Democrats Shying Away From Ney

[Judi Lynn]

Democrats Shying Away From Ney
By DAVID HAMMER, Associated Press Writer

Wednesday, February 22, 2006
(02-22) 01:44 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --

National Democrats failed three times to recruit experienced elected officials to run against the Ohio Republican at the center of a lobbying scandal. Now, they're left with lesser-known contenders running against one of their top political targets in a race they've been touting for months.

Three men with more experience in countywide elected office and greater name recognition than the four Democrats who are running turned down offers by the party's national House campaign organization last year to challenge GOP Rep. Bob Ney.

Ney is a top target for Democrats in the 2006 elections because of his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. When Abramoff pleaded guilty to fraud charges in January, he told federal prosecutors Ney took thousands of dollars in gifts, travel and campaign donations from him and associates in exchange for official acts.

"From (Ohio Gov.) Bob Taft to Bob Ney, Ohio is ground zero for voters who want real change from the status quo and the ethical scandals in government," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Taft, who has rock bottom approval ratings, pleaded no contest to ethics charges last year and was the first Ohio governor charged with a crime.
(snip/...)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/02/22/national/w014422S56.DTL

[OKNancy]

1. COuld our Ohio posters give us opinions on the two front-runners

The article says there are two Democrats who look the most promising. I wonder which of the two would be the best. LOL - perhaps DU and other online folks could give them a nudge (fund-raising etc)

......Joe Sulzer and Zack Space, two of the four Democrats who did enter the race.


Sulzer and Space raised around the same amount of money, about $75,000 each, in the last three months of 2005, even though Space campaigned just five weeks.


But Sulzer, the mayor of Chillicothe on the far-western, less populated end of the district, gave his own campaign $100,000 while Space self-financed just $500 for the quarter, giving Sulzer the appearance of a $100,000 fundraising advantage.

[Peace Patriot]

2. The Democrats in Ohio have got to bust more than Repug crime--

they've got to bust open the non-transparent election system, run by Republican corporations on "trade secret," proprietary programming code, with virtually no audit/recount controls.

Recently, in Ohio, four election reform initiatives, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, were flipped over, on election day, into 60/40 LOSSES!--the biggest flipover we've seen yet. The machines and their masters are now controlling the election rules!

See Bob Koehler's article:
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

It's no wonder that, "Three men with more experience in countywide elected office and greater name recognition...turned down offers by the party's national House campaign organization last year to challenge GOP Rep. Bob Ney."

They probably know what the score is. Democrats, ARISE! UNITE! BUST THE VOTING MACHINES...NOW!

----------------------

Some resources:

www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.verfiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.UScountvotes.org (monitoring of '06 and '08 elections)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)
www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)
Sign the petition (Russ Holt, HR 550, great bill-has 169 sponsors). http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html
www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)

Also of interest:
Amaryllis (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

[Peace Patriot]

3. And guess who is responsible for HAVA, the corrupt $4 billion electronic

voting boondoggle that has created very profitable and Bush-friendly mayhem in our election system?

Hint: his name rhymes with Delay.

[radio4progressives]

9. excellent work peace patriot ... thank you..

:applause:

[Algorem]

4. Ohio Democrats shying away from Ney race

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/breaking_news/13931669.htm

DAVID HAMMER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -

National Democrats failed three times to recruit experienced elected officials to run against the Ohio Republican at the center of a lobbying scandal. Now, they're left with lesser-known contenders running against one of their top political targets in a race they've been touting for months.

Three men with more experience in countywide elected office and greater name recognition than the four Democrats who are running turned down offers by the party's national House campaign organization last year to challenge Republican Rep. Bob Ney.

Ney is a top target for Democrats in the 2006 elections because of his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. When Abramoff pleaded guilty to fraud charges in January, he told federal prosecutors Ney took thousands of dollars in gifts, travel and campaign donations from him and associates in exchange for official acts.

"From (Ohio Gov.) Bob Taft to Bob Ney, Ohio is ground zero for voters who want real change from the status quo and the ethical scandals in government," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Taft, who has rock bottom approval ratings, pleaded no contest to ethics charges last year and was the first Ohio governor charged with a crime...


Democrat apparently short on signatures

Democrats baffled; Columbiana County to certify names on petition today

http://www.dispatch.com/news-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/02/22/20060222-C4-02.html

Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Jonathan Riskind
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

WASHINGTON — Democrats thought they had a winner for the open congressional seat in southern and eastern Ohio, but he seems to have come up short on petition signatures — and he needed only 50.

That means he’ll have to run as a write-in candidate in the May primary or as an independent in the fall.

Republican and Democratic sources say that state Sen. Charles Wilson of St. Clairsville is two signatures short. A spokeswoman for the Columbiana County Board of Elections, which meets today to certify signatures in the 6 th District race, wouldn’t say whether Wilson had qualified.

Wilson collected his signatures in Belmont and Scioto counties. But those counties include voters — some of whom signed Wilson’s petition — who live in adjoining congressional districts...

[Rose Siding]

5. Democrats are running in 18 of 18 OH districts

And there are primary challengers in all but one district-

http://www.swingstateproject.com/2006/02/oh_18_of_18.php

Pending any challenges, we have candidates running in 18 of 18 Ohio congressional districts. CQ did the hard work of going around to every relevant county office to collect these filings. What a cockamamie system Ohio has! The only person without a challenger is Democrat Tim Ryan in OH-17.

[AndyTiedye]

6. The FIX is In! In a State With Real Elections, Ney Would Be Vulnerable

but this is Ohio, where the elections are rigged more blatantly than anywhere else in the country.

Democrats who have somehow got a safe position are understandably inclined to hunker down,
rather than getting into a race that is so likely to be stolen from them.

[wordpix]

7. don't Ohio Dems know any Dem veterans of Iraq War? C'mon, Dems, get movin

[LiberalEsto]

8. If only Paul Hackett could run vs. Ney! nt

[cmd]

10. I'm a Zack Space supporter.

Just about anything you want to know is on his website. Be sure to check out the ethics pledge he signed the day he announced his candidacy. I'll be working with his campaign, so check out my posts in the Ohio forum for updates. Thanks, cmd