Across the state, urban boards of election are busting records for the number of voters showing up to vote early in person.

The first day of early voting last Tuesday October 2 brought hordes to voting locations in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and other urban areas.

Yesterday the final day of registration, when voters could also vote at the same time. From Franklin County we hear than over 4,200 people showed up at their early vote center, and that by 5 p.m. they had broken their record for the most early voters in a single day. (Polls were open until 9 p.m. yesterday).

The Franklin County Democratic Party said,

Volunteers drove over 300 new registrants and voters yesterday. Shortly after 7PM the buses from the president’s event arrived and the turnout soared.

From the Hamilton County Democratic Party, we learned,

If the line at the Board of Elections last night was any indication, people are fired up and ready to vote. By 5:30, 864 people had already voted and at 8:00 the line waiting to vote extended down the stairs, out the door and at least 50 feet down the sidewalk.

And in Cuyahoga County yesterday, more than 3,700 people voted before the end of the day. The festive atmosphere there included a serenade in the early evening from the famous Shaw High School marching band, which assembled on the steps of the Euclid Avenue Church kitty-corner from the board of elections in their bright red uniforms and played for over an hour. There was food and there were judicial candidates, of course! Always judicial candidates!

Meanwhile, secretary of state Jon Husted has decided to continue his fight to shut down the in-person early voting window the three days before the election — the days which saw the heaviest traffic in 2008. After an appeals court ruled against him last week, he has now said he will take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Stay tuned.

Because it so totally captures what a weasel the worst U.S. Senate candidate in the U.S. is:

http://www.sherrodbrown.com/

Also, don't forget the Sherrod Brown/Josh Mandel "debate" at the City Club of Cleveland next Monday at noon. It's sold out, but it will be streaming live and podcast. Check it out and see how Josh Mandel manages to spend an hour weaseling out of taking positions in a focused format that is well-moderated and formally structured unlike the abortion of a debate that Jim Lehrer pretended to be moderating between President Obama and Mitt Romney.

http://www.cityclub.org/Programs/Upcoming/tabid/173/Default.aspx

Jim Renacci debated Betty Sutton at the City Club of Cleveland today. The two are running against one another to represent the newly drawn 16th congressional district of Ohio. The newly drawn district is an example of partisan gerrymandering at its worst. The district was drawn with a tiny loop to include Timken Company a large donor to Mr. Renacci. The topic came up when Betty Sutton detailed it, which people should know about.

Jim Renacci, in probably one of the worst responses I’ve seen in a debate, tried to act like he was also shocked and outraged at how the district was drawn. He then, pathetically, tried to absolve himself from being involved in the process by stating there is no direct connection between him and it. Like a kid who’s eaten the cookies before they could be caught with their hand in the cookie jar, Jim Renacci basically stated until there is proof I will denied it.

Well Mr. Renacci, there might not be any direct connection yet, but there are crumbs. And the crumbs point to the fact that you are probably lying. Here’s just one report on the subject from City Beat…

”Just a day before the approval of Ohio’s new district maps, Tom Whatman, a Boehner staffer, sent an email to Adam Kincaid, a staffer for the National Republican Congressional Committee, and others in charge of redistricting. In the back-and-forth, Whatman asks for a “small carve out” to include a manufacturing business in the congressional district for Rep. Jim Renacci, a Republican who has received support from the business in the past. Before 13 minutes had passed, Kincaid replied to Whatman, securing the change with no questions asked.”

http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/blog-3896-voters_first_mocks_redistri...

I'm sure everyone here is registered and rarin' to vote. But I'll bet each of us has a friend, family member, or acquaintance who may not have gotten round to it yet — or maybe not have gotten around to changing their address. This has to be done by tomorrow, Tuesday October 9, in order to vote in this November's election.

Boards of Election will be open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. for people to register AND vote at that same time, if they choose.

So please, call anyone you can think of who might not be registered. Especially think of everyone you know who has moved in the last couple of years. Remind them that they need to let their county BoE know their new address.

You can find all the information you need here:

http://www.sos.state.oh.us/elections/voters/register.aspx

Don't let anyone you know let this opportunity pass them by!

I'm sure even as I write this Ohio Republican Party chair Bob Bennett is griping about how "partisan" the accusations against Bob Murray of Murray Energy are, and that there was nothing out of line in Murray's pressuring his employees and vendors to funnel large sums of money to Republican candidates of his choice and to attend the frequent fundraisers he held for them.

I wrote about all that yesterday:

http://www.ohiodailyblog.com/content/murray-energys-bob-murray-quot-grea...

Today Ohio Democratic Party chairman Chris Redfern held a telephone press conference to announce that he's requesting that these donations be investigated by U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio Steven Dettelbach and Cuyahoga County prosecutor Tim McGinty. Murray is based in Cuyahoga County.

In his letter to Dettelbach, he said,

On behalf of the Ohio Democratic Party, I write to formally request a criminal investigation concerning a recent report suggesting the Murray Energy Corporation, its subsidiaries, and management (“Murray Energy”) may have engaged in a pattern of illegal activity, extorting millions in financial contributions from employees and vendors for Republican candidates running for public office.

The entire letter, along with letters and memos from Murray pushing participation in his fundraisers for a variety of candidates and a list of the donations Murray and his employees have made, is posted on the ODP's website. You can see for yourself the litany of awful candidates and officeholders Murray spends his time stumped for — all but two of them Republicans. (Redfern mentioned that former 6th district congressman Charlie Wilson, who is currently challenging Bill Johnson to take his seat back, was one of the recipients, and he has returned the money. I can't figure out who the other one is.)

It's some fun reading. You'll find it here:

http://ohiodems.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Murray_Energy_Letter11...

The message is coming through loud and clear, as one Ohio big-city daily after another rolls out its endorsement for the re-election of Senator Sherrod Brown.

Following the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Akron Beacon-Journal, the Toledo Blade and the Youngstown Vindicator have now endorsed Brown.

The Blade says that Senator Brown “Based on his effective and progressive first-term performance and lack of credible opposition [heh heh], The Blade urges the re-election of Sen. SHERROD BROWN.”

http://www.toledoblade.com/Editorials/2012/10/07/re-elect-Senator-Brown....

The Blade used virtually the same set of reasons as the Plain Dealer’s editorial last weekend. No, I’m sure they didn’t copy; they’re both just looking at reality. That’s not unusual for the Blade, but somewhat out of character for the Plain Dealer which is famous for its fantasy endorsements like the one where it said Kasich can “cross partisan lines and get results” and “has no time for divisive hot-button tactics.”

It devotes two paragraphs to his support of the auto bailout, which saved northwest Ohio’s heavily auto-industry dependent economy. That region would have been in a sorry state without it.

It also gave him credit for his work on the agriculture committee, on revising the tax code and on campaign finance reform, saying “He supports a federal constitutional amendment that would reverse the Supreme Court’s dreadful ruling in the Citizens United case, which opened the floodgates to largely unlimited and unregulated political spending by opaque corporate interests.”

Of course, it has to get in a little “We don’t approve of everything he does” kicker. :ike the Plain Dealer, it chooses to imagine that his avid support of fair trade rules goes too far and can “slide into shrill China-bashing and protectionist appeals.”

Tell that to the hundreds of thousands of Ohioans who’ve been impacted by the outsourcing of good-paying jobs.

So I’ve read a few left-wing blogs and other news sources covering Romney’s apparent bounce in the polls after the first presidential debate. For example: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/08/gallup-poll-obama_n_1948705.htm...

All of the posts and articles discuss the holding power of Romney’s bounce. Maybe it’s an aberration is the gist of one post. Another speculates that after the weekend, we should see a correction in Obama’s favor, just because that seems about right.

What none of the posts discuss or even seem to remember is that last Friday the unemployment rate dipped under 8%. This is the first time the rate has been that low since 2009. Shouldn’t Obama see some kind of bounce from that? I have a feeling that if things were reversed and it was a Republican who was running for re-election we’d hear it repeated over and over. But apparently, if you’re on the left: you let things like this quietly slip away. I guess you let it slip away, because with an unemployment rate dipping to 7.8% you couldn’t put together a narrative that we’re on the right path. I guess with such a dip the American people wouldn’t care about that. Nope, when you’re on the left you stay fixated on a poor debate performance and let that be the narrative.

Former Ohio Secretary of State (2007-2011) has written a book called Cupcakes and Courage about her experiences in office and in her contentious primary campaign for the U.S. Senate. It's now available at Amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/Cupcakes-Courage-Jennifer-Brunner/dp/0988195305/re...

I haven't had a chance to read the book yet, but I'm especially eager to hear her take on how she worked to unravel the mess wrought by her predecessor Ken Blackwell, whose oversight of Ohio's 2004 election made the state an international laughingstock. Some ardent fair elections activists think she didn't do enough or disapproved of some of her actions. I'm curious to know what kind of structural obstacles she might have faced to cause that. Ohio had a lot of work to do to even approach fir elections, and Brunner was in the middle of it. Alas, our current secretary of state seems to be winding the clock backwards.

Her inside take on the 2009-2010 Senate primary should be interesting as well. the book description says she fought "the conventional political establishment," and I'm interested to see how much she has to say about that.

I apologize. My schedule's been tight, and I haven't been keeping up with all the of Josh "the Empty Suit" Mandel scandals. He seems to be trying to see some kind of record for scandal, lying, and devious tactics. I think I am three or four Mandel scandals behind now — and that’s in a single week. I wish he would slow down just a little.

It’s clear why the Plain Dealer called his “one of the nastiest campaigns ever waged’ in Ohio.

For instance, there’s this one from about two weeks ago:

http://www.salon.com/2012/09/24/did_gop_senate_hopeful_bilk_treasury/

“Josh Mandel may have misclassified staff as freelancers to dodge taxes.”

According to Salon.com,

As Mandel ran for state treasurer in 2010, he classified at least nine of his senior staffers as independent contractors instead of full-time employees, according to campaign finance disclosures reviewed by Salon, which allowed him to forgo paying some taxes to the state and the IRS.

These people appeared to be exclusively working for Mandel, which made them full-time employees. And of course they tie in to previous Mandel scandal, the one where he hired cronies for jobs they weren’t qualified for:

Incidentally, many of these same people were later hired by Mandel after he won, despite having questionable qualifications.

Well, I personally would not have used the word “incidentally,” because I don’t think it’s so incidental.

Anyway, it appears that state treasurer Josh Mandel may have been shorting the state treasury. Nice move.

Well, so said Mitt Romney when he appeared back in August at one of Murray Energy's mines in Beallsville, Ohio.

Of course, Mitt Romney doesn't work for Bob Murray. In fact, all Romney does is collect checks from Murray – and apparently from his employees as well.

http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/108140/coal-miners-donor-mitt-romney...

This article, which appeared this week in the New Republic, offers evidence that Murray leaned on his salaried employees to donate money — often more than they could comfortably afford — to various rightwing candidates his choice. It suggests that while they were assured these contributions weren't required, their promotions and bonuses seemed to hinge on them.

Hmmm ... why does this sound familiar?

http://www.ohiodailyblog.com/content/quotusing-coal-miners-propsquot-thi...

Yes, all those miners who provided the backdrop for Romney's appearance were told by the supervisors that they had better show up — that "attendance at the Romney event was mandatory, but no one was forced to attend," whatever THAT means. And they lost pay as well because the mine shut down during the event.

So whether you work in the mines or the office, as an employee of Murray Energy, you become a coerced agent of Bob Murray's political leanings.

What's really sad is that Murray is one of those guys who, like John Kasich or John Boehner, comes from a background that ought to give him some empathy for working people. He came from three generations of miners and was a miner himself before going to college and rising in the ranks of the industry. But, like Kasich or Boehner, he has developed amnesia and lost his empathy for those he once walked among.

I just opened the latest email to hit my box, and it's from Judge Bill O'Neill of Geauga County, who is running for the third time for the state Supreme Court.

He's just about the only candidate in the country not bombarding followers with requests for money because his campaign slogan is "Money and judges don't mix." (Would that that were true. In real life, most of our state Supreme Court has been purchased by special interests). He's looking for volunteers to pass out literature.

To get a free pack of literature — from 100 to 2,500 — sent to you free to pass out to your friends, in your neighborhood, or at your event, go here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dGRi...

But here's the most important thing you need to do: tell everyone you know to write the names of ALL three Democratic Supreme Court candidates on a piece of paper or their arm (or take the Dem sample ballot with them) and vote for ALL of them — O'Neill, Mike Skindell and Yvette McGee Brown. And emphasize the importance of voting ALL THE WAY down the ballot. Democrats are way worse at doing this than Republicans, which is one reason they win these slots. We cannot leave these races unvoted.

Currently the state Supreme Court includes six Republicans and one Democrat — Brown, who was appointed by Governor Ted Strickland. If she loses, we'll be back to having seven Republicans on the court as we were before her appointment. That's just not acceptable.

As I've said before, I wish the Ohio Democratic Party was more aggressive and coordinated about running their Supreme Court candidates as a slate. I'm STILL going to events and hearing Brown being the only candidate mentioned. THAT is not acceptable either. Remember that judicial candidates do not have a party identification by their names, a silly charade given that they run in partisan primaries. It puts the burden on the vote to know who's who.

Has any group ever been more hilariously (in a sick, sad way) named than "True the Vote"? The Tea Party group is intent on challenging and intimidated as many voters in likely Democratic-voting demographics as possible, while ginning up fears about "voter fraud," which is virtually nonexistent in groups outside of Republican elected officials (see former Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White).

Now Congressman Elijah Cummings of Maryland wants to know whether what they are doing constitutes "a criminal conspiracy to deny legitimate voters their constitutional rights."

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/13833-tea-party-vote...

Good for him. He's pointing right at the Ohio branch of the group, which has been doing things like challenging students for not having their dorm room on their registration. I heard through someone I know that a bunch of Oberlin students were challenged because they registered before receiving a permanent dorm room assignment. Oberlin students would be one group Tea Partyers would walk through hot coals to prevent from voting. Unfortunately for them Oberlin students are also a highly motivated and super intelligent group that will make sure they deal with this correctly. A voter shouldn't have to be a student at a selective college to navagate the process.

Cummings sent a letter of Catjerine Engelbrecht of theOhio True the Vote group saying,

At some point, an effort to challenge voter registrations by the thousands without any legitimate basis may be evidence of illegal voter suppression. If these efforts are intentional, politically motivated and widespread across multiple states, they could amount to a criminal conspiracy to deny legitimate voters their constitutional rights.

While Ohio continues its battle over the shrinkage of in-person early voting opportunities, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law has released a study with hard numbers showing who is overwhelmingly disadvantaged by limiting such opportunities. Guess who!

The group, self-described as “a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to enlist the private bar’s leadership and resources in combating racial discrimination and the resulting inequality of opportunity,” titles its study “Early Voting Patterns by Race in Cuyahoga County, Ohio: A statistical analysis of the 2008 general election.”

http://www.lawyerscommittee.org/newsroom/publications?id=0029

Here’s their none-too-startling conclusion:

The results ... provide empirical evidence that African Americans have utilized at least one form of early voting at much higher rates than white voters. Specifically, relative to whites, African American voters in Cuyahoga County, Ohio disproportionately voted early in person during the 2008 General election.

They found that although African American voters accounted for 28.6% of the voter in the county in 2008, they were more than three-quarters of the in-person early voters. Black voters disproportionately like to vote early in person — not via mail-in ballot, which is preferred by white voters. There are various theories as to why, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that these are the behavior patterns. To derail one if them is troubling.

The study has a lot of numbers and calculations, charts and footnotes for the statistics-minded. But their main takeaway is this:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/05/ohio-early-voting-obama-victory...

Well, this certainly doesn't clear things up, even though it is technically a victory for the Obama campaign and the Democratic Party. They had sued the state of Ohio over its closing of early voting the three days before the election because it allowed military families to vote then, but no one else. They asked to have the period open to everyone.

And a panel of three judges from a federal appeals court agreed this them, saying that if "states were permitted to pick and choose among groups of similarly situated voters to dole out special voting privileges," then "partisan state legislatures could give extra early voting time to groups that traditionally support the party in power and impose corresponding burdens on the other party’s core constituents."

And that's exactly what did happen in Ohio. The legislature closed the three-day window because it was predominantly favored by African-American voters, about which more in my next post. While Ohio Republicans insisted virtuously, they only wanted to help make things run smoothly for boards of election, the judges found,

Ohio’s most populous county, Cuyahoga County, asserted that maintaining in-person early voting would actually alleviate some of its burden by spreading out the demand for voting over more days, thus reducing lines and wait times at polling places on Election Day.

The hidden snag, however, is that the court left the final decision to the individual boards of election — and that could put us back to where we were a couple of months ago in the battle over weekend and evening hours.

As I have long predicted, the Cleveland Plain Dealer has followed the Akron Beacon Journal in endorsing Senator Sherrod Brown.

http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/10/sherrod_brown_has_ear...

I figured they would have a hard time endorsing a guy who told them it was up to them to figure out if he was telling the truth and whose campaign refused to say where he stood on an issue because he's not in Washington yet voting on it.

And boy, did they have some words for Mandel! Among them:

There's another powerful reason to vote for Brown -- a negative one: Electing his Republican opponent, Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, would reward one of the nastiest campaigns ever waged in this state. It would reward a candidate who hasn't moved beyond partisan slogans and careful sound bites. It would reward ambition untethered to substance.

That is a concern of mine too: if Mandel (or Romney) were to be elected, it would demonstrate that a campaign of lies fueled by unaccountable billionaire money actually works — and that would pretty much be the end of democracy in America. We have to show that it DOESN'T work.

The paper mostly praised Sherrod highly, while noting that in 2006, it endorsed his (much less dishonest, corrupt, and underqualified than Mandel but who isn't) opponent, Mike DeWine. It said he's a "tireless worker and cheerleader for Ohio, its people and its interests" and "good listener and creative lawmaker."

Like most conservative newspapers forced to admit the Democrat is WAY more qualified, it calls him "overly partisan" and "to the left of most voters in this middle-of-the-road state."

Betty Sutton has released her first campaign commercial and it's pretty good. Unlike her negative grumpy opponent Jim Renacci, Betty Sutton offers a positive message from a representative that's actually done something for her constituents and the country.

I guess you know who this post is going to be about — AGAIN.

Salon.com has a story up today detailing just how dedicated to his job as state treasurer Josh "The Empty Suit" Mandel is — NOT.

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/03/ohio_senate_race_gops_josh_mandel_serial...

We all know about the Board of Deposits meetings which Mandel missed for 14 straight months — including one where he was instead at a fundraiser for his Senate campaign. Now it's come out that Mandel has never attended a SINGLE meeting of a bunch of other state boards and commissions. While several barely exist, Mandel lists them all among his litany of alleged accomplishments as state treasurer. It's clear that office has been run by others since Day One — the day Mandel decided his only interest in it was using it as a springboard to the U.S. Senate. Mandel likes to boast and pad his resume; he just doesn't like to do any actual work.

The whole sad story is detailed in the Salon article which among other things mentions this self-inflated excuse Mandel used to explain why he never attended any Board of Deposit meetings until he got extensive negative publicity:

Mandel said at the time that he sent representatives instead of attending personally because he learned in the Marines the importance of empowering staff.

Yeah, riiiiiiight. Mandel's a one-trick pony whose only trick is to constantly exploit his military service as a campaign device. I've had many people who have served in the military tell me how unseemly that is and say that a true hero doesn't brag constantly about his service like Mandel does. If Mandel actually had an accomplishments, they would speak for themselves. But he has to beef up his bio by listing inactive boards and commissions whose meetings he never attends. How can anyone think he would be an asset to the Senate?

Betty Sutton (right) with Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (Oh-09) at Voting Rally in Cleveland last Friday

I just got an interesting press release (I erroneously attributed it initially to Congresswoman Betty Sutton's campaign but it was actually sent out by an independent group called Friends of Democracy).

"Friends of Democracy Targets Rep. Renacci as One of 8 'Foes of Democracy' in National Anti-Corruption Campaign."

Well, that's certainly an accurate label for Renacci.

The press release says,

Friends of Democracy today announced an escalated push against Representative Jim Renacci today, naming him one of eight “Foes of Democracy” nationwide. Following a limited direct mail test in August, the scaled up program will include $200,000 to run a micro-targeted direct mail, phone contact and online advertising to unseat Rep. Renacci and elevate solutions to campaign finance corruption. ... Friends of Democracy will target persuadable voters in Ohio’s 16th Congressional District who are responsive on the issue of political corruption with consistent and comprehensive in-district advertising. Based on a successful pilot project in August, the effort will reach enough voters in the district to potentially shift the final vote tally.

Great to hear. Congresswoman Betty Sutton, a fantastic progressive leader, is running against Renacci since the Republicans doing the redistricting eliminated her district and she could use the help against Renacci's big money.

He's in the company of such swill as Florida congressman David Rivera who is in a whole heap of trouble for allegedly financing the campaign of a fake candidate in the Democratic primary to try to defeat the more formidable Joe Garcia, who won.

Not only did Mitt Romney get a ton of bad press after employees of Murray Energy called into a talk radio show to reveal that they had been forced to attend a Romney event in Beallsville, Ohio, but that they had to lose pay to do so. (Laughably, a Murray executive said that "attendance at the Romney event was mandatory, but no one was forced to attend," whatever THAT means.)

Now the Obama campaign has used this exploitive event in a campaign ad.

To think that Mitt Romney relates in any way to coal miners is laughable. At the event, Romney told the miners, "You've got a great boss." Sure, if your definition of a "great boss" is pulling out all the stops and writing big checks to try to block every worker safety regulation that's suggested. Someone send Romney down to work in a mine for an hour and see how he gets along.

That's what state senator Nina Turner called those who work to prevent people from voting. And to make sure more people knew about their opportunity to vote early, Nina and her husband Jeff, along with about ten other people, spent the night last night in tents on the sidewalk in front of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections near downtown Cleveland.

www.flickr.com/photos/53705203@N02/8049142905/" title="DSC_0202 by anastasjoy, on Flickr">

NIna & Jeff Turner in front of their tent

Early on — at the 7 p.m. start o the sleepover, only a handful of people showed up, including county councilwoman Yvonne Conwell, shown her marching toward the campsite.

But the crowd eventually swelled to nearly a hundred people. A couple of young students performed variations on top 40 tunes. Here they are performed, and here's Nina enjoying their performance.

A tent was set up to provide food and drinks, and dozens of pizzas appeared.

http://www.facebook.com/events/122782497869838/

I missed this one because I'm not on his mailing list, apparently. But tonight at Nina Turner;s sleepout at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, she mentioned that the idea for doing this came from state senator Eric Kearney of CIncinnati, who first did it in 2008. His Facebook page provided a list of locations, which in addition to the ones I mentioned in Cuyahoga and Franklin counties, include Mahoning and Lucas.

At all those locations, they'll be up at 8 a.m. ready to march into their board of election and vote.

Here's video of Kearney explaining the concept:

Nina Turner starts her sleepover at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections (E. 30th and Euclid) in about an hour. I hope she dresses warmly! I'm heading down to take pictures.

She and her group will march in to vote when the doors open at 8 a.m.

For those who are not such early risers, Congresswoman Marcia Fudge will ppear at the Cuyahoga County BoE at 10:30 a.m. to talk about early voting and what the rules are for voting this year. Then at 1 p.m., after a short program at the Urban League office at 2930 Prospect, she'll return to the BoE. to vote with a group of people including state senator Shirley Smith, other elected, civic and religious leaders, and members of the Northern Ohio chapter of the Ohio Young Black Democrats.

***

Montgomery County! Guess who is going to lead voters into the board of elections there? It's Dennis Lieberman and Rom Ritchie, the former Democratic members of that board, who were fired by secretary of state Jon Husted last month for daring to vote in favor of extended weekend in-person early voting hours. Thy'll be coming back to haunt the when they show up at 8 a.m. to vote and to draw people's attention to the voting opportunities that Husted deigned to leave in place. The BoE is on the lower level of the County Administration Building,, 451 W. Third Street, in Dayton.

And listen: we really need you people in Dayton/Montgomery County to get out and vote. Your turnout track record hasn't been the greatest. But we need you to help President Obama and Sherrod Brown carry Ohio, and also to help Sharen Neuhardt oust the useless Mike "Who?" Latta.

Thank you.

***

Tuesday, October 2, is the big day in Ohio. It's the first day you can head down to your local Board of Elections and cast your vote for the November election. You can be among the first to experience the pleasure of helping to re-elect President Obama, to vote for Sherrod Brown and put the kibbosh on Josh "The Empty Suit" Mandel's political ambitions, and to vote for Mike Skindell, Bill O'Neill and Yvette McGee Brown for Ohio Supreme Court to create to balanced court for the first time in many people's memories. It's also the first day you can vote YES on Issue 2 to take away the redistricting power from politicians and put it in the hands of a nonpartisan citizens panel.

Around the state, Democratic groups are planning events to draw public attention to the fact that voting is open.

In Cuyahoga County, Cleveland state senator Nina Turner is making one of the boldest moves (no one ever accused her of being a shrinking violet). She's planning a sleepover Monday night through Tuesday morning at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections at E. 30th and Euclid Avenue. She'll be joined by political, community and religious leaders, who will undoubtedly have some choice words for those who are trying to limit opportunities to vote. They'll be there at 7 p.m. Monday night and when the BoE opens for voting at 8 a.m. Tuesday morning, they'll be in line.

Down in Columbus, students are planning a similar camp-out at the Franklin County early voting location at 1700 Morse Road. Since that's not exactly a central location, Organizing for America is organizing for getting people there from the OSU Student Union starting at 9:30 p.m. Monday. They are looking or sleeping bags, tents, and rides.

http://www.athensnews.com/ohio/article-37915-sen-brown-superior-on-both-...

Heh heh. I'll bet his birthday isn't going so well for The Empty Suit. He's probably on the phone to education tax dollar thief David Brennan of the mostly failing for-profit White Hat Charter Schools,waiting, "David, I don't understand what's going on here. Don't they know I'm going to be president one day? I know you've been showering me with big bucks since I ran for the state House in one of the best funded campaigns ever run for the legislature — I don't understand why it's not enough."

The Athens News becomes just the latest paper to explain why it's not enough, excoriating Mandel for his cronyism, his propensity for lying, his general lack of demonstrated competence ("yet to prove he can be anything more than a callow political operative pretending to be a public official*) and something else that's not brought out a lot — that the handful of position statements he's been willing to make publicly are all of the radical, obstructionist Tea Party variety. Often those groups are the only ones he's willing to speak to about issues, and he has eagerly embraced their sort of counterproductive craziness.

This hasn't gotten too much attention because of Mandel's ducking on major policy issues, just sending out a little signal here and there. But to these groups, he has on occasion indicated that he will be their willing water carrier. And of course he will owe the big money boys who've spent nearly $20 million in secret money, plus all the millions they've given to him directly. (David Brennan is addicted to giving money to Josh Mandel.)

The Athens News is one of the few to point out

It's Josh "The Empty Suit" Mandel's birthday today — and he turns 35! That means he's legally old enough to run for President, which I'm sure he plans to start doing the day after he's elected to the U.S. Senate. Only we're going to make sure he's not elected to the U.S. Senate, right?

Joshie doesn't need OUR birthday wishes because I'll bet all his secret-money friends like Charles and David Koch, Sheldon Adelson, Foster Friess and David Brennan gave him a nice big birthday gift: the promise to fund a mega superPAC to jumpstart his presidential campaign.

The rest of us who can afford to do so — even though we have far less than the above named folks — should celebrate Senator Sherrod Brown's his 60th birthday a little early (it's November 9) and send him a little something to help make sure that Joshie doesn't steal OUR Senate seat for the benefit of his wealthy friends. And then we can all be celebrating together on November 6.

http://www.sherrodbrown.com