The Yellow-Brick Road

To become Governor, Blackwell has three things supporting him and three obstacles to overcome:

The Good:
1) Name Recognition from the 2004 Election.
2) The voters' trust as shown in voter polls.
3) He's the anti-Taft

The Bad:

1) Financing for the primary and general elections
2) Mayor Michale Coleman as the Democratic opposition
3) New Voting Machines

Analysis of the Bad:

# 3 - Recently Blackwell demonstrated just how adroit he is as a politician: he negotiated a contract with an elections' vendor that provides a voter-verfied paper trail at a lower cost than previous mahines which lacked a printer. I was one of those who shouted long and hard that all of Ohio was trying to hinder him from fixing the machines, even with his Secretary's directive that each county must use the HAVA 2002 money to install less-modern optical scanners. My hypothesis was newer voting machines would cost way too much and Blackwell was the Lone Ranger trying to save Ohio. Suddenly he fixes the problem the way his critics wanted him to, and leaves people like me holding the bag with egg on my face.

#2 - Mayor Coleman has done himself in by having his own1988 Dukakais-Bernard Shaw moment. Coleman gave the appearance of condoning the rape of Columbus High School student. He unfeelingly called it a problem for the law. More at www.ohioforblackwell.com/blog.

#1 - Secretary Blackwell has some work ahead of him as evidenced by a recent fudnraiser involving big name conservatives that managed to raise a mere $35,000. Jim Petro has millions. Blackwell needs to kick it in gear. 2005 is for fundraising and 2006 is the race.

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