DeWine vs Cordray

Kyle Morris at Breitbart weighs in on the Ohio race for Governor:

Former Sen. Mike DeWine finds himself as the GOP’s nominee for governor in Ohio, walking a fine line between the establishment ways of old in the era of President Donald Trump.

DeWine, interestingly, has not appeared on stage with Trump at any of the president’s rallies in the Buckeye state. However, he has courted Trump supporters at the periphery, perhaps one of the most awkward intra-GOP marriages between the economic nationalist Trump base and the old ways of the fading establishment in the first midterm election in Trump’s presidency.

The strength of the bond between two rival wings of the GOP will be put to the test on Tuesday as voters in the buckle of the nation’s rust belt decide if they want DeWine, or former Obama administration official and Democrat nominee Richard Cordray, to govern the state.

DeWine’s apparent unwillingness or inability to openly embrace the president in the same way GOP candidates in other races nationwide have done highlights the divide within the Republican party. DeWine, who currently serves as Ohio’s Attorney General, served in the United States Senate long before Trump upended the political landscape.

One of the comments at Breitbart refers to DeWine joining “Team Mailman” in 2010. Heh. Anyway, read the rest here. The race does look like a nail-biter between two awful candidates.

More on this tight race at Watchdog Ohio here.

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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Richard Cordray

 image credit: americandigitalnews.com

From the L.A. Times:

The head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau formally called on Congress to sharply reduce his agency's authority. Among the suggestions he delivered Monday: Any major new rules the bureau makes should be subject to lawmakers' approval.

Mick Mulvaney — who has been an outspoken critic of the consumer protection bureau since before President Trump appointed him as its acting director last year — also wants Congress to change how the bureau is funded, make its director subject to dismissal by the president for any reason and create an inspector general specifically for it.

"The bureau is far too powerful, with previous little oversight of its activities," Mulvaney said in submitting his first report to Congress.

"The power wielded by the director of the bureau could all too easily be used to harm consumers, destroy businesses, or arbitrarily remake American financial markets," Mulvaney said as he sent the bureau's semiannual report to lawmakers ahead of hearings next week, adding that the changes he proposed would "establish meaningful accountability."

Can't Mulvaney and Congress just shut the thing down?

Note to Cleveland Tea Party readers: This is the agency that Richard Cordray ran for over five years. Now he is running for Governor of Ohio.

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Dennis K would shut down energy production in Ohio

 photo credit: change-links.org

From cleveland.com

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dennis Kucinich on Thursday unveiled a series of proposals designed to bring a complete end to oil and gas drilling in Ohio.

At a news conference in downtown Columbus, the liberal former congressman and presidential candidate said that as governor, he would use eminent domain to acquire and close all existing traditional and fracking-style oil and gas wells in the state. Kucinich pledged to block any new drilling permits and order a statewide injection-well ban.

In addition, Kucinich would direct the Ohio State Highway Patrol to stop, inspect, and turn away vehicles found with fracking waste.

Sounds like a winning strategy.

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Ohio Democratic Party Chairman just threw Ed FitzGerald under the bus

Art credit: One Old Vet

From Cleveland.com:

By Henry J. Gomez, Northeast Ohio Media Group 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The race for governor won't be decided for another 36 days.

But Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern is now publicly voicing his frustration with his nominee, Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald.

In story posted Sunday night, the New York Times was the latest national news organization to weigh in on the collapse of FitzGerald's campaign.

The piece traced the former FBI agent's troubles to the 2012 incident, unearthed last month by the Northeast Ohio Media Group, in which police found FitzGerald parked after hours with a woman who wasn't his wife. That revelation led to the discovery that FitzGerald hadn't had a driver's license for a decade.

"I've never met a former FBI agent who doesn't have a driver's license," Redfern told the Times' Trip Gabriel, who described the exchange as a figurative finger pointed at FitzGerald. "It's akin to saying, 'Damn, I should have my umbrella' after it rains."

Redfern went on to blast the outside firm that the campaign hired to probe FitzGerald's past, saying he wouldn't hire the company "to clean out my bird cage."

FitzGerald, also the former mayor of Lakewood, faces Republican incumbent John Kasich this fall. Polls show him trailing the governor by double digits.

. . . 

Read the rest here.

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