From The Crystal Ball:
It's much too early to know for sure, but it's starting to look like Ohio will be Ground Zero for the second straight election. Having narrowly given the Presidency to George Bush in 2004, the Buckeye State could, might, possibly will be the site of a party turnaround in 2006--a shift to the Democrats with real implications for the 2008 presidential wars. The likely emerging Democratic ticket of Congressman Ted Strickland for Governor, and Congressman Tim Ryan for U.S. Senator will be a strong combo, especially in the wake of GOP Governor Bob Taft's unpopularity and a string of Republican state scandals.
Its surprising that both DeWine and Taft have managed to get themselves so unpopular both with the Republican grassroots as well as the wider electorate… if the Democrats do get their act together in the state they should be able to make both races very competitive.
Tim Ryan, is a solid moderate choice who has no lack of ambition how he’d perform in a senate race I’m not sure but he’d be the best pick for the democrats to challenge DeWine, short of somehow rejuvenating John Glenn
Ted Strickland, is a figure I know less about, but a quick trawl through the internet seems to suggest a populist record in the House which places him on the right side of both the social and economic issues, but then I would say that, again as with Ryan I’m not sure how effective he’d be in a “big race” but the same could be said of any number of folks early on in their careers.
Both would be able to rake in plenty of cash from Unions, Environmental groups, but would, like Casey in PA, be unlikely to see much support from Pro-Choice lobbyists… but as with Casey this would be unlikely to hamstring them as both would no doubt be see as a high priority by the DNC, and receive a great deal of backing.
For the moment though its all a bit early, lets see how things unfold and perhaps a little polling before we start forecasting anything too exciting.
