Ted Strickland for Governor

Ted Strickland to Run for Governor Hat tip to Chris Geidner over at Law Dork, who just posted this. It looks like U.S. Rep Ted Strickland may be running for governor in2006. If so, his bio at answers.com hasn't been updated to reflect it yet, still saying that he's considering a Senatorial bid in 2006. (Between the two, I'd suggest attacking the governorship; Taft'srecord is far more vulnerable than DeWine's, and Taft himself will be gone so there won't be anyone with a big political name in the gubernatorial election.) Chris also quotes the Plain Dealer as noting: Strickland's move happens "as Democrats grow increasingly concerned that Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman . . . isn't strong enough to end the GOP's 16-year streak in the governor's office." "Increasingly concerned about Coleman?" Hmm, Iwonder why that could be! (MP3 file)Strickland's district is the Sixth District (1Mb PDF; look to bottomright corner, all Appalachian counties). All of the surroundingdistricts are red, so his departure could come back to bite theDemocrats if he fails, as it's entirely possible that he'll be replaced in the U.S. Congress by a Republican; that area is "conservative poor" country. That said, Strickland is not a candidate to take lightly due to the mere fact that he has won in that conservative country for several terms now; he was first elected in 1992, got ousted for one term in the Gingrich Revolution (1994-96) by Frank Cremeans, and has been there from 1996-present. A Democrat that can consistently win the votes of conservative rural voters has as good a shot as anyDemocrat, though the state GOP machinery in Ohio is far ahead of its Democratic counterpart and Strickland's success has obviously been aided by safe districting (a.k.a. "gerrymandering"). If this rumor turns out to the true, Coleman's star will have dipped a long way towards the horizon, though he still shouldn't be considered out of it yet. On a personal note, I know at least one person who has worked fairly regularly with Strickland and his people over the last 13 years. This person, who shall remain nameless, is a self-professed RINO(and proud of it) and would likely vote for Strickland in a heartbeat; he has extremely good things to say about theRepresentative, and it's someone I trust not to buy into either left-wing flakiness or right-wing messianism.