Tiberi Colluding with Todd? Oh Please Oh Please Oh Please

Buckeye State Blog has got a couple of posts up about the press conference Bill Todd held this week about Homeland Security Grants. I've been pretty quiet about the Columbus Mayor's race. As I've said recently, Bill Todd is a joke, and the extra attention just legitimizes his candidacy. For example, in the statement under discussion, Todd opens with this about Mayor Coleman:

The news today that Columbus’s 2007 share of federal Homeland Security funding puts us at 42nd of the 45 cities receiving such funds just the latest evidence demonstrating how little Mayor Mike Coleman is failing the people in his most important responsibility – protecting them.

I actually think there is much better evidence demonstrating how little the Mayor is failing, but any evidence showing how much he is succeeding is welcome, I guess.

When your campaign's official release text has a double negative error that makes it state the opposite of what you mean, you're a joke.

Of course, we can take a look at the charge that has got Coleman's supporters upset with the Todd Campaign:

“Three years ago, he told CNN, ‘We will do whatever is necessary to keep our city safe from terrorism and crime.’

”Really?

“Since then, Columbus became one of a very few American cities to actually have several of its own residents arrested and charged by the federal government with forging terror plots to kill people in Columbus and elsewhere.

I can only assume that Mr. Todd would prefer that Columbus be among the larger number of American cities where potential terrorists remain completely at-large. Will he come right out and promise to prevent the arrest of people plotting to commit terrorist acts?

When you single out your opponent's position as one of the only mayors nationwide to preside over a city where terrrorism suspects have been successfully apprehended and attempt to use it as evidence of a supposed lack of commitment to safety, you are a joke.

So... why am I reversing myself and writing about Bill Todd? Because rumors abound that he's getting an assist from the office of Pat Tiberi, in what some believe is a violation of electioneering laws. If Tiberi can seriously be labelled as Bill Todd's buddy in '08, that's at least a few thousand votes out of the Tiberi column in '08. So please, Mr. Todd, if you've got that kind of pull, get some photos and video of Tiberi's heartfelt endorsement. It's not going to be enough to get you elected, but it might do someone else some real good.

Everybody's Doing It - Pt. II

We now have six candidates for Mayor of Bexley -

Bill Minckler
Matt Lampke
Travis Irvine
Eugene Weiss
Bill Harvey
and...

John Brennan makes 6. According to a front page story by David Cross in the July 18 Bexley News (print-only as of this writing), Brennan is a past Council President who lost by less than 30 votes in his last attempt to become Bexley's mayor in 1995, current head of Hilliard's Parks and Rec Dept., and former owner of Brennan's Broad-Nel restaurant.

Welcome to the party Mr. Brennan. Mr. Brennan is listed as unaffiliated with the Franklin County BOE, donated 25 bucks to Charleta Tavares (D-Columbus) 11 years ago, a few months after unsuccessfully challenging a Democratic incumbent.

Some may say that six candidates is more than enough. And I'm sure we already have multiple individuals who would serve Bexley well as mayor. But I can't help but thinking... with six men in the field splitting up the vote, a female candidate could get close to a plurality on gender alone. Hmmm. In the spirtit of Harry Potter week I will quote the young Lord Voldemort: "Isn't seven the most powerfully magical number?"

In other Bexley election news, if Mayor isn't your thing, there's an open slot on the Education Board of one of the best districts in the Midwest. By open I mean that the BOE is not even aware of anyone collecting signatures to get on the ballot yet. As they say, they wouldn't necessarily be aware, what with downloads and such, but still - If you know of someone who is planning to run for the seat Michael Levey has been filling, please leave a comment below.

Likewise, John Royhans is not seeking re-election to City Council, leaving what I believe to be a now-open seat. I can't recall any non-incumbents that have announced an intention to run as of yet, but I'll check.

These stories, as is typical, rely heavily on the work of Bexley Beat Reporters for ThisWeek and the Bexley News. Consider this a welcome to Bonnie Butcher, who has recently taken over for Quinn Bowman as ThisWeek's Bexley reporter. David Cross continues to report on Bexley for the Bexley News. Note to Mr. Cross - I like SNP, but if SNP were to put all of your stories on line instead of just some, and if they were to publish feeds, you'd get a whole lot more linkage from here. Just saying.

Oh, and finally, if Weiss, Harvey, or Brennan have or decide to create webpages, I'd be quite appreciative if a someone would send along the URL(s) to me: bluebexley AT gmail DOT com -thanks

Eeyore at the Carnival

I submitted the Tiberi posts from last week to the Carnival of Ohio Politics. It wasn't my own blogging prowess so much that I wanted to show off. I really think the underlying story is of wider interest.

So, as it turns out, I was included in this week's edition. Well, sort of. Scroll to the bottom and you'll see Lisa Renee's explanation. I had just decided that it was no big deal when I saw Pho's post regarding the Carnival which commented on the one new contributor - Smoke If You Got 'Em.

sigh.

Too busy for my own thoughts

So here are some other people's thoughts:

1) Pat Tiberi gets hometown paid media for voting to keep environmentally beneficial language in a bill, then turns around and votes against the bill itself, and holds it up as an example of irresponsible spending. I'm sure Deborah Pryce and Dave Hobson must be getting sick of Tiberi calling them names by now. Gray at LICOPAC has the write-up.

2) The ODP, breaking character a bit, is hosting an all-night candlelight vigil at Senator Voinovich's Columbus office. In case you didn't know, Senate Republicans have threatened filibusters on any bill that seeks to influence Iraq strategy, and the Dems have finally decided to make Republicans carry out their threat and have an all-night debate if necessary. There's some nervous talk flitting about regarding quorum calls, so George might have the opportunity to make a somewhat more courageous break with the GOP tonight.

3) Okay, this one's my thought: Many of the arguments in favor of Free Trade are sound arguments. But simplistic arguments like this one in the Dispatch really annoy me:

...they (free trade opponents) fail to mention that erecting barriers to trade, an approach favored by many Democrats and some Republicans in Congress, won't halt the loss of jobs or help workers in other countries. Nor would the higher prices American consumers would pay for just about everything help the U.S. standard of living.

Of course that's true, and if we just got rid of our own minimum wage, environmental protection, and workplace safety regulations here, we'd have more jobs and lower prices. Everyone would get low prices, and only several thousand would be sickened, maimed, or killed through exploitation. If we simply became a third world country once again, we'd be in much better position to compete with other third world nations.

That's not really out of the conservative mainstream, but I would be surprised if the CD Editorial Board would write that up as an editorial.

Happy Tuesday.