Today is the big day in Blue Ohio News, the day where we find out Bob Ney is out. The interesting part is that Ney is trying to pick his successor:
In a heavily Republican district, Ney reported last month that his own internal polls had him clinging to a 4-percentage point lead; Space said his internal polls showed him up by 11 percentage points. Ney hadn’t gotten less than 60 percent of the vote since 1998.
Ney expects state Sen. Joy Padgett’s name to surface as his successor in the fall race.
“She is a person of passion and conviction,” Ney said. “I can think of no better person to represent this district.”
Padgett is one who has been sticking up for Ney since his involvement with Abramoff came to the public light. The problem is that there will be another primary for Ney’s spot and Padgett may not be able to run:
State Sen. Joy Padgett, Ney’s hand-picked successor for his seat, could fall under a little-known provision of Ohio election law, dubbed the “sore loser” provision. It prevents a candidate who loses in one primary from running in another during the same election cycle. Earlier this year, Padgett was the primary running mate of gubernatorial hopeful James Petro, who lost to the ticket of Ken Blackwell and his running mate, Ohio State Rep. Tom Raga.
Even if Padgett succeeds in getting her name on the new primary ballot, the controversy could invite other Republicans to jump into the unexpected race. James Harris, who lost to Ney in the Republican primary in May, said he’s considering running again — although the sore loser provision may apply to him, too.
The winner will face Democrat Zack Space, the Dover City attorney, who had made allegations of corruption a centerpiece of his campaign against Ney. The two sides had battled over polling data, with Space claiming a double-digit lead while Ney bragged about a razor-thin one.
So could we end up with a round of Texas style politics here in Ohio. Well the interesting part is that Ohio and Texas are the only two states that have such a law, so chances are we could.
Fox News of all places has their predications up for this fall and are predicting Democrats to pick up the House. One of the hot states they highlight is Ohio:
The Big Five: There are five states (Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana) with at least three Republican seats in serious jeopardy. In fact, there are four seats at play in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Let’s assume Democrats pick up two seats in each of these states for a total net gain of 10.
Now the interesting part. Ney was only ahead by 4 points in internal polling. Throwing a new candidate out there this late in the game will give his challenger a great advantage. Off the top of my head, I can think of 4 or 5 seats in Ohio now that will most likely go blue this year.
That’s it for today. It was a slow news day on the local front (actually it was all revolving around Ney so not much else out there).
UPDATE:
Check out Ohio2006 for even more on the sore loser law and how it could effect the election.