Kevin DeWine

The Ohio Republican Party won its lawsuit against Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner yesterday in a U.S. District Court in Columbus.

The court ruled that Brunner must "perform verification required by the Help American Vote Act. That includes matching new registrants’ information with information in databases maintained by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles or the Social Security Administration," the AP reported.

ORP deputy chair Kevin DeWine said in a statement that Brunner likely cannot observe the election.

The Ohio Republican Party is accusing several prominent Democrats campaigning for Barack Obama, including Gov. Ted Strickland, of insulting Ohio voters by calling them racists. ORP deputy chair Kevin DeWine held a conference call with reporters today to call out Strickland, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Lorain) and state Treasurer Richard Cordray (D-Pleasant Twp.) for a “disturbing pattern...of smearing Ohio voters as racist.” Two weeks ago Strickland told Piketon voters that some people will not vote for Obama because he’s black. "There are good people who won't vote for Obama because he's a black man," Strickland said.

Various Ohio politicos have made the point this election cycle that the
presidential election in Ohio will hinge on person-to-person
campaigning – community members getting out, pounding the pavement and
making their case to friends and neighbors in support of one candidate
or the other.

MINNEAPOLIS - Rob Portman looked beyond this year's election and on to the next two years of Republican politics, nominating rising stars, sizing up the party's recruitment efforts and touching on the gubernatorial race in 2010.

Portman, 52, represented Cincinnati in the U.S. House for 12 years, followed with stints as U.S. trade ambassador and director of the federal Office of Management and Budget. Portman's youth and extensive resume led to rampant speculation that he would be the GOP's next attorney general nominee for this year's speculation, and more recently John McCain's dark-horse vice presidential pick.

What's more likely is that he'll run for governor or U.S. Senate, which Portman told PolitickerOH.com in June he's considering but will not make a decision before Election Day.

Portman wouldn't say whether Gov. Ted Strickland is vulnerable to a Republican challenge two years from now, but indicated that he will be if the status quo continues.

MINNEAPOLIS - Republicans have taken heat for not having enough female office holders, but the Ohio party said its working to recruit female candidates and has a few rising women already in its ranks.

State Auditor Mary Taylor, the only female statewide elected official, said that Gov. Sarah Palin's (R-Alaska) vice presidential nomination helps the party make its case to women they should run for office.

"I think that obviously having a position where potentially serving in the second highest office in the country gives us a role model to point to when we're trying to recruit women candidates," Taylor said.

Ohio Republican Party deputy chair Kevin DeWine wants Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner (D) to issue a directive that ensures voters cannot register on the same day they vote.

DeWine and Republicans argue that the law requires people to be qualified voters 30 days prior to the vote, while Democrats argue the law (passed by the Republican General Assembly in 2006) allows people to begin early voting on Sept. 30 and allows them to register to vote until Oct. 6, creating a five-day window during which people are eligible to register and then vote during the early-voting period.

DeWine said this interpretation violates the law and the legislature’s intent, as well as places an undue burden on county boards of election to certify voter registrations and ballots simultaneously. As such, he wants Brunner to take action.

Ohio Republican Party chair Kevin DeWine is calling on Ohio treasurer Richard Cordray (D-Grove City) to return "scandal-tainted" campaign contributions totaling "more than $20,000" from Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo and Commissioner Jimmy Dimora.

The Cordray campaign says that Cordray never received the contributions in question.

Russo and Dimora were both prime targets in a federal public corruption probe that culminated in around 200 FBI and IRS agents executing search warrants at the Cuyahoga County administration building, data center, engineer's office and the homes of Russo and Dimora.

No charges have yet been filed against Russo or Dimora.

Cordray is running for Ohio Attorney General against former U.S. Attorney Michael Crites (R-Powell).

DeWine also called on Cordray to call for the resignation of Russo and Dimora.

Following the raids on the offices and homes of several Cuyahoga County officials last week by about 200 federal officers, Ohio Republican Party chair Kevin DeWine is now calling on presumptive presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to ask two of those officials to resign.

Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo and County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, both Democrats, were targeted last week as part of the federal corruption probe. DeWine said that Obama's visit to Ohio Tuesday is the perfect opportunity for him to speak out against the "culture of corruption," a term Democrats used against Ohio Republicans in 2006.

"These two public officials play a major role in Cuyahoga County politics, and Sen. Obama should decide right now whether he wants them associated with his campaign," DeWine said in a statement. "He should call for their resignations and demand that they and their associates immediately remove themselves from the Obama campaign and the Democratic Party while under the taint of scandal."

DeWine said later in the statement that he didn't expect Obama to "provide any bold leadership here." DeWine also called Obama a "Chicago politician," and said he's good at denouncing corrupt allies when it's "politically expedient."