Ohio: Brunner

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.

The League of Women Voters of Ohio, working with Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and other partners, announced a "redistricting competition" yesterday to allow anyone to submit plans for how congressional districts should be redrawn.

The idea is to show there are viable ways of redistricting to create congressional districts that aren't gerrymandered with crazy contortions designed to benefit a political party.

Supporters hope the approach in the winning plan will be part of a ballot issue this fall or in the May primary next year. They hope to amend the state Constitution and change how Ohio redraws its district boundaries after the 2010 census.

"We believe this redistricting competition will show that our state can transition to a fair, open process for drawing legislative lines," said Linda D.

I'm outta here.

I don't mind people who disagree with me.  In fact, I came here because I enjoy the give and take of a good debate.  Lord knows, I suffered the slings of arrows of several frontpagers, commenters, and other bloggers because of my support of Hillary Clinton.  And yet, despite some deeply personal and regretable attacks from both sides, I stayed.

I've been at this site for three years now.  I've gone through three rounds of site administrators during that time.  I think it's safe to say I'm the longest running member of BSB still blogging. Until today.  Because during my entire time at BSB, I've had one simple request for the administrators here: we don't have to agree with each other, but we should always have each other's back.

Allow me to voice my dissent to Nick's post about Fisher's "Women for Lee" campaign fundraising group kick-off.  First, the simple fact that Fisher is launching a statewide fundraising subcommittee further cements that Fisher views that Brunner is the only Senate contender that Fisher is worried about.  Second, it suggests that Fisher is convinced that Brunner is in this for the long haul.

This continues the trend of Fisher reacting to Brunner.  I'm not surprised that Fisher is launching this effort in NEO as that's his geographical basis.  What I am surprised is who is not mentioned on this list of sponsors.  Ohio has four Democratic Congresswomen: Kaptur, Fudge, Sutton, and Kilroy.