Politics

Here's the truth of the matter, as we enter a year when Cincinnati voters will choose a mayor and nine city council members.

When it comes to being competitive inside the city limits of Cincinnati, the Republican Party is sucking wind.

Before a capacity crowd of supporters at a hall in Corryville early Tuesday evening, labor lawyer Rob Richardson Jr. became the latest entry into the race for Cincinnati mayor.

Herbert Hoover was the 31st President of the United States, serving, from 1929 to 1933. Often considered placid, passive, unsympathetic, and even paralyzed by national events, Hoover faced an uphill battle in the face of the Great Depression. Many historians dismiss him as ineffective. But in Herbert Hoover in the White House, biographer Charles Rappleye reveals a very different figure. The real Hoover, argues Rappleye, just lacked the basic tools of leadership.

Ordinarily, if a presidential candidate were to win the battleground state of Ohio by a fairly sizeable margin of 446,841 votes out of slightly more than 7.8 million cast, you might think that candidate and his political party in Ohio would be on very good terms.

That margin of victory for Donald Trump is the largest for a GOP presidential candidate in Ohio since George H.W. Bush in 1988.

Ohio Republicans should be dancing in the streets.

UPDATE, 12/29: 

Former state representative Peter Beck has been released from prison, but the Ohio Attorney General's office wants the Ohio First District Court of Appeals to reconsider the decision that ended Beck's incarceration. 

The appeals court had thrown out 10 of the 13 criminal counts Beck was convicted of in August 15 and sent the case back to Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. Last week, Judge Thomas Heekin ordered Beck released from prison after serving 16 months of a four-year sentence. 

Beck's lawyer, Pierre Bergeron, said he will oppose the Ohio Attorney General's request. If the appeals court turns down the prosecution's request, the Ohio Attorney General could try to get the Ohio Supreme Court to hear the case. 

..............................................................................................................................................................................

Former state representative Peter Beck will be released from prison early, just in time for Christmas.

Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas Heekin ruled Thursday morning in favor of Beck's motion to have his four-year prison sentence reduced to his time served, which is 16 months. Beck has been in a southeast Ohio prison since his sentencing in August 2015 on 13 felony counts.

Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, Republican, versus incumbent U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, Democrat.

Sound familiar?

For a period of time even longer than the Chicago Cubs' 108-year drought between World Series championships, Ohio has been the bellwether of this country's presidential politics.

When Ohio went for Donald Trump on Nov. 8 it marked the 29th time in the past 31 presidential elections that Ohio went with the winner, a record unmatched by any other state in that period of time.

That's the mark of a bellwether state.

But it's not the only mark.