Posted on 09/03/2002 5:38:41 AM PDT by BlackRazor
Governor's race gets tighter
Hagan closing in on Taft
By William Hershey
Columbus Bureau
COLUMBUS | Republican Gov. Bob Taft and Democrat Tim Hagan both plan multicity campaign swings this week in a governor’s race that appears to be tightening, despite Taft’s huge advantage in fund raising and statewide campaign experience.
A statewide poll published Sunday in The Columbus Dispatch showed Taft leading Hagan, a former Cuyahoga County commissioner making his first run for statewide office, 47 percent to 39 percent.
Two percent supported independent John Eastman, and the rest were undecided.
The poll results tracked closely a poll released in August by the Democrats that showed Taft leading Hagan 42 percent to 33 percent. A July Ohio Poll, conducted by the University of Cincinnati, showed Taft leading Hagan, 55 percent to 32 percent.
Orest Holubec, Taft’s campaign spokesman, said the governor doesn't take a re-election for granted.
"This is a tough re-election year because of the national recession," Holubec said. "People tend to look to the top when they look to blame somebody."
Taft has worked hard to balance the budget and keep the state running without a broad-based tax increase, Holubec said.
"When the voters hear the governor’s message of improved education and higher-paying jobs, we believe they will vote for him" Holubec said.
Hagan sounded upbeat in a telephone interview from Canfield, where he had been campaigning.
"I went to bed within 10 points around Labor Day," Hagan said. "Having that as reality with 60 days to go only points out that we’re in the race. It’s make or break."
Hagan said the fact that half of those in the poll said they couldn’t give him an approval rating because they didn’t know enough about him points out what he has been hammering on the campaign trail: "It’s a referendum on Taft."
Hagan, whose colorful remarks occasionally have drawn negative publicity, joked that members of his family "have advised me to keep my mouth shut."
Today, Taft and his lieutenant governor running mate Jennette Bradley will begin a three-day, 10-city bus tour that will emphasize their message of improved education and higher-paying jobs, Holubec said.
The campaign swing includes a scheduled stop late this morning in Dayton at the Entrepreneurs Center on Monument Avenue where the governor is expected to emphasize his Third Frontier Project, a $1.6 billion proposal to promote research and create high-paying jobs, Holubec said.
Meanwhile, Hagan said that on Wednesday in Columbus he will outline his comprehensive plan for Ohio’s future and take his message to other cities on Thursday and Friday and next week. He is scheduled to be in Dayton on Wednesday afternoon. Plans still are being worked out, but Hagan’s running mate, Charleta Tavares, is expected to accompany him at least part of the time.
His proposal will deal with what he expects to be a budget deficit as high as $3.5 billion during the next two-year budget cycle, which begins July 1, 2003, Hagan said. Also, Hagan said he will offer a specific plan for solving Ohio’s decade-long school funding controversy. The Ohio Supreme Court three times has ruled the system unconstitutional and now, at the request of Taft and other state officials, is reconsidering its most recent decision.
Hagan said his school funding proposal would draw from plans that have worked in other states, including Michigan, and will call for less reliance on the personal property tax.
His plan for dealing with the budget crisis will start with the Taft administration’s plan which calls for state agencies to start budget planning with proposals based on 85 percent of what they’re now receiving. In addition, Hagan said he would call for reducing spending by an additional $1.6 billion. Hagan said he would not call for an immediate tax increase.
He said the plan would call for exploring every possible budget cut and for eliminating unbid contracts.
If elected governor, he said he would try to work with the legislature, which is expected to remain under Republican control. He said he would not call for a broad-based tax increase in any case without putting the plan to a vote of the people.
Taft will kick off the tour this morning with a rally in Cincinnati and stops in Toledo, Lima and Dayton. On Wednesday, the governor will campaign in the Cleveland area, Akron, Lordstown and Massillon before returning to Columbus for a 6 p.m. rally at the Statehouse. Thursday, he will campaign in Marietta.
Taft, whose family name has echoed through Ohio politics for nearly a century, has been on the statewide ballot during the past four statewide elections, dating to 1986. At the end of July, his campaign treasury had more than $8 million and the governor already has aired one round of television ads in Ohio’s major media markets.
Hagan, meanwhile, has been scrambling both to increase his name recognition and raise money. He had $375,000 in his campaign treasury at the end of July and has said he will run ads on the Internet, not television. His first Internet ad aired last week.
The Dispatch poll was conducted by mail and based on responses from 1,516 registered voters who said they plan to vote on Nov. 5, the newspaper reported. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points in 95 out of 100 cases, according to the newspaper.
If Taft wants to ensure his re-election, he better get to the bully pulpit and start rallying the troops. Republicans remember the FIRST Bob Taft (not to mention HIS father, William Howard) and it's time for Bob Jr. to live up to the family name.
The Tafts represent the consevative wing of the party, not the gutless RINOs. I sure wish the current one would WAKE UP and realize this.
I also supported Taft in '98, but I've regretted it long since.
Notice his campaign ads actually boast about increased school spending! IMO that's the worst thing a Republican guv could campaign on. Yet he seems to consider that his crowning achievement. Sadly, that might just be the least offensive thing he's done to conservatives.
Selecting Bradley (pro-abort feminazi) as his runnning mate was a total slap in the face.
I think conservatives statewide are going to either stay home or (as in my case) vote Constitutional or Libertarian. Either way Taft will probably lose...or barely squeak by. I can only hope the whole Ohio GOP gets the message how frustrated we Ohio conservatives are.
LOL! That's not a typo, is it? ;-)
Guv Bob would fit in well in Massachusetts. Think Swift, Cellucci et al. There was once a huge budget surplus that was supposed to go back to Ohioans as a tax refund, but nope, Taft figured it would be better spent "for the churren" in our pathetic public screwels.
I may go Natural Law this time, as I'd really hate to flat-out support a 'Rat in a gubernatorial race. In the primary this spring, I wrote in Ken Blackwell--even though he already has a job--because in a perfect world, that's who I'd want as guv.
In general, Blackwell in my favorite figure in the whole administration. He's a shoe-in for re-election; and yes, he and Jim Petro deserve our support as much as anyone on the ticket.
I actually like O'Connor a lot better than Boob's pick for her replacement. And Stratton--I have a feeling she'll win re-election, especially if she can rally the solid conservative SW and Western counties of the state.
One of my all-out favorite people at the Statehouse is Rep. Linda Reidelbach (R-Worthington). A great pro-life, pro-family Christian who's not afraid to stand up to "da teechur's yuunions" or other leftist whackos!
Unfortunatetly the same can be said for DeWine and Voinovich.
GV is probably the best of the three. But like they say, "when you're surrounded by pygmies..."!
I guess the reason I'm not too hard on Voinovich is bcuz he's the only Ohio politico I've ever known who could convince even the commies in Cleveland to vote Republican for a change.
This Bob is Bob, III. His father was a one-term Senator (Bob, Jr.) in the '70s who lost reelection to the abominable Howard "Red" Metzenbaum. The Grandpa was the man who SHOULD have beated Ike in '52 and Great-Grandpa was William Howard. Agreed that he has been a disappointment, but Hagan will be far worse. Let's look forward to seeing Ken Blackwell take the Gov's office rather than DeWine in '06.
Polls are not raw numbers. They do not survey 1000 people then count the results. They poll people in bellweather prcincts then weight them based on their guesses on turn out in that precinct. In 2000 they guessed the Democratic turn out to be lower than it was. MOst were using turnout numbers from 1996. Thus a predicted Bush win nearly became a Gore win because the Democrats turned out in altime record numbers.
This time the pollsters have skewed it the other way. They are using the actual turn out figures from 2000 for these bell weather precincts. The Democrats will not turn out as well as they did in 2000. So the polls will show Democrats doing better than they will do.
This year Taft will run bettter than the "polls" just as Gore ran better than the 2000 "Polls"
The Democrats turned out in heavier concentrations in 2000 than they did in 1996. This time they will turn out in lower concentrations than they did in 2000.
Alfonso Taft (1810–1891) – Secretary of war; attorney-general of the United States under President Grant
William Howard Taft (1857-1930) - Governor of the Philippines, Secretary of War, President of the U.S., Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
Robert Alphonso Taft (1889-1953) - Represenative; Speaker of the Ohio House, U.S. Senator; Majority leader, Presidential hopeful
Robert A. Taft, Jr. (1917-1993) - Represenative; Majority Leader of the Ohio House, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator
Robert A. Taft, III. (1942-----) - Represenative of the Ohio House, Hamilton County Commissioner, Ohio Secretary of state, Ohio Governor
Yikes.
Well, considering the alternative is Hagen, I suppose you better hold your nose and vote for Taft. We have a bunch of folks screaming that the Republican candidate for Governor here in Illinois (Attn. Gen. Jim Ryan) is also a RINO. But at least Jim Ryan managed to pick a solid consevative for veep. What was Taft smoking when he picked an obscure RINO from the Columbus city council? If he wanted a black running mate to pick up minority votes, the OBVIOUS choice was Blackwell. The guy is a solid conservative Republican and he holds STATEWIDE office. Honestly, whoever told Taft to pick Bradley should be barred from ever working on political campaign again.
I hope to hell Hagen doesn't win, but Governor Taft has only himself to blame if it happens.
In Cleveland, it's pretty much assumed. When I lived there, people used to look at me as if I had three heads when I told them I'm Republican. What's funny is, alot of those folks probably would vote "R" if they didn't know better. (That's how a conservative "D" like Traficant could be so popular in NE Ohio.)
About 5 years ago a poll was taken, asking what popular figure Clevelanders would most like to elect to public office. Big surprise: A solid, clueless majority said "Bernie Kosar"!
Kosar's a Republican.
You've just summed it up perfectly, Richard.
This is what's always frustrated me about the Ohio GOP. It's wishy-washy, wimpy and moderate. I've heard so much about "consensus-building" from GOP bigwigs I just want to jump up and say, hey, how about taking a stand and leading for a change?
I've often said our party leadership here would do well to look at the Texas GOP. Now those are some Real Men who know what they stand for!
She sure is, absolutely. Wow...we've probably worked together before and not even realized it :) I first met Linda while working as one of her polling-place judges (where I have to check my politics at the door, of course;-) but then I got more involved volunteering for her campaigns.
Turner sounds like a winner. I'm also hoping Pat Tiberi in CD 12 rings up a solid re-election victory. He's done a fantastic job as John Kasich's successor.
I'd almost forgotten that Jim Petro was ever in the pro-abort camp! Delighted he's had a change of heart. Yes: Blackwell & Petro would make an awesome ticket in '06!
Believe it or not, I remember DeWhine's commercials when he won his first election to the Senate in '94. In his campaign, he kept invoking Rush Limbaugh and associating himself with Rush, calling himself a dittohead, etc. Man, talk about false lip service! That Whiney weenie isn't even qualified to shine Rush's shoes.
Wasn't the Lt Gov picked in a primary ? Well, in any event, IL is looking really bad these days as apparently some idiots think that Jim is George (we have our own incompetent and dreadful George Ryanesque IL RINO Gov down in TN, Don Sundquist). The GOP should run George out of office (and the state) on a rail. Better than RINO Corinne Wood serve out the last couple months. It's going to be horrible if the state elects both Rod (my g/f's Congressman, blech !) and Daddy's girl Madigan to Gov and AG, we know that ole Dick Mell and you-know-who will really be in total control of the state. No doubt they'll set a new standard of ethics rivalled only by the last Republican Mayor of Chicago, William Hale "Big Bill" Thompson (for those unfamiliar with Big Bill, you should rent "The Untouchables" just to get an idea of who was really running Chicago when he was mayor in the '20s). I hear, though, that Joe Birkett is coming up strong, and he may pull it off against lil Lisa. No doubt he'll be the one to watch in the coming years. BTW, how are we doing in the Sec of State's race ? Jesse White may be outstripping George Ryan for what he's been doing in that office. Any chance for us to take that back with this Kristine Cohn (and if we do, is she just another RINO) ?
"What was Taft smoking when he picked an obscure RINO from the Columbus city council?"
Jeez, who knows ?
"If he wanted a black running mate to pick up minority votes, the OBVIOUS choice was Blackwell. The guy is a solid conservative Republican and he holds STATEWIDE office."
No argument here, although isn't Lt Gov a fairly useless position in the state ? Blackwell probably would prefer having something to do.
"Honestly, whoever told Taft to pick Bradley should be barred from ever working on political campaign again."
Yeah, really ! I mean, c'mon, now ! Isn't there someone in a state of umpteen million people at least one Conservative African-American woman ?! Jeez, even in Iowa (IOWA !) Jim Ross Lightfoot found a young lady to run with him (I believe a news anchorwoman) in '98 for Governor. I'm thinking Taft would've made an even better choice if he could've found a Conservative Latina, since that would've given a very good balance to the entire GOP ticket.
"I hope to hell Hagen doesn't win, but Governor Taft has only himself to blame if it happens."
Yup.
By the way, does Taft have as low an IQ as my vague perception suggests? The Kennedys and the Tafts may be in a footrace here.
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