Can newly-elected Ted Strickland help the Democratic presidential candidate carry Ohio in 2008? It's a fair question, and Reid Wilson from the RealClearPolitics blog seems to think the answer is yes.

By far the most common criticism was that I had omitted the most obvious choice: Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland. The newly-elected governor and former long-time congressman was subjected to the veep treatment by Chris Cillizza and Shailagh Murray in the Washington Post a few weeks ago, and would be a big help for any Democrat hoping to win Ohio.

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-- Finally, Strickland is arguably the most popular Democrat in Ohio, save perhaps John Glenn. Ohio is perhaps the most important state, electorally, to a presidential contest. With an historically weak Democratic Party that is only now rebuilding itself, state Democrats need someone at the top. With Strickland's solid presence, the party can work to regain seats in the legislature and take out several Republican members of Congress it has targeted in recent years. In the long run, Strickland as Governor does more for the Democratic Party than Strickland as Vice President.

Ted Strickland is a good match for Ohio. Inoffensive and kind of bland. Just like the state. But could he help carry Ohio? Maybe, but there's a big risk. The truth is that Strickland is still very much untested in a big heavy statewide campaign. In 2006 he ran against the Republican establishment and painted his opponent Ken Blackwell as part of it. Blackwell let him. As the former Governor Taft had a 15% popularity rating, it was a walk in.

John Kasich is a rock star in the Ohio GOP, but it's mostly because he's the last man standing. Or at least one of the few in the Ohio GOP who still look good after the party's big collapse in 2006. Now, he's making the rounds and appears headed for a coronation toward a governor run in 2010. (Yes, that's a long time from now). The Columbus Dispatch reports on his openness toward race:

"I've made it clear to people that I'm going to look at the governor's office. I hope that Ted Strickland will do a good job so I won't have to go around the state doing this stuff."

More than three years away from that potential confrontation, Kasich, the 54-year-old former congressman from Westerville and 2000 presidential aspirant, is preparing to re-enter politics by hitting the rubberchicken circuit to reconnect with the state's Republican grass roots.

He's certainly had the best of both worlds. National exposure on Fox News keeps his credentials alive as well as his conservative views current, while at the same time he's been able to stay away from any dirty business. So he was nowhere around when the local scandals hit the Ohio GOP.

There's been a little kerfuffle today in Ohio when our new governor up and decides that Bush's plan to resettle some 7,000 Iraq refugees is not welcome.

"I think Ohio and Ohioans have contributed a lot to Iraq in terms of blood, sweat and too many tears," Strickland said. "I am sympathetic to the plight of the innocent Iraqi people who have fled that country. However, I would not want to ask Ohioans to accept a greater burden than they already have borne for the Bush administration's failed policies."

The U.S. has a responsibility to help Iraqis who face danger in their own country for helping Americans topple Saddam Hussein's government, said Abid Al-Marayati, a professor of government at the University of Toledo who left Iraq in 1958.

"It's not a question of whether we should accept them or not. These people served the U.S. forces," Al-Marayati said. "I think for our country, we could absorb that (number of refugees) quite easily."

The statement in the first paragraph is very odd coming from a Democrat whose campaign rhetoric all throughout the campaign season was about helping the downtrodden. Apparently that only works if the downtrodden are currently citizens of Ohio. Everyone else can get lost, even if you have helped the US in the war on terror.

This statement is raising eyebrows on normally friendly territory.

Buckeyestateblog:

Not sure what to think, so... I'm reserving judgement on this one until the Governor has a chance to more fully respond to the issue. (And I'm certain he'll have that chance).

Strickland is now governor of Ohio:

Democrat Ted Strickland has been sworn in as governor of Ohio, ending 16 years of Republican control in the state that tipped the election for President Bush in 2004. In a midnight ceremony today, Strickland replaced the term-limited Bob Taft. Strickland now holds political control of a state that both parties view as critical to a White House victory in 2008. Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher took his oath of office just before Strickland was sworn in by Ohio Supreme Court Justice Thomas Moyer. Strickland then signed his oath and an executive order limiting the gifts he and other members of his

Can't say I'm happy, because I'm not, but at the very least instead of having a liberal GOP governor, we have a liberal Democratic governor. I see this as a mild improvement because when the liberal policies fail, as they always do, at least the GOP won't be blamed.

The GOP Strategy for now is to let the Democratic governor propose something. (tip to Right Angle Blog) His campaign was very non-specific as to details and plans and now that he's governor, that can't continue. This was especially apparent on school funding where Strickland's proposal was to come up with a plan that everyone likes. Now that he's in office, he's going to have to put some meat on those bones.

I'm monitoring an interesting debate between some of my fellow Ohio bloggers as to why the GOP had such a rough election, especially in Ohio. Matt Hurley of Weapons of Mass Discussion, and sees the loss as a problem within the party and something that needs to be addressed by cracking heads within the GOP:

I fear that we are not actually taking appropriate action in the face of such a huge loss at the state level. Something really bad happened and I haven't heard a peep from the political guru class just what exactly happened and what they propose to fix it. If Bennett isn't the problem, I think Ohio's Republicans deserve an answer to two questions: What was the problem? And how are we going to fix it?

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The problem that I see is that there was a breakdown in the coalition of social conservatives and the moderates. Someone with some credibility in both camps is going to have to step up and bridge that divide...I don't know who that might be, but the party ought to be seeking that person out pronto. (Might this be a job for John Kasich?)

Governor Taft, not content with a 17% Approval rating, and being shown the door out of the statehouse. Gets another slap in the face. The first override of a governor since 1975:

Gov. Bob Taft today vetoed a concealed-carry gun bill that would have overturned local bans on assault weapons, including one in Cincinnati.

The Ohio House then easily overrode the veto today, 71 to 21. The House needed 60 votes to override.

A total of 19 votes are needed for the Senate to override. The Senate reconvenes on Tuesday.

This marks the first time the House has voted to override a Taft veto. The governor has vetoed just two other bills in his eight years in office.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. James Aslanides, a Republican from Coshocton, said his legislation is as grassroots as legislation comes and has the support of law enforcement.

Apparently it's not enough that he has turned the state of Ohio blue singlehandedly. He has to continue to alienate key constituencies of normally GOP voters. Maybe he's going for an under 10% approval rating?

The Democrats here aren't being stupid either. They're voting for the concealed weapons law, saying, "See, we're on your side rural voters!".

It should be noted that incoming Democratic governor Ted Strickland, and incoming Dem AG Marc Dann are both pro-gun, and their GOP opponents were anti-gun.

I'm in Ohio now, folks, for a one-week vacation. Info I've picked up courtesy of conversations with people who live here (including my ever-trusty Ohio source):

The Buckeye State economy is lagging. "The unemployment rate in Ohio is 5.7 percent -- a full point above the national figure," the Washington Post reported in October. Sherrod Brown, the victorious Democratic candidate for senator, used the jobs issue effectively, saying he was fighting to help "the middle class." But can he do this? While Columbus seems like a healthy place to do business (think Tim Horton's, United Dairy Farmers, and Wendy's), revitalizing the Rust Belt may be too tough.

Maybe Democrats shouldn't pat themselves on the backs too much over winning the elections for senator and governor. A sign outside a church in the Clintonville neighborhood of Columbus told the faithful to support what is right ... as opposed to who is right. I took this to mean that some disenchanted Republicans on the religious right stayed home on Election Day.

Scuttlebutt around Ohio has it that DeWine is going to settle back for a couple of years and prepare to challenge Ted Strickland for governor of Ohio in 2010. Publicly, DeWine is only saying that he's considering a teaching career, but you don't kill off an old politician that easily. He's going to try for something. But what? Governor is out, Voinovich will run again for his seat in 2010. A congressional district is a step down for a senator, so that leaves the governorship in 2010.

The rumors of this are filling the Ohio GOP rank and file with dismay. While DeWine was a two-term US Senator, he also lost to an all-out liberal in what is widely regarded as a terrible campaign. The campaign was slow, it went negative clumsily and not on the strongest issues, and we often got the sense that DeWine never really took the campaign seriously. Certainly he never really made the case to vote for him. He made the case that the other guy was worse. Well, now we have the other guy.

But here's the real reason the ranks are saying "no DeWine". he completely flipped the counties in SE Ohio over to the other side. What was that about?

The race between Senator Mike DeWine and Senator Sherrod Brown is neck and neck. From the perspective of a gun owner the race is lose-lose and there is no lesser of two evils. It is important to note that the Brady Campaign has endorsed Senator Mike DeWine for re-election.

Oh.

Read it and weep (oh, I am). The Republicans can claim one lone victory, for state auditor. But every other statewide race has gone to the Dems.

Blackwell down 23 points. Senator DeWine lost by 10 points.

Most of these guys are well-known household names in Ohio. There's no other way around it. The GOP organization in Ohio was fired. However in this is a great opportunity for the Democrats, but they should remember that they won the election not because of who they were, but because of who they were not.

Wit that in mind it seems strange that in the midst of a national GOP loss, that the Ohio GOP delegation to the house lost only one of theirs. Joy Padgett, who was running to replace Bob Ney in District 18. This is a usually conservative district and I expect the primary fight to take on new congressperson Zack Space to be especially fierce.

From my email:

COLUMBUS – Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell recently called opponent Ted Strickland and conceded the election.

Following are Blackwell's comments to Strickland:

"Ted, you ran a good race and have won a tremendous opportunity to lead the people of this state to better days, a stronger economy and a higher quality of life. Congratulations and best wishes for a successful tenure as governor of the greatest state in America."

This is not really shocking at all given the poll numbers. Since Cuyahoga just closed for good, we should be seeing numbers for the rest of the Ohio races. CNN has called the senate race for Brown but I think that's as premature as the NJ call for Menendez.

New voting systems have some glitches:

More than 40 polling places in Cuyahoga County reported problems with some or all of their electronic voting machines this morning and had to revert to paper ballots to allow residents to vote, according to a spokesman from the county's Board of Elections.

Otherwise, there were no major problems at the 573 polling sites as they opened at 6:30 a.m., Alan Melamed said. He said a few polling places in Cuyahoga County reported trouble with machines early this morning but all were open and welcoming voters at or shortly after 6:30 a.m.

We're all hoping that things go much smoother than in the May primary

Results from the May 2 primary were delayed six days when roughly 18,000 absentee ballots had to be hand counted because they were improperly formatted for the new optical scan voting machines. Poll workers also had problems operating the machines, some poll workers didn't show up, vote memory cards disappeared and one precinct opened hours late.

Of course that was the first stab with the new machines. Hopefully things go smoother but if not, this could be a long night.

It's a terrible cliche by now, but this is all going to come out to turnout. I've been following the media and Ohio blogs ever since before the 2004 election and I don't see a lot of excitement here in Ohio except for a few areas.

The Democratic base is fired up and loaded for bear. I know this by reading the left blogosphere, but also by watching for the yard signs. If you see a Democrat house with a yard sign, it's not just one candidate, it's a yard full of the entire Democratic slate. The Democrat base is going to vote, but the kicker is they were always going to vote. I'm not seeing that their excitement helps anything.

Excellent Analysis by fellow Cincinnatian Adam Schaeffer.

Steele has run a strong campaign that puts him right behind Cardin in the polls. He will earn a sizeable share of the black vote - over 30% is quite possible - and benefit by a low turnout from black Democratic voters. Cardin must have a large and lopsidedly Democratic turnout from black voters, who make up almost 30% of the population.

I think that's right on, and I'm sure that he is also right about Blackwell...

Blackwell has largely run as the Republican establishment's candidate, mellowing his criticism and going along to get along as he did not do in the primary. "Run to the center," his advisors surely whispered. But the center of the Ohio Republican Party is a swampy lowland infested with tax-hikers and outright criminals. Ohio voters need proof of character in that word's most basic sense - a test through trial. Blackwell has not taken the risks or stoked the controversy needed to prove to a cynical electorate that he is a principled Republican. It's a very difficult task to accomplish, but there was a way for Blackwell to prove his bona fides to a skeptical public.

A sharp break with the Party, a strong denunciation of its corruption, and a call for reform would have earned Blackwell badly needed credibility and earned media. After all, the media love Republican in-fighting and candidates who criticize the Party (this year even more than most). No reporter could resist covering it - it's too delicious. And Blackwell's background supports the frame . . . he was not the Party choice, and he is a principled conservative.

It would have been an interesting thing to campaign that way, and inherently risky, but ultimately I believe that would be a clearer path to victory.

I haven't done a Gov Update in awhile, and things are moving again.

Blackwell is back on the air with a positive ad by Rudy Giuliani (see it here).

Zogby Interactive Poll is at great odds with the other polls and shows Blackwell down "only" by 7 points. Other polls are in the 20 point range.

One of the big stories going around is whether Strickland will give money and/or ad time to fellow Democrats in statewide races for attorney general, auditor, or secretary of state. He's being pressured to do so, but so far hasn't bit.

Asked about rumors that Strickland, up by large double-digits in the polls, is getting pressure to give up air time to down-ticket candidates, spokesman Keith Dailey treated the question liked he had just been asked about nuclear secrets.

Heh. Whether Strickland will part with his resources will answer the question of how close this race really is.

Don't Miss: Fellow SOB Alliance (State of Ohio Bloggers) member Bizzyblog has an excellent roundup of Bloggers on ohio politics.