Brown reopens Senate lead

[oberliner]

Two polls show incumbent DeWine falling back; independents move to challenger

In a race once seen as one of the closest Senate contests in the country, two polls released Tuesday show U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown putting distance between himself and Republican incumbent Mike DeWine.

A poll sponsored by Quinnipiac University in Connecticut showed Brown leading 53 percent to 41 percent among likely Ohio voters.

A similar poll conducted by the University of Cincinnati -- the Ohio Poll -- finds Brown with a 7-percentage-point lead over DeWine, 52 to 45.

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/politics/15786144.htm?source=rss&channel=ohio_news

[Hav]

1. .

Good news. It would be great if the Dems in other close races like TN or MO could increase their lead above the margin of error.

[mod mom]

2. NYT/CBS News Poll:

Opposition to G.O.P. Rises in Ohio, Poll Says


By JOHN M. BRODER and MEGAN C. THEE
Published: October 17, 2006

The poll found a striking slippage in the president’s standing among white evangelical Christians, a constituency that has provided a strong vote cushion for Republican candidates in recent elections. In November 2004, 76 percent of white evangelical Christians in Ohio voted for Mr. Bush. When asked in this poll whether they approve or disapprove of the job Mr. Bush is doing as president, 49 percent approved while 45 percent disapproved.

-snip

Only a third of Ohio voters approve of the job Mr. Bush is doing as president or the way he is handling the economy, and they seem poised to take it out on Republican candidates up and down the ballot. Republican officials at the national level said this week they had all but written off the Ohio Senate and governor’s races and were diverting resources to other states where they believed they had a better chance of winning.

-snip

More than half of the poll’s respondents said they believed corruption was widespread in Ohio and said, by a 3-to-1 margin, that the Republican Party had more corrupt politicians than the Democrats. Gov. Bob Taft, a Republican, pleaded no contest last year to ethics charges arising from dealings with a crooked investment manager. Representative Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican, pleaded guilty to corruption charges last week arising from his association with Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist at the center of an influence-selling scandal in Washington.

-snip

The tide of dissatisfaction appears ready to wash out Mr. DeWine, who is trailing Mr. Brown by 34 percent to 48 percent, the poll found. The Democratic candidate for governor, Representative Ted Strickland, is leading the Republican nominee, J. Kenneth Blackwell, the Ohio secretary of state, by 53 percent to 29 percent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/17/us/politics/17cnd-poll.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1161144000&en=0533f5264d9c5b5f&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin

[zbdent]

3. Notice the idiot referring to a Republican campaign ad to

use as a "valid reference" to a smear of Brown ... I checked ... and Brown corrected that oversight in June ... 2005 ... and there had been action on that "error" immediately anyway ...

Of course, also, there's another asshole who's trying to say voting against some legislation due to a couple of lines he objects to is more of an offense than actually covering up the mark Foley "indiscretions" - especially when Foley was writing up legislation which would make his own actions illegal ...