Brunner Punts on Husted

This is actually a pretty interesting move.

Ohio Secretary of State Jenny Brunner has sent the Jon Husted residency case back to the Montgomery County Board of Elections.

If you read the Dayton Daily Democrat News piece, you can get all of Husted's "I'm vindicated!" noise, but the simple fact of the matter is that Jenny managed to do something I didn't think she was capable of doing...

With this move, Brunner has managed to kick the can down the road a bit further, get another round of free media out of the story, and the decision will STILL be hers to make once the Montgomery County Board of Elections is incapable of making the correct decision.

I do believe I have misunderestimated this one...she is shrewder than I gave her credit for...

My favorite part of the DDN story is this bit:

Ohio’s residency law for voting says the “place where the family of a married person resides shall be considered to be the person’s place of residence.”

Now Husted's witty retort is this...

Husted has said the law allows for absences from the residence on state business and that he intends to return there.

...but that really is just not passing the smell test. Not one bit.

There is one thing that demonstrates that Brunner is playing a political game and it happens early in the piece:

She said Husted’s response to her request for documentation of his residency was incomplete and she issued six subpoenas for the utility records, along with property and postal records.

If Husted failed to adequately respond to the subpoenas, why doesn't she rule against him? I mean a subpoena has to have some sort of legal authority otherwise it is useless, charge him with whatever statute and let's get this over with... That's what she would do if this were really about the law. Instead, it's about politics. Nothing new there...Ohio is lousy with it.