The Columbus Dispatch published the results of their mail poll today. Strickland leads Blackwell in the gubernatorial race, 52% to 33%. Brown edges DeWine, 47% to 42%. 1791 Ohioans were polled from Sept 9th through Sept 22nd.  They have recorded the response rate as 16%. They list the margin of error as 2.2 percentage points. Blackwell didn't think the poll results were accurate because the first name of the candidate for lt. gov. was listed on the ballots wrong.
dispatch
There are more undecideds as you go down ticket: Jennifer Brunner, Democratic candidate for Secty of State  is ahead of Greg Hartmann, 36% to 28%; Republican Betty Montgomerery is leading in the race for Atty Gen, a job she had from 1995-2002.

The early leads are important, as people can start casting ballots October 3rd, for the first time you don't need a reason to cast absentee ballot.

Ohio voters do not seem in a rush to reelect DeWine
New poll published in today's Dispatch
show:
DeWine 31%
Brown 35%
Undecided 34%

DeWine 32%
Hackett 31%
Undecided 37%

Here is the link for the survey itself: Survey This was a mail survey of 1872 registered voters from Oct. 24 to thursday. There was more Demcratic interest in this survey, they returned 10% more of the ballots than did Republicans. DeWine has served almost 11 years in the senate, and his support is pretty tepid. From some of the comments, "It's time to dilute Republican power in Ohio." DeWine didn't do enought to restrain Federal spending. DeWine's support for Meirs, "shows that he is pretty much a lap dog for the Republicans."

The scandal thickens, as donations from Noe become too hot to handle, and Ohio politicians are falling all over each other to give away tens of thousands of dollars in Noe cash. There is widespread concern that the scandal could bring down any politician caught up in its web.

New twist to the scandal is that Colorado authorities have seized Cuban cigars and bottles of wine worth half a mil bought with Ohio money as part of a controversial rare-coin investment.
See the Dispatch here or here for the gory details.

Ending some speculation that, like Voinovich, the other senator from Ohio, DeWine might have some reservations about Bolton, DeWine endorses the Prez's choice. Sounding like every other sock puppet with the talking points, this from today's Dispatch

A town hall meeting on Social Security will be held with
Senator Harry Reid, Senator Byron Dorgan, Former Senator John
Glenn and Mayor Michael Coleman on Saturday, April 23, 2005.
The meeting will take place at Berry Bolts Company, 350 East
First Avenue, Columbus, Ohio. Doors open at 1:00 p.m. and the
event begins at 2:00 p.m.

Please RSVP to 614.645.6504.

What is the next pope going to look like? John Allen (Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and author of All the Pope's Men: The Inside Story of How the Vatican Really Thinks)  has shared some insights into who the next pope will be and what issues are important to the cardinals when they choose the next pontiff. He spoke at BC in Oct 04 and here is a link to the complete piece: frontrow It was summarized for the Winter Boston College alumni magazine, which is not yet on-line. I thought that his opinions would be interesting for some of you. Allen has interviewed approximately 65 cardinals.
Some points:

•  JP II has appointed 118 out of 122 cardinals eligible to vote.
  
• Cardinals usually are have two major goals: fix the flaws of the current pontificate and anticipate the challenges of the next one. (eg. pendulum dynamic, or as the Italians say, you always follow a fat pope with a thin one.)

Bush and Delay and perhaps Gov Taft can help save Jong Gin Choi, who is in a coma and just released to his family's care because there are no funds to provide care. From the dispatch The Nursing Home, ironically called Villa Angela, has released the patient to the family's care. The patient is not a US citizen, so the feds won't reimburse for care. To forestall the inevitable, the family called an ambulance to take the young man to the hospital, where he was admitted.  Unable to pay for bills, the family previously had signed over custody to Family Services, which now has legally returned him to the family's custody and refused to pay for care. The nursing home gave the family a month's notice before discharging him to them.

Ohio's gub contenders are all giving speeches and staying in the public eye. Blackwell, our favorite SOS (or is it SOB?) could have been giving a church sermon March 10 when he spoke at the University of Rio Grande (Oh) student center. Some excerpts below the fold.

From the Dispatch

Perhaps he will bring his own bible with him when he swears to tell the truth in front of US House committee reviewing  Ohio's handling of the 2004 presidential election. It is scheduled for 10 am today at the Ohio statehouse and will be covered live by ONN, for those with cable in Ohio. I presume it will be open to the public, if some Kossacks are within driving distance.

After getting beat by the nurses' union
See contracosta times

Ahnie tried to roll back a rule about the number of nurses required for patient care.

Last week there was a House hearing on campaign finance reform. Our favorite SOS didn't show up, and embarassed Bob Ney, House Republican from OH,  who had promised Dems that he would hold hearings. In a Columbus Dispatch editorial, Jonathan Riskin asks the question:

 Yesterday, Sen Mumpers introduced legislation into the Ohio senate called the academic bill of rights for higher education. Clearly he is in the mode of naming things their opposite, like the Clear Skies Initiative.
From the Columbus Dispatch

This bill would

In November, Ohioians passed a Constitutional Amendment denying legal status to unmarried couples. The previous Ohio statute already had defined marriage as between a man and a woman. The new amendment added this language, which forbids any state or local law that would:

Batterers are using this as a defense against domestic violence laws.

Just to keep all of you up to date on Ohio doings, Alliance for Democracy yesterday intervened in a Federal case with the goal of questioning Blackwell and others under oath, before Bush is inaugurated.

Our favorite Secretary of State is "facing criticism for a fund-raising letter that thanks Republicans for 'helping deliver' Ohio for President Bush and asks for illegal corporate contributions for his 2006 gubernatorial campaign."

More below the fold

I became interested in this topic ever since I had to cancel my liability insurance this summer. It had tripled in cost and I just couldn't afford it. I am a nurse practitioner, and my salary is modest. I have never been sued or named in a suit. I know that the CW from the dems is that  "tort reform" is a dirty word and we would be taking away people's right to a jury trial, a vital part of our democracy. I responded to some of the diaries about tort reform, but hadn't really done much research on the topic and was going by my experience and gut instinct. I have sought out some more information on plans that really are reform, not the repubs "malpractice caps"

Don't think there is the need for reform? What I'd like to suggest in this diary that there is reason for malpractice reform.  The system is broke. Note that I am not talking about tort reform in general, which includes suits against corporations, or drug companies but malpractice, one person suing their doctor or nurse because of harm they have sustained.  

Here is the letter written by Timothy Kettler, Green Party member and vote recount witness, to the Coshocton BOE and to 3 newspapers, 4 radios, 2 TV stations.

Note the found votes are pretty equal: Kerry 534 to Bush 549. (Edited for math error) Even more important is the % of folks who would have been disenfranchised without the recount (6.25%). The BOE apparently distributed vote totals purporting to be the November 2 totals, but which, in fact, were not the totals certified by Blackwell on the 6th. In addition, there were security lapses that were very problematic.

I will leave it up to you to speculate on where the additional 1079 new votes came from.