Today’s Washington Times has an article talking about a battle going on between the Ohio GOP and John McCain:
In Ohio, long-boiling friction between the McCain campaign and the state Republican Party on a variety of issues reached a new intensity over a complicated local gambling question. The state Republican Party’s central committee had voted to oppose a proposed state constitutional amendment to permit a casino in Clinton County. The state party included its “vote no” view on the “slate card” of recommendations it sends to early voters.
The McCain campaign unilaterally removed that recommendation from the mailer, overriding Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett and threatening to block funds to pay for the printing and distribution. Mr. McCain favors legalized gambling, and his campaign did not want to appear to support it some states and oppose it in others.
The state party worked with the opponents of the amendment to send another mailing, using the pictures of U.S. Sen. George V. Voinovich, Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted and Mr. Bennett, along with their words of opposition on the gambling question.
“Why in the world would anyone want to amend the Constitution of Ohio and put a monopoly in for one individual to build one casino in the state of Ohio?” Mr. Voinovich asks in his statement.
Joe Sudbay brings up the fact that McCain has serious ties to the gambling industry, which could be his reason for breaking with the Ohio GOP. That is most likely only part of the reason though.
Wilmington, Ohio is home to a large DHL hub that is facing closure. This hub provides 8,000 jobs to the area. The fate of the DHL hub was in no small part due to the actions of Rick Davis and John McCain, who championed for foreign acquisition of DHL.
Amendment Six will bring approximately 5,000 jobs to the Buckeye State. The casino is also slated to be built in the Wilmington area, which would greatly help reduce the impact of McCain and Davis’ doings. Also worth mentioning is that Wilmington is a highly Republican area. Bush won the area 70% to Kerry’s 29% in 2004.
So McCain can’t only go against the gambling industry, which he has supported vigorously over the years, but he also can’t look like he is trying to drive away thousands of new jobs in an area that is facing certain economic hard times by the loss of their biggest employer – something McCain helped bring to fruition. This has put McCain in a very sticky situation, which is indeed true karma.