So I was skimming my usual websites and this is what I found:
There’s a fairly serious scrap underway for the senate seat George Voinovich is vacating in Ohio, with Governor Ted Strickland — uncharacteristically — and other Democratic leaders pressing Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to stay in her job, and backing her rival Lee Fisher.
Link: http://www.politico.com/blogs/…
As secretary of state, she has a seat on Ohio’s Apportionment Board, which both parties want to control because it redraws the boundaries for legislative districts after each full U.S. census.
But that’s not enough to keep Brunner in place.
She and others correctly argue that the power of the Apportionment Board may be overstated – as evidenced by Democrats’ success last year in House districts last drawn by Republicans. (Democrats, though, performed badly in Ohio Senate districts.)
Also, if Democrats deliver on their promise to pass election reforms, those reforms are likely to include changing the apportionment process. Computers can redraw the lines without partisan politics, eliminating the need for board seats.
A lot of us were hoping for Congressman Tim Ryan to be our senate candidate. I think Lt. Governor Fisher was third or further down on all of our lists for Senate, whether you had Ryan, Brunner or Sutton in front of him. Most notably because of his poor electoral track record of 1/2 for Attorney General, 0/1 for Governor, and 1/1 for Lt. Governor.
What do you guys think?