I really hope the message people got from NY-23 is one that we need to fight all Republicans. We need support conservative and electable candidates. Portman is both. Ganley adds nothing to the mix - he doesn’t have a plausible path to victory and does not add anything remarkable to the discussion.

but the mood out there is strongly anti-incumbent. Even Beck has been emphasizing that he can’t tell the difference between elected Rs and Ds because they’ve both supported bigger, unconstitutional government. This sentiment may kill some Republicans who ought to be elected to stop the government takeovers. This is the real cost of the drift of the Republican party under W, and selections like Dede Screwyou to run under the R brand in places like NY23.

He’s way too late. Portman has been working this campaign for a long time now. Not only does he have the state party backing, but he has Ohio’s conservative base behind him.

I really doubt Portman will need to expend many resources to fight off Ganley.

And while Ganley has name recognition in the Cleveland market, it is NOT good. His dealerships are full of crooks, and most folks who have dealt with them, do not have a favorable opinion. I even had to take one of them to court once. (They settled.)

Is that he has a strong potential to be a flunky for leadership in the Senate instead of a leader.

Then there was his support of the bailout, amnesty, etc.

I don’t think we should dismiss Ganley out of hand.

Who will stand on either hand and keep this bridge with me?

Portman supported the bailout….which was nothing more than money sent to the banks to cover their pledged credit default swaps to foreign investors all in the hopes of keeping private capital flowing into the credit markets.

That did not work. As a result, foreclosures are running rampant in Ohio. Chase Manhattan is currently in the midst of the biggest land grab in history. No one is doing well in Ohio. A decent economic strategy would have really helped them the most.

Combine this with Ohio going blue in 2008 and i believe some good ole fashioned conservative dialog is in need.

Plus, on a personally interpretive note, the author seems to be employing the passe strategy of initially appealing to the base and then as i would expect, moving to the center…..something i think we all no longer in agreement with.

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“It is also worth noting that simply being a successful business person is not proof you are ready for the US Senate. Selling cars may create jobs but policy making in the Senate is a lot different than selling cars.”

Elitism, thy name is Holtsberry. I’m glad you weren’t in charge of GOP candidate recruitment in 1994 because your inane requirements would have prohibited successful businessmen and conservative heroes like Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint from running for office.

I’ll take a successful entrepreneur with no government experience over a tenured bureaucrat who’s never had a real job any day of the week.

Those of us who have lived in Akron for a few years will remember Mr . Ganley and how he approaches private property rights. Back 2001, he wanted to expand one of his car dealerships, Ganley Toyota. Problem was, an elderly couple (a Korean war vet and his wife) and two other businesses didn’t want to sell to him. Solution - get Akron City Council to declare the area an urban renewal area and seize the properties under eminent domain, and then buy the properties from the city.

If this is the mark of a conservative, I’m the king of Siam.

Ganley will NEVER get my vote!

The problem I have with candidates that pull these stunts is, why not work your way up rather than demanding the brass ring right off the bat?

I want entrepreneurs and people in the private sector to get involved in politics, but start off with a smaller office first and build a name. How about running for a local state office or maybe a congressional seat first?

I would be more than willing to give this a guy a fair hearing if he gone that route instead of just trying to buy a Senate seat out of nowhere.

To have a bloody and expensive primary is ridiculous. This is one of those instances where I would like to see the national party cut this guy off at the knee caps. Portman is a solid conservative and REALLY good canidate to run for the Senate. It’s not worth jeopardizing his race over some bored car dealer who wants to blow a bunch of money on a race he can’t possibly win.

After all, then his boss (Obama) might have gotten some money from his boss (George Soros) to fund an attempt to screw up the Republicans via a primary challenge.

I don’t know anything about Ganley, but I love how so many of us line up right behind a stimulus-supporting guy here (Portman), but trash a stimulus-supporting guy there (Crist). And to wish that the national party would swoop down and take care of Ganley here, but wish that the national party would have stayed out of NY-23 shows the same lack of principle.

If Ganley wants to get in a primary fight, let him spend his money. Or do you really think that $ = votes? I thought we believed in and acted upon principles here, guys!

I’m sickened.

Portman is running an impressive campaign so far

supposedly, there is new Quin Poll tomorrow coming out on Senate Race in OH and CT. Interesting to see what numbers show

Kevin is totally right on this one. Portman may not be absolutely perfect in every detail, but who is? The Bush stimulus was trivial compared to the money-burner that Obama rammed through last winter.

On balance, Portman is vastly to be preferred over whoever the Democrat nominee will be. He is very FAR from a Dede Scozzafava. He deserves the united support of conservatives. If the party had gotten behind a well-informed conservative at the outset of the NY 23 race, Owens would have lost.

While I admire Doug Hoffman, what doomed his candidacy in the final analysis was that he was not sufficiently well informed about the local issues to earn the support of the major newspaper in the district. The perception that Hoffman would not be as adept as the prior congressman (McHugh) on the parochial needs of the district cost Hoffman that 3% margin that he needed to win. Perhaps he can change that in preparation for a Nov 2010 rematch.

In the Ohio race, Portman is clearly competent, and knows how to work on the Hill. In contrast, Ganley is a novice. The Senate is no place for On the Job Training. If I were otherwise tempted to support Ganley, phlogiston’s account of Ganley’s use of governmental eminent domain power to squash “little people” in his way absolutely disqualifies him from consideration.

The glaring lesson that Kevin is not learning is that backroom decisions by party insiders to select the candidate will lead to challenges.
The Ohio GOP, against much outcry from its members and the Ohio Tea Party, decided to meet behind closed doors on Sept 11, while many folks were in DC for the march. They refused to consider Ganley. They “decided” for us who our candidate would be with no primary vote.
Ganleys family suffered incredible losses with the “bailout” of GM because their family had investments going back generations in Ohio car dealerships. They had successful businesses that were stolen from them and ultimately give to others who opened lots just miles from their former places of business.
The problem isn’t that Portman could be the best candidate, the problem is that the citizens were never given the choice.
Ganley was active before Hoffman or Dede yet you act as if he just showed up because of their conflict. Ganley was active in May, June, and July, August, Sept, October, and now Nov. warning people about the damage to American small businesses.
I honestly don’t know who is more conservative or who is the best for the GOP. But I do know that here in Ohio, the GOP is losing ground to people who want someone with fire and committment. Portman is a terrific guy who is pandering to his career and not to the true, real, and palpable terror people feel when they see our constitution getting perverted. “For the general welfare” doesn’t mean destroy wealth, destroy family legacy, destroy acheivements. Ganley knows this intimately. He is the bacon on the plate - committed. Portman is the egg - interested.
So your analysis is not just completely wrong, it is fatally flawed from the get go.
The conservatives and grassroots republicans in Ohio want a voice. If we wanted a nanny, we’d vote D.

Get your own facts straight. The only connecting dots between Ganley and NY23 is that the political “endorsement” of the GOP irritates the grass roots. You might call it a normal nominatinating central committee endorsement but it is funding Portman and giving him the stamp of approval. Of course the 88 counties are going to be receptive to him. I get the emails about all the fund raisers in my neck of the woods every day so I know that when you are on the inside, all the GOP counties help raise money. They help trot you out. And maybe that is part of the problem that I am trying to alert you to so you can learn. There is gangrene in the toes of the body politic and it first start with Dede. It will continue until we stop being told who to vote for and start being asked.
My point is that Ganley was and is shut out. Whether or not he is better (or not) as a representative of the GOP should be decided by having both candidates get vetted on the trail. Find the faults in Ganley so the people know why or why not. Same with Portman. Have them tested and debated and elected, not selected.
You claim that Ganley is taking a page from Hoffman when I am telling you that he was around pre-Hoffman and the “central committee” or the party insiders or the cigar smoking back roomers, nixed Ganley and married Portman. Right or wrong, there is another side to the coin and even a different fruit basket then the lessons you are claiming are in err.