campaign event

Yup today is primary day here in the Buckeye state. The big race to watch will be the Democratic primary for Republican George Voinovich’s seat. Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher is up against Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. The winner will face Republican Rob Portman, who left the house to serve as the U.S. Trade Representative and then director of the OMB for Bush. When he left Congress he was succeeded by Jean Schmidt, so we have that bit of comedy to thank him for.

The good news about the Senate race in Ohio is that every poll has been showing either Fisher or Brunner beating Portman. Fisher generally has a wider lead and he is leading Brunner big time in the polls for the primary.

And speaking of Jean Schmidt, we also have the race going on for who will take her on this November. In the Democratic primary for OH-02, we have Surya Yalamanchili versus David Krikorian. This race recently gained some national attention when Krikorian when all teabagger like on his opponent:

Krikorian's remarks at a campaign event last week with veterans in Clermont County struck one attendee as racially insensitive in how Krikorian referred to his opponent for the Democratic nomination, Surya Yalamanchili. That attendee then wrote a letter to the current representative for Ohio's 2nd District, Jean Schmidt, concerned that Krikorian had suggested to the audience that Yalamanchili could not get elected in the Second District of Ohio because of his name.

People have been asking when Hillary would hit the campaign trail, especially since the introduction of Sarah Palin. Well it looks like they were just waiting for the convention to end:

Senator Barack Obama will increasingly lean on prominent Democratic women to undercut Gov. Sarah Palin and Senator John McCain, dispatching Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to Florida on Monday and bolstering his plan to deploy female surrogates to battleground states, Obama advisers said Thursday.

Mrs. Clinton’s campaign event in Florida, her first for Mr. Obama since the Democratic convention, will serve as a counterpoint to the searing attacks and fresh burst of energy that Ms. Palin injected into the race with her convention speech on Wednesday, Obama aides said.

With the McCain-Palin team courting undecided female voters, including some who backed Mrs. Clinton in the Democratic primaries, Obama aides said they were counting on not only Mrs. Clinton but also Democratic female governors to rebut Ms. Palin — and, by extension, Mr. McCain. Those governors include Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas.

I wonder how the McCain campaign will respond. Will Hillary be accused of launching sexist attacks against Palin?