Bob Bennett to step down as Chair of Ohio Republican Party after two years

[geiger]

A deputy will be elected to serve alongside him till he leaves, I have learned, from inside sources. Interesting. Talk about a Party that needs re-building....

[WCGreen]

1. That man is a brilliant politician....

But even Machiavelli couldn't save that sinking ship....

[geiger]

2. yep, and i think he's smart to train a successor

apparently the Central Committee will vote for a Deputy at their April meeting.

[Kolesar]

3. they still have the legislature, the supreme court and all the energy money

that they could ask for. The Ohio gop is hardly beaten. Watch for them to find some trivial issue and start making headlines out of it in their manner that is quite retarded.

[geiger]

4. my sense is they are demoralized, but not defeated. you are right.

they are already challenging Strickland's veto, and I don't think that's going to go very far, esp with public opinion and editorialists against them, but there they are very indignant and riled.

[Botany]

5. Bob Bennett did the following:

Somehow the most democratic county in the state, Cuyahoga, managed to get
the head of the state GOP as head of the BOE.

Bennett oversaw the removal of 170,000 voters from the roles prior to the 2004
election. Over 360,000 people were removed from voter roles in 2004. The
counties picked for such voter purges were always "democratic strongholds."

Bennett forced the county to get Diebold machines to vote on.

In 2004 "The Mighty Texas Strike Force," made up of GOP operatives came
to Columbus, OH to suppress the voter turn out on election day through
threats, dirty tricks, and phone hacking. Their hotel and food bill was paid for
by the state G.O.P.. Mr. Bennett, was chairmen of the state G.O.P. @ that time.

Although less known then Karl Rove or Ken Blackwell, Mr. Bennett helped to
thwart the will of the American people and kept George W bush in the White
House. To my mind if there is justice and a just God Bennett should be forced
to answer for his actions.

[geiger]

6. Like Rove and Blackwell, it's what they do under the radar screen

or don't do at all (like have important voting information on the Secretary of State website right before the election, not train BOE employeees properly, have Diebold control the kinds and numbers of queries possible from voter lists).

I had to visit my local board of elections yesterday. I didn't realize that names are purged routinely if the persons have missed two federal elections in a row. That's a long time, but I'm surmising that there are a lot of people out there that don't realize they are registered anymore.

[Botany]

7. The counties that the purges occurred in really stinks

Van Wert, Allen, Claremont, Morrow, Miami, Butler, and so on no purges.

Cuyahoga, Franklin, Warren, Summit, Hamilton, Lucas, and Montgomery had purges.

Plus many cases of registered and active voters being purged and forced to vote
provisionally happened too. Lucas county w/ Bernadette Noe as head of the BOE
is infamous for the # of cases of voter purges in 2004.

Hopefully w/ Jennifer Brunner, Marc Dann, and John Conyers in power the whole
stinky mess might come to light.

[geiger]

8. I thought the high number of required "provisional" voting in Franklin County

was weird. Some people including poll workers didn't seem to understand the difference btwn that and absentee voting, except that it creates a lot more hassle (thus inconvenience and discouragement).