Find us at:
I got “scooped” by everyone on this one.
I confess. I did not see this coming at this point in time.
I am not saying (yet) that it was wrong for him to announce.
The more I think about it, announcing now is generous of him and could turn out to be a wise thing, though there could be problems still on the horizon. On the surface this may seem like an innocuous time to declare and just as good as any. However, upon closer inspection it’s clear that Monday, April 6th is an important date. I must admit that I am very curious to see how Jennifer Brunner is going to handle that date -- the date by or on which Senator Jon Husted must register to vote in the place in which he will vote on May 5, 2009. It’s been very generous of him to wait until now to declare, giving her every possible moment to decide this issue before the delay starts to play in his favor. It would be very unseemly of her to screw with his Constitutional right to vote, but since she has known about this issue for months, isn’t it a sort of tacit endorsement of Husted’s residency being in Kettering, Ohio if Brunner lets him vote from that residence again in 32 days from today on May 5, 2009???
IF she wanted to avoid screwing with his Constitutional right to vote, she needs to be deciding this issue by Monday, April 6th - since THAT is the last date he may REGISTER to vote in the May 5th election. Presumably he's registered in Kettering, and if she rules he lives in Columbus after April 6th then he's screwed (unless he fights it in Court, etc) out of voting anywhere on May 5th. He's been generous by allowing her all this time to make the decision, and she's still not done it – one business day before the deadline to register.
Also, maybe it’s wise that he announced now so he can make huge political hay if she rules after April 6th that he lives in Columbus. It seems he has already decided (with the presumptive blessing of the state GOP), that he's running for SOS regardless of this residency issue and he's tried to come up with the best way to make it play out for him. Maybe this is it? I don't know - maybe there are more sides to this than I am thinking of right now.
Any way around this Jennifer Lee and the Montgomery County BOE have taken WAY too long to come up with a decision and soon, if not already, the delay itself will start to play in Husted's favor. If he votes in Kettering on May 5th, and she still refuses to make a decision, Husted may be wise to file a mandamus action to force her to perform her statutory duty of breaking the BOE tie vote. Though she is under no legal time limit to decide, the delay will begin to look more political with each passing day.
If the mainstream media does an unbiased job on this (I have my fingers crossed…hoping either or both the Dispatch or the DDN will do a righteous job on this… though up until now they’ve been asleep at the switch) then she is going to have to make a decision, especially if it’s one against him, by this coming Monday, April 6th. My guess is she is counting on the press to turn a blind eye to her shenanigans. Frankly, if she can’t decide on this within the time she’s had to do so then she is basically saying that she is either: incompetent (and if that is the case then why would we want to promote an incompetent person from being SOS to US Senator) or that she has not had enough time to look everything over (which is code for “I’ve been running against Lee Fisher and the other middle aged guys from the major metros for US Senate 24/7 and I am derelict in my duties as SOS so I’ve not had any time to actually be SOS”).
If she rules against Husted beyond April 6th, and any of the major newspapers are paying attention then they should blast the shinola out of her for playing politics with this. There is no reason she and her office cannot make a decision on this prior to Senator Husted having to possibly re-register to vote on April 6, 2009.
On the other hand, if she is right and the press is going to show its liberal bias (again) and turn a blind eye to her barnacles then Husted (along with Kevin DeWine & the GOP) MAY really, really be in a bad spot. If Brunner decides the political risks are worth the benefits of holding out, then we don’t want to even begin to guess when she will make a ruling …July, August, September …gulp… December… nobody knows. Meanwhile, Husted will be “THE” candidate for the GOP raking in endorsements and money all while no one really knows how this residency issue is going to be decided. If I were advising Husted I would have had him take Jennifer Lee to Court already. What the f' is he waiting for??? Hopefully he gets off his rear end and takes her to Court this month...or immediately after the May 5th primary...at the latest.
Contemplate this: Let’s assume for argument’s sake that the press …sigh…shocks us all and turns a blind eye to Brunner’s balderdash. If she decides against him in October and this thing goes to Court and Husted loses in October, then he really cannot under any circumstance run to be the Chief Election Officer in the State of Ohio. At that point DeWine and the GOP would probably be scrambling around (nice timing since it would be around Halloween…scary, huh?) for an “A list” candidate to run in lieu of Husted.
Conversely, if she rules against him and Husted takes her to Court and wins, then she looks like crap…a consummate party hack, politics as usual…blah blah blah…you get the picture. If that ends up happening then Husted looks like a genius for announcing (notice I said genius “for” announcing not “how” he announced…oy vey!) before anyone else for this office on 4/2/09, potentially clearing the field with a strong list of endorsements and purportedly a strong balance on hand (we’ll see on August 1st if it is real or barnacles) with the side benefit of handing a good campaign issue to Rob Portman to use against his potential opponent for George Voinovich’s US Senate seat.
The flip side is, if at some point this summer or fall she rules in his favor to break the 2 to 2 tie - something even a liberal dem Buckeye State blog says is the action she should take….see it here at:
[www_buckeyestateblog_com], then she looks like the most honorable, non-partisan elected official in the state and the mainstream media should laud her non-partisan ruling and for being “above the political fray.”
The clock is effectively ticking for both Brunner and the mainstream media…tick tock…tick tock…
