Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

Fun Times in Ohio

My goodness, the Ohio governor’s race is heating up already! According to this story in the Columbus Dispatch, Ken Blackwell is violating the 11th Commandment against speaking ill of fellow Republicans: "Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell proved that this week when he attacked his gubernatorial primary election opponent, Attorney General Jim Petro, with radio and television ads that stunned Ohio’s political establishment."

Now, from what I can see from afar, the "Republican Establishment" blocked the more worthy Blackwell for years in favor of name-brands like Bob Taft. Was this a good idea? Seems to me they are getting their just deserts. Stunned? Maybe the "establishment" will wake up.

You can find Blackwell’s radio ad here. And you can find Petro’s response here.

Discussions - 3 Comments

Chairman Bennett was out of line in his comments regarding Secretary Blackwell’s campaign messages. The bottomline is that Blackwell’s campaign is not undertaking a "scorched earth" strategy as Mr. Petro indicates, but is bringing to the forefront of the campaign the central issue that will save the GOP in Ohio for the next two years: There will be no more Taft-esqe riff-raff in state leadership. Period and end of story. As a follower of Reagan convervatism, I belive in the 11th commandment; however, in this instance, I have serious and grave concerns about Mr. Petro ethical compass, and those concerns alone will keep me from casting a vote in his name. Voters must know the character of the man they are electing, and there are more than enough reasons to doubt Mr. Petro’s character in this race. Ohio needs Ken Blackwell and his brand of conservative strength now - the alternative is far too frightening. I don’t want to move to Florida - but I will if I have to.

Steven and Andy: You guys are way out of line. Steven: you make it sound like Blackwell attacks Petro for being part of the RINO establishment which may or may not be justified. However, Blackwell attacks Petro and attempts to blame all ethics problems on him

Does Blackwell forget that a voting machine company sued him over the same thing?? Judging by the similarities, his character is just as questionable as Petro’s. Such suits generally arise over sour grapes or political motives, and Blackwell’s use of such a suit is below the belt. I’ll let theAkron Beacon Journal (Summit county is the place action hails from) explain how low this is. It’s just a trumped up charge by someone who hates Petro. Bennett is right: If Blackwell thinks that he is the next Ronald Reagan, he should start talking about ideas and stop using smear tactics. Campaigns about ideas and realistic/constructive criticism are good; this is just dirty.

Actions like this are why Blackwell is a mere twelve points behind Strickland and dropping fast.

It’s good to know that the talking points have been well distributed and that someone is welling to stand up for the party. I happen to find Mr. Petro as engaging as anyone in the race - His ability to campaign for the position isn’t in question, but you assertion that Blackwell is hitting below the belt and is devoid of ideas is weak at best. The Blackwell campaign has been the leading generator of ideas in this race - I’m more concerned that Petro’s concepts appears to be following the leader in every idea Ken Blackwell brings to table. For example, after chapioning the concept of limiting government spending via the TEL amendment for well over a year now, Ken Blackwell finds not only his agenda assailed by Mr. Petro, but his concept stolen as well with Petro’s generic CAP initiative. After hearing both gentlemen speak numerous times, it is clear that Ken Blackwell, an economist at heart, knows far more about how to realign Ohio’s finances than Mr. Petro. All in all, Mr. Petro, regardless of what his polling data shows, knows he’s in a bad place. Conservatism wins elections every time it is followed, and since we haven’t had a conservative Republican in the Governor’s office for some time, it’s clear who the best choice for the party, and for the state, will be.

Leave a Comment

* denotes a required field
 

No TrackBacks
TrackBack URL: https://nlt.ashbrook.org/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/7988


Warning: include(/srv/users/prod-php-nltashbrook/apps/prod-php-nltashbrook/public/sd/nlt-blog/_includes/promo-main.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /srv/users/prod-php-nltashbrook/apps/prod-php-nltashbrook/public/2006/02/fun-times-in-ohio.php on line 473

Warning: include(): Failed opening '/srv/users/prod-php-nltashbrook/apps/prod-php-nltashbrook/public/sd/nlt-blog/_includes/promo-main.php' for inclusion (include_path='.:/opt/sp/php7.2/lib/php') in /srv/users/prod-php-nltashbrook/apps/prod-php-nltashbrook/public/2006/02/fun-times-in-ohio.php on line 473