Alito Confirmed

Judge Alito was confirmed today by a 52-48 vote! The vote was, more or less, down party lines.

Petro picks running mate

01/30/2006: Jim Petro announces State Senator Joy Padgett as his Lt. Governor running mate. She is the representative for Ohio's 20th Senate District.She also was elected to four consecutive terms in the Ohio House of Representatives. Senator Padgett is a lifetime resident of Coshocton, and has a Bachelor's Degree from Kent State University.

A recent poll Conducted for the Ohio Republican Party, shows that Petro is the favorite for a head to head battle with Strickland. This leaves some interesting questions to be posed. Is Ken Blackwell the favorite Republican candidate that he seems to think he is, and if so will anyone care if it means throwing away a Gubernatorial Race to the Dems? This makes the primary an interesting scenario, if it means losing in the end. The following was taken from a portion of the ORP poll.

General Election Informed Ballot
Jim Petro - 36%
Ted Stickland - 36%
Undecided - 28%

General Election Informed Ballot
Ken Blackwell - 32%
Ted Strickland - 56%
Undecided - 12%

"Ken Blackwell's 24% deficit could easily drag the entire Republican ticket to defeat," said Bob Paduchik, Petro for Governor Chairman.

As reported yesterday... Betty Montgomery is out for Governor

As we broke yesterday, Betty Montgomery has officially dropped out of the gubernatorial races, and announced her bid for Attorney General. The Chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, Bob Bennett, issued the statement regarding Betty Montgomery’s candidacy for Attorney General this afternoon. This leaves Jim Petro and Ken Blackwell as the sole candidates for the Ohio Governors race.

The scoop on Betty Montgomery

All signs are now pointing to Betty Montgomery dropping out of the Gubernatorial race for Ohio in 2006. It is also assumed that she will instead be focusing her attention on running for Attorney General, a position she held 1995-2002, before becoming Auditor of State in 2003.

For any of you who may have missed Hackett's latest

Paul Hackett recently made some rather hateful and incendiary remarks about people of faith.

The Columbus Dispatch published an article where Democrat Paul Hackett accuses the Ohioans of being Anti-American due to the recent vote for a constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage. The following is an excerpt from the article...

*“The Republican Party has been hijacked by the religious fanatics that, in my opinion, aren’t a whole lot different than Osama bin Laden and a lot of the other religious nuts around the world," he said. "The challenge is for the rest of us moderate Americans and citizens of the world to put down the fork and spoon, turn off the TV, and participate in the process and try to push back on these radical nuts – and they are nuts.”

Our own Ohio GOP Chairman Bob Bennett stated the following in reference to Paul Hackett’s remarks...

**“Paul Hackett’s attempt to compare Christian conservatives to terrorists is abhorrent and completely inappropriate. These intolerant views have no place in the public debate, and I hope his fellow Democrats reject this divisive hate speech. Hackett has shown repeatedly that he will say or do anything to get attention, and it’s unfortunate that views like his are embraced by the Democratic Party. I think, Mr. Hackett, you’ve once again proven who the real ‘radical nut’ is.”

( quotes taken from *Columbus Dispatch “Candid Candidate: Hackett calls ‘em like he sees ‘em,” 1/15/06 and **Ohio GOP website )

Lake Geauga Young Republican Meetings

This is just to let all interested parties know that Lake and Geauga Counties have their monthly Young Republican meetings every fourth Tuesday of the month at 7:00pm at 1899 Pub. 1899 is located at 38228 Glenn Avenue in Downtown Willoughby. Look forward to seeing you there!
T 440.954.4214
www.young-republican.com