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I think statewide announcements deserve an update on this basically defunct blog, don't you?
Jennifer Brunner is running for Senate!
Lee Fisher is running for Senate!
I covered what I thought at the Keeler Report. In summary, here is what i said:
1. I am stupefied by all the Democrats who were begging her to run again for SoS – pitching the "team player" angle – and thought it would work. Open Senate seats come along maybe once but probably not twice in a career of a politician. Brunner obviously doesn't see herself as just a Secretary of State. This was her chance and she would have been borderline stupid to not take it. She will have the full-backing of 60th vote Sherrod which will be worth something. She cares more about herself than the Apportionment Board. So would you if you were her too.
2. Saying that Brunner doesn't see herself as a career SoS, she also knows that if Strickland wins in 2010, AG Cordray is the party choice for Governor if he wins in 2010 as well. That must have played a factor in her thinking. And she must have felt both would happen. Not saying they will, just saying that is what she thinks.
3. While 60th vote Sherrod will support Brunner, Fisher will have the backing of Strickland and what he controls…..at least the two of them will have that backing as we start out.
4. Dispatch: Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason might replace Brunner in the SoS race. I guess? Though Brunner is a formidable candidate, her departure does bring about a major opening for the Ohio GOP to take that seat back and hold the Apportionment Board. I wonder, deep down, if the Ohio GOP would rather win the Senate seat or Brunner's. Actually, I am fairly sure it is Brunner's.
5. Will this push out others in the Democratic field – or encourage them to get going on their bid? Neither Fisher or Brunner is backing down – and you can't expect anyone to with this opportunity. If Brunner and Fisher are both going to run and there will not be a clear field, there is no incentive for any of the other possibilities to stay away. It might be easier for someone like Betty Sutton or Peter Lawson Jones to win in a fractured primary – much like Sutton did for her congressional seat in March 2006. (I think this is the most important point).
6. I guess with Fisher making it official that means Bill O'Neill won't be running. He said he wouldn't run if Fisher did. What a relief.
I also think it is important that we note prediciting this race so far out would be foolish. Ask George Allen, Tom Daschle, and Ted Stevens about that.
No use in delaying the announcement any longer – effective November 30th, this site is changing. Kyle and I were brought on to supplement the election coverage for Ohio.com and that period has come and gone. So has our time here.
It has been a tremendous opportunity and one I never took for granted. It was not one I ever sought out, but one that I am glad I decided to do after some initial reluctance. Things worked out far better than I thought they would both for myself and the site. I have had chances to do things, go to events, get access, and meet people that would never have been possible before this website launched.
We found out officially on October 30, the day after the Phillies won the World Series. Talk about a buzz kill. It was my decision to keep it quiet until now. I felt it best that way: continue on through the election and keep doing the best job possible without distraction. This won't be my last post here, but readers deserve to be informed about what is going on. Sorry, that is all I have; I have no idea what they will be doing with the site.
There are a few people I want to thank. She is no longer with Ohio.com, but Linda Lyell was the one who got this thing started. It was her idea and she got it off the ground. Jim Arnold helped get the site launch off the ground and helped us work through some of the early technical stuff. Amanda Reagan was charged with the tough task of selling ads. Dan Kadar has done a lot of behind the scenes work as well – filming many interviews and doing general site maintenance. The site couldn't have run without him. His name was never on anything, but it should have been. When we were having trouble gaining traction early on, many bloggers linked to us or wrote something nice about what was going on here. There are too many to name, but you aren't forgotten. I will always remember the people that stuck up for me when the controversy flared up one week in. It was people on both sides of the blogosphere, friends, family members, high ups at the ABJ, and other random people who were outraged that I might be fired after a week. Thanks to all the politicians who took their valuable time to do interviews with us. Governor Ted Strickland particularly. Others know who you are. In my opinion, that helped put this site above most others. My parents wholsupported my move back into the Akron area, knowing that this was something of a dream job for me. That is not a surprise – they've always been there for both of their children in good times and bad, and I have had a lot of bad. My mom must have given out hundreds of our business cards to people around the area. My dad was always there to bounce my ideas off of. I hope I didn't embarrass you two that much with what I wrote. My grandma would even set her alarm for those early morning radio appearances on WAKR that I would do on about 2 hours sleep. Thank you for your support through it all.
Of course, I was only one of the two people who wrote here. Kyle pushed for me to be the conservative point of view during the planning phase and I am grateful for him looking out for me. We always said if a chance like this ever came along either we would both do it or we wouldn't do it at all. He lived up to it when the opportunity came. When it looked like I would be getting the ax after the early trouble he said he wouldn't go on without me despite my pleas not to let a Summit County GOP Chairman bring him down too. He even offered to give me half his check for three months because I couldn't get paid until after the March primary. That is a friend. There is no one else I would rather have done this with. We had some good times – especially the "strategy sessions" at the Nuthouse to discuss plans for the upcoming week. The privilege was mine.
Lastly I want to thank the readers and especially those who took the comment, call me, or email me with tips, whether it was one time or a hundred times. You are the greatest and have my eternal gratitude, even those of you who savaged me. Things are kind of dull if you don't get any feedback, but that was never a problem. We couldn't have asked for a better core group of commenters that knew their stuff and weren't afraid to argue for their point of view or candidate. This site was an experiment and I think that we proved there is room on the internet for two people with differing perspectives to share the same space. I certainly wish things had gone better for my side on November 4th, but that is the way it goes. John McCain had the misfortune of running in the worst environment possible. Locally a lot of great people, not just great candidates but great people, went down to defeat for the crime of running in the wrong year. This area should be proud to have these outstanding individuals in the community. I met a lot of you and the sacrifices you made to run for public office is something that most of us just talk about. Just because we lost this time doesn't mean the fight is over. Democrats should enjoy their win. Everything is cyclical and you will be out of power again, hopefully sooner rather than later.
I do however have one regret. I was unable to keep my own site up as much as I wanted. Anything I had to say about the big stories went here. I thought I could keep up two sites, but it just wasn't possible. I'll be heading back there and I have some work to do to get the KPR back where it was. I hope you follow me back there. The effort will be what it was here. I'll still be reading all the stuff everyone else is writing.
But until The Point is officially gone, I'll be here.
Oh and if anyone out there is looking to hire, my resume is up to date………
Long time readers may remember that our site was pulled one week after it was launched. I thought that was it and we wouldn't make it another month. But, they stuck with us and I was very happy to have the opportunity to write here. Thank you to Linda, Jim, Dan, Rose, and the others at Ohio.com for helping us along the way so that we could go the distance through the election. The biggest factor in keeping our site viable were our readers. To date, we've had over 5,500 comments and counting. Thank you for taking the time to stop by, read, and share your thoughts.
Ben and I had the opportunity to do a lot of things that we wouldn't normally have gotten to do if we didn't write for Ohio.com. One of our biggest early supporters and arguably the nicest guy in Akron is 1590 WAKR's Ray Horner. He had us on his show for several discussions over the course of the campaign and treated us like professionals. No one has ever enunciated my name so well. He almost made it sound normal. Ed Esposito and Eric Mansfield also helped us along the way and Eric invited us to be on NewsNight Akron. Ray, Eric, and Ed do such a good job covering Akron politics and news. It was a privilege to get to know them. Getting to know people is something Ben and I spent a lot of time doing. As openly partisan people, we were able to build a trust with local campaigns and candidates that helped us do our jobs as bloggers. Even though I can't name names to reveal my sources, you folks know who you are and I appreciate all the emails, phone calls, and meetings to answer my questions.
Ben, what can I say? We sat in Ted Strickland's office and interviewed him. We had campaign staffers calling us late at night with information and accusations hoping we'd post it the next day. We spoke to a variety of groups, sat on panels, and got to throw in our two cents about what we love to follow. We managed to become the first independent bloggers hired by an Ohio newspaper that were able to keep our site going and we made it for a full election year. You definitely carried the load here by posting when there seemed like nothing to write about, commenting on dozens of Ohio blogs so they would check out our site, and keeping up with the comments to keep our threads fresh. I suspect it is because of your well deserved appearance at the Cleveland City Club that in our last week that little BlogNetNews ranking has us as the 6th most influential blog in the state. I have never understood how they come up with that number, but it is nice to go out in the top ten given the quality of our competition. As I've been telling you for a long time, you will someday run for political office and when you do I'll be one of the first there to help.
Not a lot of additional information right now, but State Senator Kevin Coughlin announced this afternoon he plans to run for governor. I first saw it here at Ohio.com.
Looks like John Kasich, should he decide to run, will not have a clear primary field.
Update: State Senator Coughlin is exploring with the intention of running for governor. The state party has been informed of the organizing for a 2010 governor campaign and that is what is going on as of now. Just wanted to clarify that.
Well if there was ever a reason update a basically defunct Ohio political blog, this would probably be it. Looks like we got our answer on whether Senator Voinovich will run for a third term in 2010.
Politico: Ohio Republican George Voinovich is expected to announce Monday that he won't seek reelection to the Senate in 2010.
A two-term senator, former governor and Cleveland mayor, Voinovich has been a political fixture in his state for decades. But recent press reports from his home state have indicated the 72-year-old lawmaker is considering retirement, and a person close to him told Politico that the announcement will come Monday.
His retirement would give Democrats a shot at an open Senate seat in a battleground state that voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 elections and elected Democrat Sherrod Brown to the Senate in 2006.
After the last couple of days, I am not surprised. But overall, yes, I am surprised. It was always a foregone conclusion he was running. Until something happened.
Let the speculation of who will run begin. I don't know any names you don't – Rob Portman is the likely GOP candidate. Democrats will be fun to watch, as there are about 85 of them who A) want the nomination and B) think they are entitled to it. Lee Fisher, Tim Ryan, Peter Lawson Jones, Marcy Kaptur are names that are bouncing around. Hell, even Zach Space is.
Story: Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of an American political dynasty, has decided to pursue the United States Senate seat being vacated by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, a person told of her decision said on Monday.
How pissed off would be if you were serving in the U.S. House from New York and you wanted to be a senator? You wait around and wait around and hope the chance comes your way at some point – knowing even then it would be a dogfight for the nomination. Then in 2000, it did. Moynihan decided to retire. A lot of Democrats in New York were waiting that one out, but unfortunately for them some First Lady came in and decided to move there because she wanted it.
Well, that seat is now open again……and the same people kept their mouth shut and stepped aside the first time…….and now someone with no history of holding elected office wants to replace HRC. Sounds like the criticism the left leveled at Sarah Palin, minus the whole she was a governor part. One would have to think New York Governor David Paterson will give Kennedy a long look. I don't think all of the contenders (former Rep. Nita Lowey, Reps. Steve Israel, Greg Meeks, Nydia Velasquez, Brian Higgins just to name a few) will keep quiet this time.
(Note: "Rep." is short for "representative" not "Republican." The media was fond of only referring to Gary Condit as "Rep. Gary Condit" back in 2001 to try and confuse people into thinking he was not a Democrat.)
For Republicans, it is fun to watch, but that is about as close as we will get to ever winning this seat. Giuliani would have an outside chance to win it, but he would never run again (after dropping out in 2000). Peter King would have a glimmer of hope, but not much.
For the latest on Coleman – Franken in Minnesota, this post by Powerline has some good information. It is going to be close, and one side is not going to be happy with the end result.
