Gubernatorial Race

  • The Cincinnati Enquirer remarks on the strange absence of Tea Party challengers to Ohio’s Portman and Kasich, “establishment Republicans” now leading their opponents by comfortable margins:
As you political junkies know by now, Tea Party insurgents once again vanquished establishment GOP candidates in political primaries last night. Delaware and New York followed Kentucky, Alaska, Utah, and all the other primaries in which GOP voters bucked their own party leaders.
But not in Ohio. Gubernatorial candidate John Kasich and Senatorial candidate Rob Portman are unquestionably establishment Republicans and political insiders. They both served long stints in Congress. Kasich rose to committee chairman, while Portman’s political career peaked as President Bush’s budget director.
  • Meanwhile, the AFL-CIO whines that John Kasich “hates unions” in a new, four-minute video.
  • But that’s nothing compared with Ted Strickland’s hatred of carp:
Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland visited the White House today for a strategy session with newly appointed “Carp Czar” John Goss on how to keep invasive Asian carp out of the Great Lakes.
Strickland says he and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm argued in favor of ecologically separating the lakes from the Mississippi River ecosystem that’s already contaminated with the voracious fish, which crowd out native species when they move in.

Senatorial Race

  • The Portman campaign calls on Lee Fisher to return his donations, more than $30,000 over his political lifetime, from recently arrested corrupt Democrats.
“How many more people need to be carted away in handcuffs for Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher to finally step up and condemn his friends Frank Russo and Jimmy Dimora? Lt. Gov. Fisher should immediately stand with the people of Cleveland and join Rob Portman and even Democratic leaders like Gov. Ted Strickland and Cuyahoga County Democratic Chairman Stuart Garson, denouncing Russo’s and Dimora’s greedy, selfish and corrupt behavior. It is long past time for Lt. Gov. Fisher to speak up, just as it is long past time for him to give up the tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions he has received from these two corrupt individuals.” – Jessica R. Towhey, Portman for Senate Press Secretary

House Races

  • Human Events breaks the news of what Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy plans to do with her ill-gotten cash from Craigslist founder Craig Newmark:
Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy (D-Ohio)—Giving the money to charity.
Kilroy received three donations from Newmark for a total of $1,250.
“She will be returning the money,” her spokesman Brad Bauman tells HUMAN EVENTS in response to our investigation.
Bauman says that Kilroy’s campaign will donate the full amount of Newmark’s money to a charity that focuses on child trafficking.
  • And John Boccieri goes after Jim Renacci, in one of the least inspired attack moves ever, for being a “foreign trade lobbyist”: