Preston on Politics: On The Campaign Trail

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Clinton Campaign Debt Contest: Win Dinner!

In what is partly a great marketing idea and partly a sign of sincere financial woe, Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign is serving up a contribution contest designed to help her retire the massive debt the campaign accrued and, if there’s anything left, to pay back millions of dollars in personal loans to the campaign.

The latest offering to her mass email list offers the speculative chance to have dinner with Clinton, if randomly selected. Read the email…

Friday, July 25, 2008

McCain’s Campaign Stop Gives German Village a Free National Commercial

John McCain may not have won the battle for media attention this week during Barack Obama’s European tour, but his visit to German Village was savvy, in a way that should endear him to some undecided Ohio voters, and anyone else who has ever visited German Village. McCain stopped by Schmidt’s Sausage Haus for lunch Thursday and the video of him greeting customers was played over and over by the national networks. The policy differences between McCain and Obama are wide. Informed voters should already know where they stand and which candidate they support. So it’s the remaining 10 percent of the population that can swing the election based on gut feelings. And if McCain is remembered as the candidate who brought a little extra attention to German Village, I think at least a few undecided Ohio voters will reward him for the free publicity.

UPDATE: Crites is the GOP’s Guy

As expected Mike Crites is the GOP’s selection to take on Richard Cordray for Attorney General. Crites’ experience should make him a formidable challenger against the better known Cordray. I like the fact that when you visit Crites’ campaign website you immediately see and hear the candidate speaking to you. I think more candidates should go to this format where you don’t have to navigate the page to ‘meet’ the candidate, the introduction is somewhat forced… which is a good starting point for voters looking to familiarize themselves with an office seeker.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

GOP AG Candidate Likely to be Local Lawyer

The race to become Ohio’s next Attorney General is about to get more crowded. A Republican insider tells NBC4 that Columbus attorney Michael Crites, a former federal prosecutor, is the frontrunner to receive the nomination. The Ohio Republican Party said an announcement will come tomorrow, but no other details are available. Calls to Crites’ office today were not returned. Here is a link to Crites’ biography from his law firm’s website. Several prominent Republican declined to run for the position after heavy lobbying from party officials, including former Attorney General Betty Montgomery and former U.S. Senator Mike Dewine.

Ohio Treasurer Richard Cordray is the Democrats’ nominee to replace Nancy Rogers. Rogers took over the office following Marc Dann’s resignation, but has said she will not run for election.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Kilroy vs. Stivers Has A Third Wheel

Three candidates, three debates. But it’s not clear how many candidates will be at each. The congressional race in the 15th Congressional District between Republican Steve Stivers and Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy has a third wheel in Independent candidate Don Elijah Eckhart.

Both the Kilroy and Stivers campaigns say they will participate in three debates hosted by local Chambers of Commerce, WOSU, and the AARP. The question is, how many will Eckhart take part in? Kilroy’s campaign wants him at all in hopes that he will siphon off some of the conservative votes from Stivers. On the abortion issue Eckhart is pro-life whereas Stivers is pro-choice, like Kilroy. But Kilroy campaign communications director Brad Bauman says Eckhart’s inclusion is not a prerequisite to their participation. Stivers’ campaign manager Mike Hartley says it’s up to each host to decide whether Eckhart is included. Many of the details are still to be worked out in the three debates.

Bauman was bursting at the seems to offer up this quote over the phone. “We cannot wait to debate Stivers on the economy,” Bauman said. “We would love to hear him defend his record.” He says Stivers is partially to blame for the mortgage crisis based on his past involvement as a banking lobbyist. They plan to tie him to the downturn via corporate deregulation on the state and local level. Stivers’ campaign, which rarely mentions Kilroy in its own press releases, is working to keep some of the back-and-forth criticism out of the race. Hartley offered this subdued response: “We welcome Kilroy to agreeing to join us at these debates which will cover a wide range of issues important to the voters of the 15th Congressional District.”

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Obama Campaign Names an “Ohio Rural Vote Director”

Knowing the general election could turn on how rural Ohio votes, the Obama campaign announced today that Doug O’Brien, a former Assistant Director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture, will take on the role of Ohio Rural Vote Director. According to a campaign press release, O’Brien grew up on an Iowa farm and worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture during the Clinton Administration.

Here are a few quotes from the release.

“Senator Obama understands the critical role rural Ohio will play in this year’s election, and I’m proud to lead the effort to reach out to rural voters across the state,” O’Brien said. “His work with farmers and rural communities throughout Illinois give him a special understanding of our state and the needs of rural areas.”

“Doug’s deep knowledge of rural Ohio and his lifelong commitment to expanding opportunity for rural communities will be a tremendous asset to Democratic success in Ohio,” said Obama’s Ohio State Director Aaron Pickrell. “This is truly a statewide effort that speaks to all Ohioans.”

Richard Cordray Needs Better YouTube Subscribers

State Treasurer Richard Cordray’s Attorney General campaign website includes a link to his YouTube pagehis YouTube page featuring a video of Cordray accepting the Democratic nomination for the AG position. But it appears the CordrayforOhio page needs to work in its subscriber list. Right now, the page has only one subscriber, Toby, who goes by the screenname ‘Vividblurry’ and uses a photo of himself sticking his tongue at the camera with his shirt unbuttoned. He’s not from Ohio, but he does curse out Latino Obama supporters for honking their car horns on a Saturday morning.

We all know the internet is full of characters, and normally this would not be of any interest. Except in this case, Toby is Cordray’s only YouTube subscriber. I don’t even know what it takes to become a YouTube subscriber, but I know that the Cordray campaign should try to find someone else besides Toby.

Cordray’s Facebook page is in better shape with 332 supporters.

Monday, July 14, 2008

The Money Race: Kilroy & Stivers

Ohio 15th congressional district race between Franklin County Commission Mary Jo Kilroy (D) and State Senator Steve Stivers (R) of Upper Arlington is one of the most watched contests of the 2008 election, and the fundraising is keeping pace. Stivers’ campaign manager Mike Hartley sent out this release today highlighting the campaign’s second quarter fundraising advantage over Kilroy.

In a July quarterly report to the Federal Elections Commission Stivers reported $430,453 in contributions, outraising his opponent and accomplishing the effort while continuing to serve constituents throughout central Ohio region and participating in a two-week annual training for the Ohio Army National Guard.  According to FEC reports, Stivers has outraised his opponent Mary Jo Kilroy by more than $116,000 since entering the race in early November. The campaign has $879,753 cash on hand.

Stivers’ numbers are not online yet with the Federeal Elections Commission, but Kilroy’s campaign report is online and shows her having raised $365,962 in the second quarter with $1,163,267 cash on hand; $283,000 more than the Stivers campaign.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Obama Versus McCain: The Battle for Ohio Residency

As John McCain prepares to leave Portsmouth, Barack Obama’s campaign announced today he’ll be in Dayton tomorrow to speak about his energy policy at a local school. This comes after last week’s visit to Zanesville in which Obama talked up his proposal to expand funding for faith-based organizations. And three weeks after he stopped at a senior center in northeast Columbus.

McCain’s town hall forum in southern Ohio marks the end of his nine day respite from campaigning in the Buckeye state. He visited the Youngstown area to tour a General Motors assembly plant late last month after holding a town hall forum at Xavier University in Cincinnati. In May he stopped in Columbus and Cleveland.

With 17 weeks to go before Election Day, I would put the over-under for combined upcoming candidate visits at 14. This does not count spouses, surrogates and vice presidential running mates.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

News Headline: Some Small Business Owners Have Preference Between Presidential Candidates

That’s not a very interesting headline, but not every news conference contains news. This was apparent today at John McCain’s Ohio headquarters where I had come to cover a news conference described like this…

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Ohio Libertarians Want Better Ballot Access

The Libertarian Party of Ohio is engaged in a lawsuit against Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner over ballot access. On July 14th, a federal judge will hear arguments in the case about signature requirements. At issue is whether Brunner can require small political parties to gather 20,000 signatures 100 days in advance of the state’s primary in order to get a presidential candidate placed on the ballot. Former Georgia congressman Bob Barr, one of the leading figures during the Clinton impeachment, is the Libertarian’s pick to be president and he could siphon off GOP votes that may prove to be the difference in the race between John McCain and Barack Obama. Brunner, a Democrat, has said her office tried to find a fair standard after an earlier requirement of 40,000 signatures 120 days before the primary was declared unconstitutional by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Here’s a link to the case information. We’ll have more on the court’s decision as we get closer.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

A Viewer’s Criticism and My Response

After tonight’s story fact-checking the latest Barack Obama television ad I received this note from Jacob, an NBC4 viewer:

Mr. Preston...