2018 Ohio Primary Races

Ohio Primary Election is tomorrow Tuesday, May 8. Your mailbox and Inbox are probably both as stuffed with campaign literature as mine are. 

It seems as though just about every candidate running as a Republican for any office – from Governor to GOP Central Committee member -- wants to be seen as conservative, an outsider, and a supporter of President Donald J. Trump. 

Can we trust the campaign claims? And do any endorsements enter into the calculations in this election, or do they start to cancel each other out?

Regarding the Governor primary - both Mike DeWine and opponent claim to have been yuuge supporters of Donald Trump during the Presidential election.  That is NOT true.  During the primary both stayed away from any and all Trump events.  During the General Election - support was lukewarm at best.

The Cuyahoga County Republicans has endorsed the DeWine / Jon Husted ticket. Many conservative and religious groups across Ohio have endorsed Mary Taylor.

In the primary race for Ohio Treasurer between Robert Sprague and Sandy O'Brien - Sprague has been endorsed and supported by almost every relevant group across Ohio ranging from religious right, Tea Party, County Republican Party groups and the Ohio Republican Party.  

Sprague has a rock solid record during his time in the Ohio House and has shown the fundraising ability to compete against the Democrats in a statewide race.

The US Senate primary between one of the Finance Chairs for the Trump campaign in Ohio and successful businessman Mike Gibbons & Congressman Jim Renacci to take on Democrat Sherrod Brown is turning out to be very contentious.

NumbersUSA is all about legal immigration, and it rates candidates and current members of Congress based on voting records and/or expressed support for enforcement of existing immigration laws. It rates Senator Sherrod Brown with an “F minus.” 

It rates Rep. Jim Renacci with a “C.” It describes US Senator candidates Melissa Ackison and Mike Gibbons as “True Reformer.”

The National Rifle Assoc. (NRA) has endorsed numerous candidates based on Second Amendment rights. Among the endorsed candidates is Jim Renacci for US Senate. But this year, Ohioans for Concealed Carry & Ohio Carry have both rejected Renacci as they have previously and endorsed Mike Gibbons for US Senate.

Donald Trump has recently endorsed Jim Renacci. Many of the Delegates and original Tea Party leaders that supported Donald Trump have come out and are supporting Mike Gibbons.  Gibbons has also been endorsed by Senator Rand Paul.

Many of these supporters of President Trump believe President Trumps endorsement of Renacci, who is also supported by Mitch McConnell & has received donations from his PAC, will turn out like President Trumps endorsement of the McConnell favorite Luther Strange in Alabama - which resulted in a loss to the Democrat in the General Election. 

Most importantly - regardless of who you vote for -- make sure you vote!!!

When you vote, you will need to select a Democratic party, Republican party, Green party, or “Issues only” ballot; you can view a sample ballot online at www.443vote.com . NOTE: Cleveland Tea Party does not endorse primary candidates.

President Donald Trump and the liberal media

Just returned from a month overseas, where I encountered considerable anti-American and anti-Trump sentiment. So it was something of an antidote to read Chet Richards’s assessment of President Trump, published today at the American Thinker blog. Here’s a brief extract:

What is important is not the handicap.  What is important is the human spirit that propels someone above his handicap.

. . .

As long as Trump is president, the liberal media will continue their campaign of hate and lies.

Despite his enormous handicap, Donald Trump is succeeding far beyond the expectations of most people.  How did he overcome his handicap?  He tapped into something powerful.

. . .  He has tapped into the Spirit of America.  He has done this through his great love of this great nation.

Did Donald Trump anticipate the venomous, nonstop, ferocious opposition that he would face in announcing his candidacy?  Probably not.  If he could have foreseen what was going to happen, would he have made a different decision?  Probably not.  It is likely he would have relished the combat.  Donald Trump is a man of iron will.  There is steel in that man.

The full article is here. Glad to be back home.

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Out to lunch

Image credit: www.etsy.com

Cleveland Tea Party blogging will be light in April. I’ll be overseas all month and will post from foreign soils when possible. Back first week in May.

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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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Happy Easter from Cleveland Tea Party

image credit: zazzle.com

From Cleveland Tea Party

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The GOPe Uniparty wants to balance the federal budget

image credit: giphy.com

Chris Pandolfo at Conservative Review reports:

Fresh off of passing a 2,232-page monstrosity of an omnibus bill that spent $1.3 trillion, House Republicans now say they want to take up a balanced budget amendment (BBA) when they return from recess.

. . .

So what’s really going on here is that after fundamentally betraying conservatives in the omnibus bill, Republican leadership figures they have to pretend like they’re fighting for conservative principles so that GOP voters show up in November and they can keep their majorities. They’ll vote on the balanced budget amendment, it will fail, and they’ll turn to you and say, “See, we need more Republicans up here in the swamp; otherwise, we’ll never get the things you want done. There are just too many Democrats.”

  

It’s all Kabuki theater. The rest of the report is here.

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Omnibus spending bill: it’s not over till it’s over

cartoon by Alexander Hoffman at dailyreckoning.com

Quite a few conservative bloggers and columnists have been throwing up their hands in despair over President Trump’s signing of the god-awful Omnibus spending bill last week. Headlines such as “Art of the Fail” or “Trump Fought the Swamp and the Swamp Won” were everywhere. But perhaps we are watching another Trump negotiation. Since the Omnibus bill is not a budget, the Executive branch has some flexibility on how (and if) funds are allocated. For example, Ann Coulter suggested he fund the wall using Defense Dept. money.

My own outrage is directed at the GOPe members of the Uniparty, who ran on - and raised millions on - promises they had no intention of ever keeping. They did not expect to win. Some might conclude that they wanted to lose. And we now see them, out in the open, blocking Trump’s agenda at every turn, including this latest maneuver.

As I see it, The GOPe has tried hard to stop Trump from the day he announced his candidacy right up to today. The Omnibus bill was just another opportunity to obstruct and undermine. They don’t want to be in the majority. They want to keep their noses in the trough and raise money by making more empty promises that they can whine about if they are in the minority. And the gloating Democrat leadership would love nothing more than to see Trump’s base lose heart. 

For some more optimistic/realistic takes, try Don Surber, Kurt Schlichter, or Sundance at Conservative Treehouse.

Related: at American Thinker, Joseph Smith asks if it will be “Time for Republicans to stay home in 2018?”

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