Ohio: Bob Taft

Apparently publicly-declared "in the tank for Fisher" blogger Nick D is upset that I don't always comment on what D.C. Beltway pundits say about the race (when in reality, the whole point of being a blogger is to challenge conventional wisdom, not echo it.)  My other reason for not doing so is that the ones in particular (Cilliza and Silver)were only discussing the fundraising reports, they did nothing to take into consideration a sense of public opinion and what's actually occurring on the ground in Ohio.  There is one D.C. beltway pundit who does get his hands so dirty as to actually get a first-hand sense of the field on the ground before opinionating.

Six weeks after Gov. Ted Strickland unveiled his "child-centered, evidenced-based" school-funding proposal, the administration has released a 37-page bibliography identifying where his strategies originated.

Lawmakers, educators and others had requested the information in an effort to evaluate the governor's plan.

Strickland's two-year education plan calls for all-day kindergarten statewide, smaller class sizes, increased professional development for teachers and staffing requirements for counselors, nurses and administrative personnel.

Much of the governor's plan was derived from an evidenced-based education model put together by academics Allan Odden and Lawrence Picus.

Strickland took that model which called for all-day kindergarten and tutoring for struggling students among other components and coupled it with ideas generated from other research and suggestions from education stakeholders.

The Preamble of the Ohio Democratic Party's Constitution and Bylaws of 2007 states, that our party is organized to "sustain and advance the principles of democracy" and that one of the essential tenets of our party is that "We believe that there is no substitute for fair and equal representation and strong public participation in a government chose by election."

And yet, despite that being one of the fundamental principles of the Ohio Democratic Party, Chapter 9 of that same documents says:

"In any election year in which any statewide office . . . are to appear on the ballot, the Executive Committee shall be called for a meeting before the primary election and must carefully consider in each race the endorsement of one of more persons.

Plain Dealer is also reporting that Lee Fisher is hurrying to make an official announcement by 6 p.m. today that he, too, is now officially running for the Democratic nomination.

Apparently, Fisher cannot stand the idea that Jennifer Brunner might be at least given the courtesy of announcing her campaign without Fisher trying to crowd her out of the limelight.  After weeks to do so, Fisher suddenly decides that he MUST, MUST announce today or else Brunner would get all the press coverage.  Who's being the selfish pol?

For all the chin scratching over the Apportionment Board, when will someone ask why Fisher, the Director of the Ohio Department of Development during one of the worst economies in history, cannot seem to show the same sense of urgency on Ohio's economy as he can his own personal political ambitions.