Ohio’s primary election, unlike many other states this year, is for all offices up for selection in the general election. There is also at least one school tax vote.
The most interesting, to me, anyway:
President. I saw my first lawn sign and bumper sticker today, both for Sanders. Kind of late, seems to me. I think Clinton will win.
Trump is leading Kasich in the latest poll. Should Trump fall off a cliff, I think that support will drift to Kasich; I just can’t picture Cruz winning Ohio.
US Senate. Portman is vulnerable, especially given the Supreme Court thing. However, the 75-year-old former Democratic governor and U.S. Representative Strickland is facing a primary challenge from a much younger Sittenfeld, a Cincinnati Councilman.
Boehner’s old district. The primary will select both the candidate for the special election and for the general election. This is the one I’ve been seeing oodles and oodles of ads for on TV, as the district is within Dayton’s TV market. A Republican will win both the special and the general, possibly the same Republican will win both. They are all emphasizing how conservative and anti-Obama they are.
Possibly the most interesting ad is State Senator Beagle firing a shotgun (three times!) while telling us how he will go to Washington to get things done.
It’s gonna take more than three rounds to clean up Washington. Heck, Cheney used one and only winged his quarry. And even at his advanced age Cheney’s much more of a warrior than Beagle (sheesh; the jokes write themselves! :)) ever could be.
The Democratic side is simple. Vote for delegates for Sanders, Clinton, or Roque de la Fuente.
The Republican side has separate votes for state delegates (Fiorina, Huckabee, Kasich, Paul, Rubio, Santorum, Trump, Bush, Carson, Christie, and Cruz), and for 10th district delegates (all the previous except Santorum, listed in a different order). Per state law, any votes for a candidate who has filed a notice of withdrawal will not be counted.
About 2% of eligible voters have voted early. Another about 2% have requested absentee ballots not yet returned. Early voting continues through Monday.
TV ads have exploded in recent days, mostly for Republicans. Still not many yard signs, bumper stickers, etc.
Bill Beagle has a new ad out. This one shows him caressing his shotgun.
I don’t know what ads are running on TV here. Most of the yard signs I’m seeing are in favor of a local ballot initiative, funding the county office of Health and Human Services.
There are also 22 other ballot initiatives that I don’t know a thing about. I need to research those this weekend.
The district delegate votes won’t count for anything this time, though. When the legislature moved the primary so Kasich could win a winner-take-all state, they forgot to change the way the ballots are made, so the district primaries will just be thrown out by the party when delegates are chosen.
Cast my ballot for Kasich this morning. I know he won’t win the nomination and he hasn’t been my particular candidate of choice so far, but I feel like I did my part to stop Trump.
On my voting machine was a little sticky note informing me that Rand Paul had dropped out and any vote for him would not count. Bush, Huckabee, Carson, Fiorina and others were on the ballot but not included on the sticky note. I guess Rand is the only one who has formally withdrawn?
I did also vote for Portman because I think he’s good and I’m not so bothered if he toes the party line regarding the supreme court stuff.
I’m in NE Ohio and have seen just a handful of Bernie and Hillary signs and bumper stickers, and a single Trump lawn sign and bumper sticker (I was tempted to follow the driver to the next stoplight, roll down my window and shout, “What are you thinking?”). Bernie and Hillary both have radio ads running on stations to which I listen. I’ve heard far more ads for a conservative state senate race in the Akron area, though. than I have for any of the Republicans presidential contenders.
Last night I got a New Day For America robocall from a “local small businessman” whose name I didn’t catch, praising (and mispronouncing the name of) Kasich. NDFA is pro-Kasich: New Day for America - FactCheck.org
We have a bunch of judges and a human-services levy renewal on the ballot. I’ll vote after work today for Clinton (meh) and Sittenfeld (yay!).
Voted this morning for HRC. Thought about stating I was Republican to cast an anti-Trump vote for Kasich but I just couldn’t do it.
I’m in Columbus and the radio spots I’ve been hearing are Bernie, Kasich, and HRC in that order of the frequency of airing. I’ve not heard any radio ads for Trump. We don’t watch much local t.v. so I can’t say I’ve noticed any t.v. spots for any candidate yet. We did just come back from Florida visiting family and there were a lot of Trump t.v. spots attacking Rubio.
I haven’t voted yet, but I have looked up the ballot. Apparently that “23 other local ballot questions” mentioned on the voter information card was adding up the questions in all municipalities in the county, or something, because Lakewood’s ballot does in fact have only one initiative on it (the HHS one). Maybe there are other suburbs that have more.
For what it’s worth, I voted at about 2:00, and was the 50th person in my precinct. On my walk back home (the polling place is only a couple of blocks away), I passed a fellow (an adult, well over 18) going the other way who asked for directions there. So there’s at least one person who came out for the primaries, who apparently hasn’t voted before (or maybe just moved here): Voting here is always at City Hall.
