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Thursday, April 22, 2010
Yost, Morgan spar over “political independence” in GOP auditor’s race
State Rep. Seth Morgan, R-Huber Heights, and Delaware County Prosecutor Dave Yost sparred over political independence on Thursday, April 22, in a joint appearance in their race for the Republican nomination for state auditor.
Yost’s decision to switch from the attorney general’s race to the auditor’s race at the request of Ohio GOP Chairman Kevin DeWine “has to call into question who’s pulling the strings here,” Morgan told members of the Dayton Daily News editorial board.
Yost disagreed.
“I made this decision based on what I thought was the best route for me to make a contribution to my state. I have never worried about offending other interests. I have always done my duty as I saw it.
“Frankly, if Mr. Morgan really knew me, he’d know better than to make such an absurd assertion.”
Morgan said he had supported Yost when he was running against former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine of Cedarville, for the GOP nomination for attorney general. Mike DeWine is Kevin DeWine’s second cousin.
Morgan said he thought “it was important for our party to make a break from many of the vestiges of the past.” In an apparent reference to Mike DeWine’s campaign, Morgan said “it brings back memories of a failed era.”
Morgan and Yost entered the race in January after incumbent Republican Auditor Mary Taylor, who had been expected to seek re-election, joined GOP gubernatorial candidate John Kasich as his lieutenant governor running mate.
Yost has been endorsed by the Ohio GOP while Morgan has the backing of the Ohio Tea Party PAC, the political action committee of the Ohio Liberty Council. The council is made up of some, but not all, Ohio Tea Party groups.
Pre-primary campaign finance reports filed on Thursday showed Morgan raised $96,306 through April 14 and had $27,582 on hand for the rest of the race. Yost, meanwhile, raised $102,142, including a $10,000 contribution from the Ohio Republican Party, and had $63,766 on hand, Yost’s report showed.
The winner of the Republican primary will face Democrat David Pepper, a Hamilton County commissioner, in the general election. Pepper so far has a big advantage in campaign cash. His campaign finance report showed he raised $244,925 during the reporting period and had $785,534 on hand.
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TweetDespite Tea Party shouting, Dems say they’re in good shape
Talk of a political swing to the right given all the Tea Party rallies and stories is just that, talk, said Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern.
Redfern told reporters Thursday, April 22, that his party still has 1.1 million more registered voters in Ohio than the GOP and registered Democrats are voting absentee in higher numbers than registered Republicans are.
Redfern contends that the notion that large numbers of Democratic voters are switching to vote in the GOP primary is just political spin. The Ohio Democratic Party found that in the first three weeks of early voting, 21,690 previously registered Democrats asked for Republican ballots, which is less than 1 percent of the 2.5 million registered Democrats. But they also found that only 3,506 Republican are asking for Democratic ballots.
Almost an equal number of independents are asking for Democratic or Republican party ballots, Redfern said.
Redfern said all the shouting at Tea Party rallies does not translate into a groundswell of voters joining the GOP.
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TweetBreaking news from the death house
Death Row inmate Darryl Durr died by lethal injection at 10:36 a.m. Tuesday, April 20. By 10:37 a.m., state prison officials sent out a press release announcing the time of death. The notice landed in reporters’ e-mail boxes across the state less than four minutes later.
Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections Communications Director Julie Walburn said she is making a concerted effort to promptly get the news out to all media outlets at once.
While walking between the execution chamber and the media center at the Southern Correctional Institution in Lucasville, Walburn uses a Blackberry to message a staff member to send the press release.
Walburn said this procedure replaces a deal where the attorney general’s office would first notify the Associated Press and then other media.
“At once time I thought about Tweeting it,” Walburn said. “We still haven’t decided how to incorporate Twitter and social media into our communications.”
Walburn admitted that she is concerned that Tweeting about an execution might be seen as poor taste.
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TweetMcLin turns down parole job
State prison officials offered former Dayton mayor Rhine McLin a job on the adult parole board but the Democrat turned it down and is now working on Gov. Ted Strickland’s re-election campaign.
“There was some talk of me working at the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. It’s not that it couldn’t happen (in the future.) The governor asked me to work on his campaign,” McLin said. “That’s something that I thought was more important.”
Parole board members are paid between $63,000 and $83,000 a year and decide which inmates serving open-ended sentences get out of prison on parole. McLin, a former state representative and state senator, spent 13 years on the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee.
Department spokeswoman Julie Walburn said McLin turned down the job offer.
For the Strickland campaign, McLin is reaching out to mayors of small and mid-size cities to find out their issues and concerns.
“It’s just amazing, the intensity of a statewide campaign and all it takes to pull it together,” McLin said.
McLin said she isn’t happy that she’s no longer mayor and she wouldn’t rule out a return to politics somewhere down the road.
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