The Problem with Yost for Auditor

My good friend phoning it in from Virginia has a piece in which he tries to convince us that having three candidates for the Auditor position is a good thing. That is about what I expect from him.

I can't find fault with his analysis of Morgan or Montgomery, but I simply can't let this bit on Yost go by without comment:

Additionally, he's the only one of these three that has already developed a statewide network of GOP activists working to promote his candidacy.

That network was set up for Yost for Attorney General. The bulk of those activists want to see Mike DeWine for Retirement. How does a switch to Auditor accomplish that goal? Don't get me wrong, Yost is the best candidate for Attorney General as the most qualified and competent man in the race. But if you look in to the motivations of those grassroots activists around the state, you will see a picture that has as much to do about Mike DeWine loathing as anything else.

It does not stand to reason that those grassroots activists would simply go along for the ride, especially since there are other candidates to consider.

This is the classic Ohio Republican Party strategy. When the conservatives here start gaining momentum, they engineer a situation where they can pit conservatives against other conservatives and that just leaves us divided. The liberals win. Again. Yost vs. Morgan for Auditor is nothing more than a way for the Ohio Republican Party to put Tea Partiers aagainst Tea Partiers and the Ohio GOP can sit back and play kingmaker. It is politics as usual.

Something else occurred to me overnight. At the announcement, John Kasich suggested that he and Mary Taylor would be working with Kevin DeWine and company to find Mary's replacement. Where does John Kasich stand on all of this? What does Mary Taylor think?