Bob Taft, the governor of Ohio, has plead no contest to breaking state ethics laws. Even by democrats there appears to be few calls for him to resign or be impeached. It appears that he will serve out the remainder of his term despite these actions. I’m not sure how the people of Ohio think- but I’ll wager that in NJ there might be come call for our governor to resign if he was convicted of a crime while in office.

I am not sure thought that his is the motivation of the Dems in Ohio; I think it may be fear toward angering the swing voters, so the strategy is to allow the guilty verdict to speak for itself. However, I am not foreign to the benefits of him staying in office. If Taft resigned, a new governor with a (presumably) cleaner record would take over. However, now Democrats face a scandal that can be used to our advantage in the Ohio state elections, especially in what appears to be a larger GOP scandal that I do not really understand. I think that there should be a lot of talk from the Ohio Dems about this scandal; it should be constantly spoken about. This, without a call for resignation may allow for the Dems to be in the best position possible next year for state and house races. Overall, a careful strategy pointing out faults and scandal without upsetting swing voters will put Ohio more in play.

One could argue that we should have an impeachment trial that will bring up everything we want and allows for more potential. Considering our recent success in Ohio, how crucial that state was in 2004 and how its dynamic is changing, we should put our gamble on a more aggressive stance. I am just not sure it gains us anything. If Taft resigns or is removed from office we get a cleaner Republican who will turn around and run for governor. If we just continually bring up the corruption, we gain all that without the formality of a trial that will alienate some voters. I think what we need is a democrat primary race that is not very bloody ” that gets a unified democratic candidate quickly. Then we can turn around and fight a state GOP that is floundering in its own corruption headed by a convicted criminal.