Can we win w/o Ohio?

[mrgorth]

This NPR piece on the fundies scared the shit outta me! Makes me think we don't have a chance. I had no idea Ohio was such a fundie haven.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5162312

Politics & Society
The GOP and Religious Right's Role in Ohio
by Bill Cohen

All Things Considered, January 18, 2006 · Ohio played a strategic role in President Bush's election victory in 2004. In recent years, the Republican Party has had a monopoly on statewide offices, but a party scandal has damaged its hopes of retaining the governorship and other offices in 2006.

Ohio Public Radio's Bill Cohen examines the Ohio political landscape and the role of religious conservatives in the GOP.

I am 100% sure that Blackwell will be made gov. in reward for giving OH to * in 04.

[unblock]

1. oh yes. i grew up in ohio

kids at school literally searched my head for horns. those who weren't taught that jews disappeared 2,000 years ago were taught that all jews had horns.

i shit you not.

[stepnw1f]

2. Regardless of the Fanatical Right Wingers...

I don't see how Ohio could vote Republican after all the scandal they have witnessed there.

[Marie26]

5. There's a lot of unhappiness w/the Republicans

And in 2005, an grass-roots movement tried to pass laws to reform the state government. It ultimately failed, but it says a lot that they managed to get all the signatures & support to put it on the ballot. People are in general sick of the corruption, and there's a real growing feeling of "Throw the bums out." I think the state Republicans will probably be blown out of the water in 2006.

[stepnw1f]

10. I Hope You Are Right

Any political illustration work that may help Ohio throw these bums out, I can do for free!

[Lasher]

11. Strong evidence suggests the 2005 OH voter initiative vote was hacked

Of the five proposed amendments on the ballot, only the first - a $2 billion state bond initiative to promote high-tech industry - was not related to the conduct of elections, and oddly enough its results were accurately forecast in the poll (predicted yes vote, 53 percent; final yes vote, 54 percent). Then it gets hairy.

Issue 2 would have made absentee voting easier in the state. It had lots of high-profile support, and the Dispatch poll predicted a cakewalk for it: 59 percent yes, 33 percent no, 9 percent undecided. The actual result: 36 percent yes, a whopping 63 percent no.

Then there was issue 3, which would have lowered the campaign-contribution limits that a lame-duck state legislature had raised a year ago. Prediction: 61 percent yes, 25 percent no, 14 percent undecided. Actual result: 33 percent yes, 66 percent no.

The results of issue 4, to control gerrymandering by establishing an independent board to draw congressional districts, were only slightly less dramatic. Prediction: 31 percent yes, 45 percent no, 25 percent undecided. Result: 30 percent yes, 69 percent no. And for issue 5, to establish an independent board instead of the secretary of state's office to oversee elections, a 41 percent predicted yes vote shrank to 29 percent, while the no vote ballooned from 43 to 70 percent.

http://www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

[Burning Water]

7. They'll just say,

"They may be crooks, but they're my crooks." Issues trump ethics every time. What we've got to do is educate some of them over to the progressive way of thinking.

[napi21]

3. Most of Ohio is pretty RW, but with all the scandals, even the RW

will get disturbed by their leaders. They may not vote for a Dem, but they'll stay home in disgust. I know Cleveland is blue, and some others are as well.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

4. Can't we like

suspend Ohio from the team and make it sit on the bench next election?

[Burning Water]

9. Soon as we did,

they'd turn out have just the Democratic votes we needed to win.

[madmom]

6. I live in a small berg on Ohio(very small)...

I can count on one hand the dems who live in my community.It's very quiet around here it's almost eerie. But I'm not getting my hopes up because I know how idiotic they think (teachers voting for bush, come on now!)gun rights only,it's really screwed up state.

[Botany]

8. I live in Ohio

The issues for election reform 2 - 5 were winning big (except for 1) in the polls .... but they lost?
Kerry won Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, Dayton, Akron, Canton, Youngstown, &
Warren ..... and he was even in a lot of suburbs .... but somehow he lost?

Sure we have a lot of right wing dumb ass born again mouth breathing shits but they are
not the majority. It is the G.D. voting machines, central tabulators, Blackwell, corrupt BOEs,
& over all corruption in the State that lets repugs win.

A clean vote and dems win in a landslide.