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Ken Blackwell for State Auditor 2010?

By The Pullins Group LLC

Since everyone else is floating names for State Auditor, I'm going to float one too.  J. Kenneth Blackwell for Auditor of State. 

Yeh, I said it.  Why the hell not? 

Ken ran and won statewide in 1994, 1998, 2002, and the 2006 primary.  He was buried along with everyone else by the 2006 GOP corruption scandals, that ironically he had nothing to do with.  Betty Montgomery, on the other hand, was defeated mainly because of her close ties to Tom Noe.

Ken, unlike Betty Montgomery, and Jim Petro, and other names being thrown about is a strong conservative.  He's still got a pretty solid national donor base and he could write a big personal check if he wanted to jump-start his campaign.

With apologies to Kyle Sisk, Betty Montgomery is not going to run for State Auditor.  Conservatives, especially social conservatives, would simply savage her personal life.  No one deserves that and why should she put up with it?  She's also had health problems and is making lots more money while working much less time than she would as a statewide official.

Jim Petro won't run either.  Why should he?  He put in his time and he's also making money in the private sector.  He made some noise over the last year about running for the Supreme Court but has done nothing towards that goal.  I've also heard that he too may have had some health problems.

The number one reason voters elect someone, especially a down ballot statewide post, is because they know the name.  Statewide name identification is won by being on statewide ballots and winning of course.  And Ken Blackwell has repeatedly done so.

Ken has strong name identification, the ability to quickly raise money or donate it himself, and a need for a little vindication.  If voters are truly having buyer's remorse about Ted Strickland, returning the man he defeated in 2006 to statewide office could be a way of easing that pain.

Stranger things have happened in Ohio politics.

Full post as published by The Pullins Report on January 14, 2010 (boomark / email).