After being shutout for every statewide office three consecutive election cycles in a row, the once-moribund Ohio Democratic Party is not only alive, but thriving.

Congressman Sherrod Brown easily defeated incumbent Republican Mike DeWine for U.S. Senate, and Ohio elected Ted Strickland its first Democratic governor in sixteen years in an enormous landslide. Democrat Marc Dann also defeated a giant in Ohio Republican politics, Betty Montgomery, to become Ohio’s first Democratic top cop in twelve years. After a decade of Republican scandal, Dann’s oversight is sorely needed.

In a huge victory, Ohioans also chose Democrat Jennifer Brunner to be the next Secretary of State. You can listen to Jennifer Brunner’s candidate interview with DoubleSpeak here. This means the 2008 presidential election will be conducted without the disenfranchisement and dirty tricks gubernatorial loser Ken Blackwell played with the job against John Kerry in 2004. The Secretary of State is a key official in Ohio as one of 5 members of the Ohio Apportionment Board. This board does Ohio’s Congressional and state legislative redistricting every ten years, and is composed of the Governor, Auditor, Secretary of State, and one legislator of each party. Republican State Representative Mary Taylor squeaked out a victory in the State Auditor’s race, so if redistricting were done today, Democrats would have a 3-2 edge and perhaps be able to undo some of the damage of Republican gerrymandering after the 2000 Census.

Yesterday proved Ohio is very much a purple state that will be hotly contested again in the 2008 presidential election. Democrats are much better prepared to win Ohio in 2008 with Governor Ted Strickland and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner leading the charge.

Check out Sherrod on DoubleSpeak.

Sen. DeWine’s rubber stamp has just about dried out. It looks like Rep. Sherrod Brown (D) will defeat him on November 7th. The polls for Rep. Brown look good!

This is what a campaign with momentum looks like in the final days!

As the nation waits with baited breath on November 7 to see if Ohio, America’s quintessential swing state, turns from red to blue, it increasingly looks like frustrated voters may have to wait days before knowing who are the winners of the contests for Governor and U.S. Senate.

Since at least the 2004 presidential election, Ohio has been known for voting practices that would make a backwater banana republic blush. And it looks like despite millions spent on new technology, things just haven’t gotten any better. The primary elections were a disaster, and now that Ohio has a no-excuse law for absentee ballots on the books, county election boards simply do not have the capacity to count the votes in a quick, accurate manner.

The situation is not helped by the fact that J. Kenneth Blackwell, all but certain to suffer a landslide defeat in the governor’s election, refuses to allow counties to scan in the absentee ballots prior to Election Day. The reason for this is simple: Blackwell and his struggling Republican pal Mike DeWine will lose heavily in Ohio’s urban counties, and the longer the results are delayed, the more doubt the GOP can cast on the outcome of the elections.

Blackwell’s self-serving interpretation of the law is an outrage, but with November 7 just around the corner, county election officials have neither the time nor the inclination to make Blackwell do what’s right.

It looks like November 7 could be a banner night for Congressmen Sherrod Brown and Ted Strickland. If they win, let’s hope we all know it before Santa gives Karl Rove a lump of coal.

Knowing they are on the verge of suffering massive election losses at every level of government, the Republicans have reached the point where, monkey-like, in many campaigns they are simply flinging their own waste at the wall and hoping something sticks.

It would obviously be impossible to chronicle every ad of this caliber in one brief blog post. Nor would every negative ad qualify; political realism dictates that many ads from both sides will be riddled with remarkable truth-stretching. We speak now only of ads that contain outright lies or logic so laughably flawed that it would get one expelled from a first-year philosophy course at any decent university.

One prime example is a recent ad run by the NRSC claiming Ohio Senate candidate, Rep. Sherrod Brown, hadn’t paid his unemployment taxes in 13 years. And although Mike DeWine improbably told Ohioans to “read his lips,” (always a good idea for Republican politicians), the ads were false and TV stations pulled them shortly before the NRSC did. This ad was so egregious it earned DeWine the appellation of “Mud-Loving Mike DeWine” from the Dayton Daily News.

But our favorite comes from Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional district, where the NRCC has engaged in bizarre flights of fantasy to discredit the honorable life of businessman and physician, Dr. Steve Kagen. The first claim was that Kagen was a big bully for forcing patients who stiffed him to pay up; as The Capital Times’ Joel McNally noted, this is surely a novel argument coming from Republicans, who have otherwise rarely been known to side with the Jean Valjeans of this world.

When that didn’t work, Republicans have settled for trying to impugn Steve Kagen’s character using the tried-and-true trickery of guilt by association. Since Steve Kagen’s lawyer has done criminal law work, says the NRCC, Kagen’s evil-doing mind surely holds a vast reservoir of sympathy for serial killers and rapists. This claim is of course preposterous, but is an excellent sign of how desperate the GOP is and why it must lose this November.

While they still have the financial edge, it seems that the GOP is looking to cut its losses and and stop the Democratic onslaught. This strategy will most likely have a significant impact on Sherrod Brown in Ohio where he is beginning to pull away from Senator Mike DeWine.

From the NYTimes:

Senior Republican leaders have concluded that Senator Mike DeWine of Ohio, a pivotal state in this year’s fierce midterm election battles, is likely to be heading for defeat and are moving to reduce financial support for his race and divert party money to other embattled Republican senators, party officials said.

The decision to effectively write off Mr. DeWine’s seat, after a series of internal Republican polls showed him falling behind his Democratic challenger, is part of a fluid series of choices by top leaders in both parties as they set the strategic framework of the campaign’s final three weeks, signaling, by where they are spending television money and other resources, the Senate and House races where they believe they have the best chances of success.

Republicans are now pinning their hopes of holding the Senate on three states — Missouri, Tennessee and, with Ohio off the table, probably Virginia — while trying to hold on to the House by pouring money into districts where Republicans have a strong historical or registration advantage, party officials said Sunday. Republicans also said they would run advertisements in New Jersey this week to test the vulnerability of Senator Robert Menendez, one of the few Democrats who appear endangered.

To read the rest of the NYTimes article click here.

This thing is FAR from over and now is the time to get to work to ensure that Democrats capitalize on this momentum.

Rep. Sherrod Brown
Democratic Candidate for U.S. Senate

Kyle McDermott, Ohio ALF-CIO
State Political Coordinator

Ben Waxman, Ohio AFL-CIO
State Field Director

Music by Marah, Highway Dave and The Varmints, and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.

Rep. Sherrod Brown
Democratic Candidate for U.S. Senate
Ohio
Website

Sherrod Brown was born in Mansfield, Ohio. He attended Yale Law School and earned a master of arts degree in education and public administration from Ohio State University in 1981.

Rep. Brown served as an Ohio state representative from 1975 to 1982. In 1982, he won a four-way Democratic primary and was elected Secretary of State.

Brown was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1992 and has served the 13th District for 13 years. He is running against Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH) in 2006 and all public polls indicate that the race is virtually tied.

Connie Schultz, Brown’s wife, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist on leave from Cleveland’s Plain Dealer newspaper. Brown has two daughters and two step-children.

Kyle McDermott
Ohio ALF-CIO
State Political Coordinator
Website

Ben Waxman
Ohio ALF-CIO
State Field Director
Website

Kyle McDermott and Ben Waxman work for the Ohio AFL-CIO. Kyle serves as the State Political Coordinator and Ben Waxman works as the State Field Director for the AFL-CIO’s Take Back Ohio voter mobilization program.

“The Ohio AFL-CIO was formed in 1958 to battle a right-to-work campaign backed by Ohio Republicans and big businesses. Since that merger of the state’s craft and industrial unions, the Ohio AFL-CIO has been at the forefront of struggles for political power and economic and social justice for working families. Our strength derives from 650,000 union men and women who are affiliated with the Ohio AFL-CIO through 48 international unions and 1,600 local unions. Along with 300,000 union retirees, they are the individuals who provide the collective power of the Ohio AFL-CIO.”

MUSIC:

Marah
“The Demon of White Sadness”

Highway Dave and The Varmints
“Tangy Honey Thang”

Rep. Brown has been hit hard by the GOP with ads that are misleading. DeWine even had his ad people doctor photos of the World Trade Center to add more drama to the 30-second spot.

Today, Brown hit back with another really good ad. Check it out.

Stay tuned for DoubleSpeak’s interview with Rep. Brown – It will be up shortly.

Last week when Rep. Sherrod Brown, the candidate here in Ohio that we’re all hoping manages to knock off Bush-buddy Sen. Mike DeWine, voted for the pro-torture anti-habeas corpus bill I was pretty angry. It just didn’t seem to make sense. Stand up to the president and for American values and you will look stronger in Ohioans’ eyes was my thinking. But now, as we drive north towards Michigan after a few days in the state, I’m starting to understand why Sherrod thought it was necessary.

Up and down the East Coast the conversation is dominated by Iraq. There are of course, many other concerns as well, but the war is at the forefront. But as the busy roads of the Northeast give way to the open highways of the Midwest, jobs and the economy are much more of an issue. Things out here are not looking good. When you get out of downtown Columbus it’s really just miles of empty factories and warehouses.

A lot of people are out of work, and when you’re a Republican in charge and things are this bad there’s not much to fall back on except hate and wedge issues. Check out Peter’s post below to see how dependent the Ohio GOP is on fear of gay marriage and abortion to win votes. Maybe I’m stretching things here, but it seems like the Ohio electorate is pretty scared. And that’s why Sherrod felt he had to vote for this bill. His opponent is desperate, and with the undercurrent of hate and fear that is so prominent in the state’s politics, voting against the bill may have set him up to be (incorrectly) painted as pro terrorist. Of course, I still think he should have voted against the bill.

Ohio is a very different place.

Did that actually make any sense? Either way, we got a lot accomplished in the state, met some good people, saw the second largest Whole Foods in the country (wow!), and we’re now off to Michigan. Signing off now for Disc 2 of the Clinton book. Also picked up the live My Morning Jacket CD today. They’re the best band in America, IMHO.

-Josh

We talked to Rep. Sherrod Brown in Canton, OH this morning. Hopefully I’ll have time to keep making more of these videos. Yes, Matthew has no tact.

-Josh

Good morrow, friends. We are just waking up here and I wanted to post a quick “hello” since I’m not certain what internet connection we’ll have when we arrive in Columbus tonight.

In about an hour we’re going to leave to travel to Canton, Ohio to meet Congressman Sherrod Brown. Brown is the Democrat running for U.S. Senate again Mike DeWine and this is a huge race.

Today we also begin booking interviews in Michigan which is the next stop on the tour. If you have ideas for folks we should interview up in Michigan, shoot me an email.

Have a great day and we’ll post more later including photos of our interview with Sherrod Brown.

-Matthew

I thought Brown did a great job taking on DeWine. He kept him on the defensive and painted him as ineffective. He also hammered the Senator on his negative campaign and there were times when DeWine couldn’t defend his own record. DeWine spent much of the debate ducking Russert’s questions.

Here is the transcript.

Below, you’ll also find transcripts to the other Meet The Press debates from the past couple weeks.

OHIO: Sherrod Brown v. Mike DeWine

VIRGINIA: Jim Webb v. George Allen

PENNSYLVANIA: Bob Casey v. Rick Santorum

Last night we went to see Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. Wow. What a show. For those of you who haven’t seen Grace, she’s an organ/piano/guitar player out of Vermont and she kicks ass. She has an amazing band who play with great energy. Last night they were playing their last show before a hiatus to go back into the studio and record. They took the stage at around 10:30PM and played until 1:00AM. Grace Potter was featured on Episode 3 of DoubleSpeak – if she comes to a town near you, check her out.

We’ll be watching the Sherrod Brown – Mike DeWine debate on Meet the Press this morning and then we’ll work all day on production and preparation for this upcoming week. Tomorrow we head out early in the morning en route to Cleveland, OH. We’ll do a quick afternoon stop in Syracuse, NY to talk with Dan Maffei, who is running for Congress. I’ve heard great things about him, so I booked an interview with Dan on our way to OH. Also, as Josh keeps reminding us, we’re booking it (in a safe way – don’t worry mom) to OH so we can make the 8:30PM Monday Night Football game between the Green Bay Packers and the Philadelphia Eagles. I don’t have to tell you who this online radio team roots for: Go Birds!

VERY IMPORTANT: If you would like to receive email updates and episode alerts from DoubleSpeak, please re-enter your email on the front page of our site. We had a little issue the other night and some names were lost. Again, even if you were signed up and have been getting emails, please re-enter your email now. Thanks for your understand. I can assure you, this will not happen again.

Happy Sunday, y’all.

-Peter

This one’s gonna be a barn burner.

The University of Cincinnati poll has Sherrod Brown leading his opponent 51% to 47%. That’s certainly a good sign for Brown but this thing is still extremely close.

The DSCC is extremely focused on this race and organizers are on the ground working hard to ensure a Democratic pick-up in Ohio.

Read the results of the poll here.

via First Read:

September 3:
Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (R) and Bob Casey (D)

September 13:
Virginia Sen. George Allen (R) vs. Jim Webb (D)

October 1:
Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine (R) vs. Rep. Sherrod Brown (D)

October 8:
Missouri Sen. Jim Talent (R) vs. Claire McCaskill (D)

October 15:
Minnesota candidates Amy Klobuchar (D) and Mark Kennedy (R)

October 29:
Maryland Senate nominees (still TBD)

According to a new poll by the Columbus Dispatch, Democratic Congressmen Ted Strickland and Sherrod Brown have big leads in their respective races for Governor and Senate.

This is especially encouraging news as both Strickland and Brown are lesser known than both their Republican opponents. Loony-right vote stealer J. Kenneth Blackwell is Ohio’s Secretary of State and the GOP nominee for governor, while Strickland has never held office outside of his current gig in the U.S. House. Nevertheless, Strickland leads Blackwell by twenty points, 47%-27%. Sherrod Brown is a former Ohio Secretary of State but hasn’t held statewide office since 1990, when Brown was ousted by current Ohio Governor/Convicted Criminal Bob Taft. Nevertheless, Brown leads incumbent Republican Senator Mike DeWine by a margin of 45%-37%.

The upshot? Ohio voters are sick of their Republican “leaders” failing them with corruption, incompetence and mismanagement. Ohioans are ready for real change!

Mike DeWine is a typical Ohio Republican: keep out of the limelight, do very little for your constituents, and appear just moderate enough not to frighten suburban housewives away from the polls. DeWine, however, is getting a stiff challenge this year from Ohio Congressman Sherrod Brown. Brown is running on a platform of a higher minimum wage, fair trade to protect American jobs, and health care for every American. Desperate ads like this one and DeWine’s recent co-sponsorship of the Federal Hate Amendment prove that DeWine is no centrist; he also clearly thinks his Senate seat is at risk. DeWine will not be easy to defeat, but this kind of demagoguery shows Ohio needs a new Senator.

I’ll be serving primarily as a Midwestern correspondent here at DoubleSpeak, particularly focusing on this year’s gubernatorial races in Ohio and Wisconsin and Congressman Sherrod Brown’s challenge to incumbent U.S. Senator Mike DeWine. As all political junkies do, I also have a strong interest in the early maneuvering to win the 2008 Democratic nomination for the Presidency.

Some my favorite things: the color orange, the Cleveland Browns, and the little-known but majestic beast known as the tapir. I’m looking forward to blogging for you soon!

The Washington Post:

Don’t expect Paul Hackett to be taking any vacations with Rep. Sherrod Brown this summer, but the two Ohio Democrats have buried their differences for the fall.

Hackett, a veteran of the Iraq war who has become a favorite of liberal bloggers and the Democratic “net roots,” endorsed Brown’s Ohio Senate candidacy yesterday — five months after leaving the race himself.

Hackett said his change of heart came Thursday while he was mowing his lawn. He called Brown, apologized for the way he exited the race and offered to help. The two men met in Cincinnati over the weekend to hash out the particulars of an endorsement.

Sen. Dewine is totally out of the mainstream and he’s a back-bencher who needs to go. He must be defeated in this election. Please check out Rep. Brown’s website and if you live in OH or will be visiting the state, get involved!