Blackwell for Senate? It’s About Time!

http://www.rollcall.com/news/Ken-Blackwell-Ohio-Senate-NRSC-205064-1.html

The Ohio senate race will be set if Ken Blackwell decides to run. He was the strongest conservative in the hapless Bob Taft administration, and dutifully waited his turn despite some whispers encouraging him to challenge Taft in a 2002 primary. Blackwell’s turn came up in 2006, a year that saw the Democrats Ted Strickland and Sherrod Brown win in landslides.

Blackwell is clearly the most senior Republican in the state and his entry would squash the chatter about Josh Mandel, Jim Jordan, or others in the young Republican crowd. Those two will certainly have a future if they desire, but Jordan may be enjoying his deserved limelight representing the conservative balance to the current House leadership, and Mandel made “one of those promises” to serve a full four years as Treasurer.

There was an earlier poll last month that put both Obama and Brown at around 45% approval. Incumbents would like to be above 50%, but these numbers aren’t awful this far ahead of an election. And since Brown has invested his entire adult life to playing politics, others have considerably invested in him. He can be seen most consistently on MSNBC as he confidently represents the far-left Sanders/Obama wing of the Democrat Party.

Brown will be tougher to beat than Strickland, and that race was a squeaker. The governor’s race was about competence and whether the Strickland stewardship was a success, and there were many even in the press who saw that it was not. Thanks to Obama, Brown will be able to claim success with moving toward Universal Health Care and with maintaining high taxes on the rich. The Republican candidate will have to convince voters that Brown’s victories have come at Ohio’s expense.