Throw 'em all out! A Toledo Blade position statement

Editorial: A change at the top
Toledo Blade, November 5, 2006
Ohio is a proud state between a great lake and a great river, but Ohioans have been robbed of their home-state pride by a culture of corruption and a cancer of arrogance and entitlement infecting their elected Republican leadership.

On Tuesday, they can begin the process of restoring respectability to state government by rejecting what the party of Lincoln has become here in Ohio.

After careful consideration of every candidate for statewide office, we arrived at the same conclusion that we believe most thoughtful Ohioans have reached - that the Republicans' 16-year stranglehold on state government has turned to disaster and it is time to let the other party govern.

Accordingly, we have endorsed the candidacies of Democrats Ted Strickland for governor, Marc Dann for attorney general, Jennifer Brunner for secretary of state, Barbara Sykes for auditor, and Richard Cordray for treasurer.

You won't find Bob Taft's name, or Tom Noe's, anywhere on Tuesday's ballot, but the Taft-Noe ticket is there just the same.

It is there in the form of Ken Blackwell, whose tenure as secretary of state has been a frequent embarrassment. It is there in the form of Betty Montgomery, who failed as state auditor to move early and vigorously on the Coingate scandal.

These are the people Mr. Taft and Mr. Noe would vote for, we are sure, but Ohioans weary of the Republicans' mishandling of their government have far more attractive choices, and on Election Day they have the opportunity to repudiate what the Taft-Noe team has come to represent.

Our Republican readers might complain that our statewide endorsements, including for the U.S. Senate, were not extended to any of the GOP's candidates and that from The Blade's perspective, only liberals need apply at election time anyway.

That is untrue on its face. We supported Bob Taft for re-election in 2002. We supported Sen. Michael DeWine in both of his previous campaigns. Four years ago we endorsed Betty Montgomery for auditor and James Petro for attorney general.

Those endorsements came long before our newspaper uncovered Coingate, the pernicious influence of Tom Noe, the ethical lapses of the governor, the look-the-other-way indifference of Ms. Montgomery, and the utter betrayal of the public trust by a Republican Party so drunk on its own power it believed it would never again lose an election.

That is why Ohio needs a change in every statewide office. That is why Ohio needs Ted Strickland and Marc Dann. That's why it needs Richard Cordray, Jennifer Brunner, and Barbara Sykes. And that's why it needs Sherrod Brown in the United States Senate.

Their opponents have forfeited their right to govern.
Note: This blogger is a lifelong Republican who will be voting a Democratic ticket in this election.