Ohio

The Ohio GOP has been busted for illegally funneling almost $500,000 dollars into a fund for Ken Blackwell during his failed try to retain the Secretary of State office in 2006:

The letter says Ohio's Republican party collected nearly half a million dollars from a federal GOP account in October 2006. They also took in $20,000 from a state GOP account the same month and another $25,000 in November 2007.

The letter doesn't indicate which candidates received the party's largesse. But according a state GOP spokesman, the money supported just one candidate -- former Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. Blackwell ran for governor in 2006, and lost.

Remember - this is the same GOP that supported Ohio's former Governor Bob Taft who was convicted of receiving illegal contributions. The Ohio GOP is just as corrupt as the national GOP, if not more.

McCain's here in Ohio campaigning and fundraising today. Actually McCain was in Wilmington, Ohio this afternoon on a campaign stop. This is the town that McCain and his campaign manager, Rick Davis, :may be destroying.

Think Progress has more on this. As someone who has been to Wilmington numerous times, and even done work at DHL, this serves as a huge blow to the community, and state. Once again McCain and his strong love of lobbying has screwed the American people. When will everyone realize what a fraud this guy is?

There has been a lot of confusion since the Ohio Primary. Some people have labeled it as an "open primary". As a former precinct captain, I can tell you that is not necessarily the case.

While you are allowed to change parties when voting in the primary, you are required to sign a form stating that you are doing so because you uphold the political beliefs of that party.

Ohio's primary system is semi-closed in the sense that voters are required to declare their party affiliation on primary day. Independent voters may ask for a Democratic or Republican Party ballot with no questions asked. But the law requires poll workers to challenge voters who have declared themselves Democrats or Republicans during the last two years.

Crossover voters must sign a form stating they intend to uphold the principles of their new party. If they refuse to sign, they may still vote, but the ballot will be counted as "provisional," giving the board of elections 10 days to investigate its veracity. In an even more bizarre twist under Ohio law, if a majority of poll workers doubt the loyalty of a crossover voter, they may classify the ballot cast as provisional, whether the voter signs the form or not.

During this year's primary there were numerous voters who crossed over from Republican to Democrat in order to vote for Hillary. This followed Rush Limbaughs urging for Republicans to do just that. People even went as far as to appear on TV saying they did this because Rush urged them to. So the question must be answered if Limbaugh invoked a criminal act.

Now we have an investigation into people switching parties in order to answer Rush's wish:

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has launched an investigation that could lead to criminal charges against voters who maliciously switched parties for the March 4 presidential primary.

Elections workers will look for evidence that voters lied when they signed affidavits pledging allegiance to their new party. And at least one board member, Sandy McNair, a Democrat, wants the county prosecutor to review the findings.

But it remained unclear Wednesday whether the four-member board will agree to pursue prosecution. A 2-2 vote would mean that Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, would have to break the tie.

During this investigation, Rush Limbaugh must be looked at. He used public airwaves to encourage people to engage in an illegal activity. At the minimum we should see a FCC investigation into this.

STATE Democratic Leader Republican Leader Reporting Ohio Clinton, Hillary McCain, John 99% Rhode Island Clinton, Hillary McCain, John 98% Texas Clinton, Hillary McCain, John 100% Vermont Obama, Barack McCain, John 87% jamie

Powered by IntoxiNation and Crooks and Liars UPDATED AT:Sat Aug 30, 2008 at 12:45 am EST

UPDATE 7:00

MSNBC calls VT for McCain and Obama.

UPDATE 9:00

MSNBC calls RI and TX for McCain. That also gives him enough delegates to be the presumptive nominee. He is scheduled to go to the White House tomorrow to get blown by Bush.

UPDATE 9:05

Someone take Chris Matthews off the air. He is having an orgasm over John McCain and saying how it will be very hard for a Democrat to beat him this year.

UPDATE 9:20

Huckabee is history. He has dropped out to spend more time with fried squirrel.

9:23

MSNBC calls RI for Clinton.

10:50

MSNBC calls Ohio for Clinton

It's cold, raining and thundering. Besides that, the early reports are showing a very high turn out in Southern Ohio, plus a large number changing their party, mostly from Republican to Democrat. I wonder if that's a Limbaugh effect?

This part of Ohio is one area Obama has been polling ahead of Clinton.

He leads 47%-45%, which is in the MOE. Still it shows Hillary may have a restless night.

I posted last week that Obama does stand a good chance of winning Ohio, but he won't win southern Ohio. The reasoning is simple - Southern Ohio is very rural. You are talking an area filled with real life Dale Dribbles that are quick to believe every email they read or rumor they hear at the Friday night fish fry.

Last night 60 Minutes aired a segment highlighting just that. They interviewed a person from Chillicothe who thinks Obama is a Muslim that doesn't know the National Anthem.

The fact that saying someone is a Muslim is consider an insult is actually an insult on America. But to the smear machine, they don't care. They will smear America along with candidates.

A new Reuters poll has Obama leading Clinton 48-42 percent in Texas and trailing her 44-42 percent in Ohio.

While Clinton still has the lead, there is an even more interesting part of this poll. If you look at it by region, she is gaining a lot of her support from the Columbus area:

Obama is within the MOE in Toledo and Cleveland. If he picks up those two areas then he could feasibly win the delegate race in Ohio. To help give you a better idea of the delegate layout in Ohio, here is a map:

I think it will be really hard for Obama to win Southeast Ohio, but Cleveland and Toledo should be obtainable for him. If he can carry Cleveland, Toledo, Dayton and Cincinnati then he could end up winning the delegate race in Ohio.

Rasmussen has a new poll out for Ohio and Hillary's lead has slipped to only 5% now. It looks like NAFTA is a key player in the decisions, which are hurting Hillary:

By a 53% to 14% margin, voters believe that Obama opposes NAFTA while there are mixed perceptions on where Clinton stands. Thirty-five percent (35%) believe she favors NAFTA, 31% believe she opposes it and 34% are not sure. This issue is critical in a state that has lost thousands of manufacturing jobs. Politically, these lower-income voters have generally supportive of Clinton throughout the primary season.

I can attest to this being a big issue in Ohio. This state has taken a serious hit from NAFTA. Jobs have left this state at a record pace, and if Obama continues to show how Hillary supported NAFTA then she can count on losing this state.

It's on! Obama said he will debate Clinton here later this month.