPDATE: VikingSpirit has a response from Bob McEwen for Congress Staff Director Kevin Pick where they counter the allegations of the letter. Was this a setup by Schmidt supporters in the group?

Pho’s Akron Pages has an interesting post up on his first impressions of AG candidate Subodh Chandra. Since he’s a lawyer he’s able to get into areas where I just go huh. He makes some good points that I’d like to hear more about.

Jill @ Writes Like She Talks had an interesting sitdown with ODP Chair Chris Redfern. The topic of blogs and their influence on local Democratic politics came up, especially as it relates to Paul Hackett and the Ohio 2nd special election:

…we spoke about many topics, including blogs, bloggers and blogging.

If he were in a position akin to that of a media placement advisor for a corporation, but doing so for a politician, what percentage of a budget did he think blogs would get?

Zero. Unequivocally.

Did he think Paul Hackett or Howard Dean would say the same?

No direct answer, but we talked about how Hackett’s juggernaut experience in the Ohio 2nd race and Dean’s fundraising successes aren’t really parallel to the question I asked, but do represent the burgeoning use of a media that Redfern agreed was in its infancy and as such, not really a known quantity yet.

He stated at least a couple of times his belief that in 4-6-8 years, the story re: blogs may very well be entirely different.

It’s interesting to me how much Ken Blackwell and the Ohio Republicans have embraced the blogosphere and are using it to shape their message and on the other side we have the Democrats sticking to email press releases, and press conferences with the usual bunch of reporters that turn everthing into mush. The results are that outsiders such as our very own Ohio 2nd blog control all the space. Since Democrats outside of the Party are very frustrated with the Party, the results are a liberal blogosphere who’s tenor is surprise very frustrated, angry and bitter.

I do agree with the Chairman. Things will be very different in 4-6-8 years.

ADDED: This thread is also running over @ BSB.

Former Congressman turned high priced Beltway lobbyist Bob McEwen is famous for his neat appearance, earning him many nicknames along the way for his love of fancy suits and his ultra groomed hair helmet. It’s amazing then that when it comes to his online political campaign he’s such a mess. His blog hasn’t been updated since July 21st. (Could it be that he doesn’t want people to know what he’s been doing for the last six months?) His endorsements page is full of names of people who endorsed him in the special election including anti-choice crusader Dr. John Willke who is now endorsing Congresswoman Jean Schmidt.

The big question buzzing around the blogosphere is will Bob keep the deceiving page on his site after he files the proper paperwork for running for Congress so that BizzyBlog can take him to court again, this time for possibly violating § 3517.21 of the Ohio Revised Code?

Here at the Ohio 2nd blog we think it’s time for an online intervention of Mrs. Editor’s favorite 2nd District Republican (yes, it’s true… I married someone who likes Bob McEwen for some crazy reason.)

Bob, please… pull yourself together.

What could be a more fitting post after complaining about the DCCC’s performance in the 2^nd special then one taking Sherrod Brown to task for being behind in his DCCC dues to the tune of $250,000. Kos wonders if perhaps if Congressmen like Sherrod Brown and Ted Strickland ($150,000 due) should be stripped of their committee seats since they don’t seem to have any interest in the Democratic House Caucus now that they’re running for higher office.

Sherrod Brown is running on his record as a leader in the House. His biggest advantage in the race is his $2 million war chest. He raised that money not as someone running for Senate, but as a Congressman serving his district. Surely he owns his caucus enough to pay his dues since they helped him raise all that money.

OK, oh02 fans! Time for some venting…

Malia Rulon reports over at the Enquirer Blog (man, it feels weird saying that) that DCCC Chairman Rahm Emanuel is holding a press conference and fundraiser for Democratic 1^st District candidate John Cranley.

I wonder if anyone will ask the Chairman about the lessons learned from the failure of the Democratic Party to properly support Paul Hackett in his bid for the 2nd District Seat, especially the surprisingly poor performance of GOTV efforts in Hamilton County. For months now I’ve heard numerous reports of clashes between out of state DCCC staffers and people on the ground leading up to the special election.

While Hackett surprised everyone by winning the rural districts of the 2^nd, he way underperformed in what should have been a major source of Democrat votes in Cincinnati. Typically, ODP Chairman Chris Redfern recently made Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune his Vice Chair responsible for “Large County grassroots and elected official outreach”. Too bad Mr. Portune wasn’t able to work his magic when it might have initiated a take over for the Democrats both in Ohio and in Washington. Instead things are looking pretty good for Ken Blackwell and Company thanks to the across the board failure of the Democratic Party.

Over @ DKos, Jim in Chicago is reporting that DCCC representatives are perpetuating the cover story that the bumbling in the early days of the special election were a part of a so called “stealth campaign” run at the behest of Hackett. Fortunately for you, my gentle readers, my oath to not swear on this humble blog prevents me from properly expressing my opinion of this pile of… whoops, almost slipped there.

All of the current headaches in the Ohio Senate race stem back to this one colossal failure. Instead of everyone riding the Democratic victory wave we have two good Democrats tearing each other apart and Mike DeWine’s prospects looking better every day. Where’s Donald Trump’s boardroom when you need it?

FYI, the one time I got a chance to ask Paul Hackett about Congressman Emanuel, he had nothing but positive things to say.

So far the only Democrat who’s filed the petition to run for Congress in the 2nd District is Gabby Downey. Cincinnati Blog reports that she is a teacher in Milford.

Live from Dayton reports on how the Warren County Republican Party has nominated to the election board a lawyer who has violated Ohio election law.

I’m telling you people, the key to a lot of the mess in Ohio is these damned election boards. Look at all the ways they cover up and then if they’re caught celebrate breaking the law and then try to convince me that there’s no reason to look into how we count our votes.

Just got a Sirius satellite radio only to discover that they’ve got an all Bruce Springsteen channel.