Cornstalker-style Ohio political culture

The Ohio Republican congressional delegation continued to reveal itself on Tuesday as a committed right-wing hit squad  in its near unanimous opposition to the  emergency funds for  Hurricane Sandy's devastation.  The only Republican supporting the relief package was Michael Turner of Dayton.  Speaker John Boehner didn't vote.

That's enough to tell you that Republican David Joyce, the successor to Steve LaTourette,  joined the gang despite earlier hugs that he would be a moderate like Lake County's LaTourette? ( Does anybody recall that LaTourette retired with a condemnation of the partisanship in  politics today?)  Rep. Jim Renacci, who defeated Democrat Betty Sutton in a monstrously  redesigned district that favored him, cast a no vote.  Renacci is occasionally described  in national reports as a "moderate" but you wouldn't know that from the regularity with which he cavorts with his  party's most conservative diehards.

'Twould be refreshing to boast that the Buckeye State had entered the 21st. Century by twice supporting President Obama's election;  but with Gov.Kasich hanging out with the gun  enthusiasts and pro-lifers, and the cornstalkers running the  General Assembly, it would premature to rate the state's  political culture as anything more than clucky.

Sutton-Pelosi vs. Renacci- Boehner?

Sooner or later it figures  that Nancy Pelosi would make it to the Ohio ballot.   That's what Republican congressman Jim Renacci wants to happen.  Not he's any great admirer of the Democratic minority leader.  Quite the contrary.  He wants you to believe that by voting for his Democratic opponent in the new 16th congressional district you will not be voting for Rep. Betty Sutton but for Pelosi

Or as Renacci's new $1.1 million GOP Super PAC ad puts it, Sutton doesn't work for Ohio; she works for Pelosi.

Pelosi's political enemies have been putting a hit on her ever since she rose to prominance in the House of Representatives.  I was never sure whether it was because she was a woman or a Californian. Years ago,  a  guy at a friend's patio party couldn't stop rattling on about "that witch" - my way of cleaning it up. Some white guys have a way about stating their case against women.

Renacci, of course, is a garden variety  conservative Republican who seldom disagrees with his boss, House Speaker John Boehner.  And as the ad snorts, Sutton supports Obamacare, while making the easily refuted claim that the President is robbing Medicare of $700 billion or something like that, to support Obamacare.

That's what you get for $1.1 million these days?   Please.  

Note to GOP pols: Women jokes ain't funny

When Gov. Kasich told his audience that his wife was home "doing the laundry" (ha, ha), if maybe only in jest, it was another example of how some Republicans simply don't get it in their  references to women these days.  It quickly recalled how  Rep. Betty Sutton, a Democrat, was dissed  in a  Republican  newsletter during her reelection campaign in 2010.

Remember?  The newsletter, sent out by Medina County GOP chairman Bill Heck,  urged voters to "take Betty Sutton out of the House and put her back in the kitchen".

Heck latter apologized for such opaque insensitivity, saying no one should have been offended because "We were just trying to get the attention of the voters."Which, of course, he did.

Ever notice how these ha-ha's are always directed at a woman's role in the scheme of things?  When was the last time you heard a Republican woman pol  tell the crowd that her husband could not join her because he was home tending to his regular chore of scrubbing the basement floor?

Do we need ask why President Obama is ahead with the women's vote by a double-digit majority?

The "ultimate cheap shot'' against Betty Sutton

THE NATIONAL Republican Congressional Committee (soon to be replaced by  the National
Tea Party Congressional Committee) believes Ohio Rep. Betty Sutton is a closet supporter of the gang that wanted to blow up  that bridge near Cleveland.  It officially challenged her credentials as a law-abiding citizen because she didn't immediately condemn  the plan.  The Columbus Dispatch called the committee's lunacy the "ultimate cheap shot".  It made us regress to Sutton's last congressional campaign during which the Medina County Republican chairman thought it would be best if she simply returned to the kitchen.  But you will doubtless be drenched with more of this palaver in her showdown with Republican Rep. Jim Renacci - both of whom were snugly deposited in the newly-created 16th District,  whose weird boundaries were created by the controlling Republicans to replicate a Salvador Dali painting.

While we're at it, we might mention another Democratic woman, Elizabeth Warren, who is challenging  Republican U.S. Sen.  Scott Brown in Massachusetts.  Her opponents are wondering about how she might have exploited the fact that she is 1/32 Cherokee to advance her career as a minority.  And so the birthers are up and at 'em in the Bay State, insisting that  she doesn't look like a native American.  Here's how they put it:  She couldn't have a drop of Indian blood because she is "blonde, rich, and most of all, a Harvard law professor."

No matter whichever came first, I presume.

Boehner stations troops in Canton area's remap

CONSIDERING THE current decline in property values, what would an entire congressional district be worth these days? $25 million? $509 million ? $2 million? Not even close. For John Boehner's real estate reappraisal team, try a skimpy $210,000. That's what the Timken Company has donated to Republican Rep. Jim Renacci, of the 16th Congressional District (Canton area).

According to media reports, Boehner's aides played a leading role to redraw the district from the earlier proposed map in order to include the Timken Company in the new boundaries. The Plain Dealer reported:

"Tom Whatman, executive director for Team Boehner, the Republican speaker's political team, was making key recommendations on how to configure Ohio's new congressional districts out of public view". His mission, of course, was to create the friendliest possible map for Republicans such as Renacci.

Emails recovered by the Ohio Campaign for Accountable Redistricting, which include the League of Women Voters and a coalition of progressive groups , revealed that the political mapmakers met secretly in a Columbus Hotel to lay out the new maps. The emails contradicted Ohio House Speaker William Batchelder's assurance that the entire process was transparent. And, as we have been told, Batchelder never lies. (But the people who swear to that do lie.)

The smoking gun for this back-room deal came from a Whatman email, in which he thanks the locals for agreeing to the last-minute change in the district's boundaries that now has Timken back in Renacci's district. "Very important to someone very important to us all," he says.

Nothing could be more transparent than those words.

Renacci, former Wadsworth mayor and adminstrator of a group of nursing homes, faces Democratic Rep. Betty Sutton in the new district. A wealthy (millions) conservative, he has become a corporate darling as an enemy of government regulations. With the big investors and the new district map on Renacci's side, Sutton, who has experienced trench warfare in the past, will face another tough race. But I have a feeling that he will, too.

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Mike Williams, Point 41: 50 free tickets for his side

A FEW WEEKS AGO, Mike Williams, the candidate who wants to unseat Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic in the Sept. 13 Democratic primary, proposed an astonishing 40 points that he believed would carry him to victory in the Sept. 13 Democratic primary. Somehow, it didn't include his demand for 50 free seats for the scheduled Aug. 8 debate with the mayor and a third candidate on the ballot, Janice Davis.

That 41st point arrived this week and the combined sponsors of the Akron Press Club and Bliss Institute delivered on his request. At $20 a head for a program series that raises money for college scholarships, that comes to a $1,000 gross gate, even if the freebies would not include lunch. (The seat could have been sold to paying guests.) The event is already sold out at nearly 300, so the hosts agreed to move the event from the traditional Martin Center ballroom to the more accommodating Student Union. The freebies will await their entry until lunch is served before arriving at a specially designated section of the room.

How nice. And with a huge crowd, it could be a seating and parking nightmare. But I'm sure that a room with a view was all that Williams had in mind. I was told that he first asked that everybody get a free ticket in a public spectacle. The Plusquellic forces were left with little leeway to respond to the 50-ticket request, the first of its kind in the many years that I once served as the program chairman.

The response is as puzzling as the Press Club's preferential treatment for then Republican congressional candidate, Tom Ganley, in his losing campaign against Rep.Betty Sutton. When he refused to debate her, he was offered a free pass to appear alone (She spoke at another time). Ganley's solo appearance also was a club first in a series that called for a debate. But in the latest retreat, there was no explanation as to why a minimum 50 free-seat package was included in the deal.

This shouldn't be a big problem for the mayor. He could settle the issue by asking for 50 free tickets for his side, too. Fair enough, Mike?

UPDATE: David Cohen, the University of Akron political science professor and Press Club board member who is handling arrangements for the mayoral debate, has contested my report that Mike Williams was solely offered 50 free reservations for the event. Cohen insists that the 50 freebies for folks who will not be eating lunch will be open on a first-come first serve basis to Williams, Mayor Plusquellic or any public spectator as long as the supply lasts. He did confirm, however, that Williams had first asked that all of the tickets be free for the debate at a venue big enough to accommodate the anticipated crowd. The event has now been moved from the Martin Center to the UA Student Union. The seating assignments dividing the payers and non-payers may still be complicated when the crowd presses forward.

Political stuff that won't cure a headache

ELECTION LEFTOVERS (Best if accompanied by aspirin ):

For all of the raging political attacks on the bailouts of auto companies, including critics like auto dealer Tom Ganley, did you happen to see that General Motors has paid back the Federal government in full, plus interest? Sales of GM and other companies have all risen, which analysts attribute to a rise in consumer confidence. They also note that without the

$50 billion bailout, which saved thousands of workers' jobs up and down the line, GM would have been liquidated. So may we now say, in the rhetoric of the times, that GM got its company back?

There's some fresh conjecture that when the Republican head hunters start carving up new congressional districts in Ohio to accommodate the state's impending loss of two seats, they will match up two Democrats in Northern Ohio - Reps. Betty Sutton and Dennis Kucinich - to kick out one of them. There's a precedent: to eliminate Rep. Tom Sawyer, the ex-Akron-based congressman, Republicans so butchered the county that it was divided among three congressmen. It later cost Sawyer his job, but the GOP and Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff netted nothing from it because Sawyer's district was pieced out to two Democrats and one Republican. Inasmuch as there isn't a Democratic congressman left south of Akron, the options this time are limited as to who will be sent into retirement.

Speaking of Arshinkoff, he told the Beacon Journal that he is now so happy with the election results that "I can't see straight." Careful when you get behind the wheel to head to your favorite restaurant, Alex. There are sure to be other cars on the road. Wouldn't it be safer if you hired a chauffeur and expensed it to party headquarters.?

More talk now that outgoing Gov. Ted Strickland will appoint Atty. Gen. Richard Cordray, one of the brightest Democratic officeholders defeated Tuesday, to the Ohio Supreme court vacancy. Good move, if it happens.

It's no small irony that six of eight Democratic representatives who opposed the extension of unemployment benefits and were on Tuesday's ballots are out of work, having been dispatched by the voters. Also, Blue Dog Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln, a Democrat who gave the White House a headache. also was defeated. Shouldn't that say something about sticking to your beliefs instead of appeasing the other side? Are you listening, President Obama?

Tom Ganley: The bombast of wanting your country back

TOM GANLEY, whom we all know as a wealthy auto dealer, opened his remarks at the Akron Press Club luncheon Tuesday with a cry that must have echoed across the entire University of Akron campus. Adding his voice to the current Tea Party manifesto, the Republican nominee for the 13th Congressional District declared:

"I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK."

We can only hope that we will get at least some of it back when the shouting ends moments after Election Day, but not for the reasons that have so steamed up Ganley and the right-wing candidate class this most discordant election season. Still it was Ganley's moment to preach to his choir what it already knows. Since the guy loves to come at us with statistics, let me add a few: More than 80 pct. of the 103 in attendance were seated at tables reserved by their boss. There was a handful of mindful Republicans at another table. As a seasoned regular at Press Club luncheons, I can only say they used to be a lot more fun.

Attendance figures would be remarkably insignificant except that he went down the same road when he said that he refused to debate Rep. Betty Sutton at the Akron Press Club and Cleveland City Club because he will only show up on a "fair" playing field where his opponent wouldn't have packed the hall with her friendly "outside" organizational supporters (notwithstanding the 10 tables his campaign reserved!) . Obviously not aware of a press club's open door policy, Ganley later backtracked on the insult to the Akron Press Club, saying he was largely talking about the Cleveland City Club. Too late, Tom. You did show up at the very same lectern when you had it all to yourself. Go figure.

He did want you to know in an imperious delivery that he was (1)a successful businessman (2) that he was a successful businessman and (3 to 32 ) that he was a successful businessman with 32 aut0 dealerships in Ohio.

Easing slightly away from the Tea Partiers' aroused attacks on President Obama's religion and birthplace, Ganley said he honestly didn't know what religion Obama practiced nor where he was born. For God's sake, Hawaii, Mr. Ganley, Hawaii, where all of those darker skinned Americans wear outrageous floral shirts and hula skirts.

Not much else is worth reporting because you've already heard it so many times as we tiptoe through a landscape of Halloween goblins: we can solve our economic problems by cutting corporate and individual taxes, Obamacare must be defunded ,the budget must be balanced, it was wrong to bail out General Motors and Chrysler, government is wrong to fund the arts, and corporate and individual taxes should be - oops, I already reported that, didn't I.

But there's no need to tell him, in the lingo of the day, to man up. He assured us that nobody owns him and that he packs a concealed weapon. Won't argue with that.

The week-end strike zone

BREATHLESSLY AWAITING PUBLICATION:

The neighborhood Arshinkoff Republican Party added another statewide candidate to its list of $150,000 campaign contributions: GOP secretary of state nominee Jon Husted. That generous sum appears to be a reprisal of sorts (and insurance against it happening again if in Republican hands) ) for Alex's dismissal from the Summit County Board of Elections by the current outgoing Democratic secretary of state, Jennifer Brunner. As we have long known , his motives are never very subtle. The Husted campaign contribution joins another $150,000 bonus, that one to the Kasich campaign. (Can we reasonably call this a GrumpyFirst?)

The Beacon Journal's decision to run a lengthy corrected version of Rep. Betty Sutton's talk to the Akron Press Club could be the longest correction on record for a single speech. But if you look at the first piece that was reported on Thursday and the much longer corrected version on Friday, you might understand why the editors were left with no choice to give up all of that space. For reasons that must be left to greater minds than mine, some of the congresswoman's comments that were reported in the Thursday article were oddly rearranged on the copy desk - forever a journalistic no-no. This was worth more than a tsk, tsk.

Overheard: With the Akron Zips' football team heading for a winless season, might it not be a good idea to have the Zips' world-class soccer team don the uniforms and play out the schedule? It couldn't hurt.

The Harper's magazine Index is always a handy guide for keeping us up to date on modern culture. The latest statistic on young people's habits: Eleven per cent of Americans under age 25 say they would read a text message while having sex.

Betty Sutton: Don't just stand up to fight

REP. BETTY SUTTON reset the boundaries of this year's election in a few sharp words at the Akron Press Club yesterday. Dismissing the aimless rhetoric that has sent too many fearful politicians to their hideouts, Sutton asserted that our critical need today is for some plain talk, a vanishing ingredient in the flow of laundered comments from rostrums across the political landscape. Instead, Sutton, a Democrat, asserted that our representatives in

Washington need to "stand up and fight for solutions, not just stand up to fight."

That message would extend to both sides of the aisle. It hasn't been surprising that Republicans have used health care reform and other progressive breakthroughs as weapons against their opponents. But there's evidence everywhere that Democrats who voted for these measures have been seeking lower ground when challenged. As The Economist magazine observed in a review of the political season: "...most Democrats running for re-election are staying mum or apologizing for their votes for reform." That would dramatically exclude Sutton, who has been on the cutting edge of many issues (including Cash for Clunkers) from job creation to health care.

The problems with strategic retreats is that voters can rightfully ask why the candidates voted for this measure or that one in the first place. It's a sign of weakness that has given the Party of No new opportunities to pursue its mulishness with still greater zeal (if that's possible!).

It has been an election in which Republicans have called for solutions without a hint of specifics, and squirmy Democrats have meekly stood aside and conceded that even without those specifics, their rivals might be right. What a way to lose an election!

Where are Dubya and Alex these days?

WITH TWO WEEKS to go until Election Day, things have gotten awfully quiet for two Republican compatriots who had no trouble grabbing headlines in past campaigns - George Bush and Alex Arshinkoff. Some observers say the former president has been pre-occupied with the fortunes of the Texas Rangers in the playoffs - a team in which he once held a handsome stake. But I suspect that Republicans find him much more valuable to their fortunes if he remains in the distant centerfield seats where his mere presence won't remind people of the debris he left behind.

Arshinkoff, the Summit County Republican Chairman, may be another matter. In the past he has bombastically shared the stage at rallies in the county for his GOP brethren to flag the party loyalists to the polls. Not so, this year. No big rallies hereabouts, no Arshinkoff. Last summer he even denied knowledge of a fundraiser for Tom Ganley, the Republican challenger to Rep. Betty Sutton, even though the 13 th district covers a lot of ground in the county.

I can only guess that his pal, gubernatorial candidate John Kasich, has told him to remain under wraps to avoid stirring up the kind of controversy that Arshinkoff is known to inspire at campaign time. You may recall that he once threatened to boycott United Way because an innocent scavenger hunt had a Democratic campaign office on its itinerary. He also tore up the GOP playbook by challenging the Republican Hudson City Council that ordered him to take down a big Bush sign from his front yard because it violated the village's zoning ordinance.

Will he still materialize before Election Day? Hard to know about anything he will do. Meantime, the silence is golden.

Bizzaro: Why did Ganley slash his TV advertising?

A FUNNY THING happened to Tom Ganley on his road map to Congress. But I'm not sure what it is. To call the campaign bizarre would be true enough but still leave the question unanswered. What began more than a year ago as the auto dealer's boastful entry into politics as a short-lived senate candidacy with a $6 million war chest, flinched yesterday with the report that he is suspending his TV advertising campaign as a congressional rival to unseat U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton.

The explanation from his campaign manager, Jeff Longstreth, was just as bizarre. The candidate was looking for a way to "break through the clutter" of political ads on Ohio's airwaves. Well, that will surely occur if Ganley pockets his millions and, as Longstreth reports, spends no more than $300,000 on cable TV and radio.

The announcement drew all sorts of puzzled speculation on Ganley's intent. One source suggested that he was cutting his losses because his campaign might be going south. Another said that it was an expression that he was well ahead of Sutton. And another political observer familiar with the campaign predicted that he would lose by 10 points.

Interestingly, many of the published reports referred to recent allegations that he groped a wannabe campaign volunteer. When the story broke in the Plain Dealer more than a week ago, I decided to be the cool guy who would pass on it. There's no avoiding it now. His pullback of the TV ads has hit him with unintended consequences. At least, it has now trumped all of the the criticism of his refusal to meet Sutton in debates.

Congressional debates: What makes Ganley run?

SHOULDN'T SOMEBODY take auto dealer Tom Ganley aside and whisper to him that he is supposed to be a Republican congressional candidate and not a passenger in one of his cruise-controlled demos with a new car warranty? As we have noted more than once, he has rejected invitations to debate his Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton, for the flimsiest of excuses - this from a financially powerful operative who boasts that even as a political rookie in his late 60s, he will turn Congress around as a hard-nosed businessman with no seniority.

The Beacon Journal took note of his evasiveness Sunday. His campaign manager strung out the Akron Press Club for more than a month before agreeing to no more than a solo flight at a club luncheon on Oct. 26. That was sort of an undeserved reward for his adamant refusal to face Sutton on the dais. (She agreed to debate but accepted a luncheon slot on Oct. 20 - alone, of course.)

The Cleveland City Club, the state's prestigious political forum, was not as accommodating to Ganley's rules for a walk on the red carpet. It invited the candidates to debate, but when Ganley refused, it simply said something that sounded like, "Too bad, Tom - Betty Sutton will have the audience all to herself when she appears on Oct. 22." As it should be.

Apparently at a loss for even a mildly lucid explanation on where Ganley is these days, his communications director, Meghan Snyder, told the BJ:

"Tom is ready to debate Betty Sutton, if we can do so in a situation where the only thing on the agenda is the issues. We will not grant her the opportunity to continue to lie about him in a public forum." Good grief, Ms. Snyder. Who decides the issues? And what better way to counter those "lies" than in a public forum with your rival?

On the other hand when a candidate is prepared to spend millions in unchallenged TV ads, he might just as well be campaigning from an isolated pad back in the parts department.

Cash for Clunkers: Which Ganley do you believe?

REPUBLICAN TOM GANLEY, the candidate who refused an invitation from the Akron Press Club to debate U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton, may find that he can't avoid another debate: With himself. That awkward challenge arose in a Plain Dealer PolitiFact/Ohio piece noting that auto dealer Ganley has been slamming the Cash for Clunkers program as a worthless government initiative led by Sutton because "not one job did it create." But the PD reported that a year ago there was a completely different Tom Ganley with effusive praise for the program in a Warner Cable interview by host Tom Conklin.

Let's roll back the tape, in which he declared:

"Once again, the government was searching for ways to stimulate our economy and create jobs. And I'm sure you read General Motors is going to a second shift in Lordstown because of this. That creates jobs; it also creates taxpayers. They are bringing back something close to 1,300 jobs we've stimulated through the Cash for Clunkers. Plus, I have created jobs out of necessity in my stores because of the large volume of folks coming. We are bringing back people that we had laid off."

The paper reported that during the Clunkers period, Ganley's 32 dealerships sold 934 cars worth $20.6 million. Reporter Sabina Eaton said that after reviewing the facts, she concluded that "Ganley clearly changed his tune. We rate his gymnastics to be a Full Flop."

Amateur politician that he is, do you think it's time for him to give himself a seasonal Tuneup?

P.S.: He has now agreed to be a soloist at the Press Club on Oct. 26. Sutton will be there on Oct. 2o.

DeWine, Ganley: Candidates on cruise control

IT'S NOW official that there will be NO debates at the Akron Press Club involving two Republican candidates who appear to have put their campaigns on cruise control. Both Tom Ganley, the GOP challenger to U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton, nor Mike DeWine, who is trying to unseat Atty. Gen. Richard Cordray, have unequivocally turned down invitations to debate their Democratic opponents.

As one who moderated many of the previous Press Club debates before stepping aside a couple of years ago, I'm not inclined to salute this wary twosome for their political wisdom and courage. For better or worse, debates come with the territory, particularly for these guys whose yearnings tell them they ought to be in political office for awhile until something better comes along.

Item: Ganley, the mega-auto dealer who is relying heavily on TV ads, did make a solo appearance at the Press Club last fall when he was running for the U.S. Senate. But he has flinched at the thought of facing an incumbent now that he is running for Congress. (He didn't even show up for Alex Arshinkoff's big finance dinner.) DeWine finally agreed to speak alone on Sept. 28 without the bother of an opponent staring him in the face. So Cordray has had to settle for an appearance sans DeWine on Oct. 7.

There has been a long tradition at the Press Club that when both candidates are invited, there would be an empty chair for either candidate who didn't show up. The Cleveland City Club has played by those rules, too. In this instance, however, Press Club board members tell me that club president Bruce Winges, the Beacon Journal editor, is skittish about having Sutton speak alone without offering Ganley another date for his solo even though he's already been there in a campaign mode. Inexplicably, Winges, in a conciliatory mood, is said to feel that unless he gave Ganley a similar opportunity now it would look too "political" by the Press Club. Good grief! Will there next be an agreement to have Ganley address the club's audience from his patio?

Time out for a little history here: Over the years Democrats have always agreed to debate their opponents. The late Rep John Seiberling never turned down a challenge from his opponent. When the Press Club series began a decade ago, neither Mayor Don Plusquellic nor former County Executive Jim McCarthy failed to show up at the Martin Center on time to face their rivals.

The rules of combat have now changed and the Press Club's front office is riding the fence when there shouldn't be the slightest question about what it should do. Why now?

Ganley, DeWine in a political game of dodge-em

WITH TWO MONTHS to go to the November Election, Republican Tom Ganley seems to have decided to become the stealth candidate against 13th District U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton. His team has flatly refused an invitation to debate Sutton at a luncheon co-sponsored by the Bliss Institute and the Akron Press Club. The refusal comes from a man who would have you believe that as a bold rookie congressman lacking seniority he would still be forceful enough to make significant changes in how they do business on Capitol Hill.

So if you want to know what he thinks and are bored by the TV political commercials, you can get a copy of the right-wing Human Events in which he was recently quoted as seeking to "reopen" all entitlements. There was a bit of a backlash at his automobile agency in Akron yesterday as a group of senior citizens picketed in the fear that he would try to slash Social Security and Medicare, non-discretionary programs .

Ganley is the second Republican to dodge a Press Club debate with the same sponsors. Earlier, former Sen. Mike DeWine rejected a shared dais with Atty. Gen. Richard Cordray. I'm told that he would agree to a solo performance , but not a debate. How will we ever survive all of this forthright action from Mssrs. Ganley and DeWine?

The Ganley-Fedeli axis: When $$$ soar

MEGA-AUTO DEALER Tom Ganley's congressional campaign against U.S Rep. Betty Sutton is being defined these days by one striking feature: Money, big money. You may recall that at the grand rollout of his campaign he was said to have pledged $6 million of his own cash for the race. He later "loaned" the campaign $2 million that's likely to be channeled into a TV assault on Sutton. Now comes word that he will be honored at a fund-raiser promoted by his staff in the richly appointed corporate offices (complete with a big restaurant) of the Fedeli Group on Rockside Rd. on June 3. It's owned by another millionaire to the umpteenth power, private insurance broker Umberto Fedeli - from whom many blessings have flowed to Republican candidates. (I'm told Fedeli meets annually with the pope for inspiration at the Vatican.)

The tickets run from $1,000 to $2,500. At that price, it's not likely that you will find any pensioners or undocumented workers in the crowd. The highlight of the evening will be a visit by House minority leader John Boehner, whatever that's worth for a pol whose approval ratings are hanging out in the 20s.

So far, Ganley's name-dropping successes have included an endorsement from true right-winger Bay Buchanan, an appearance on Mike Huckabee's Fox program, with well wishes from the host, and now an elbow-rubbing event with Boehner. None of this would be seductive in a northern Ohio congressional district. Still, with Fedeli aboard, the two could provide a new kitchen in his restaurant to return Sutton, as some would have it, to a woman's traditional role.

Lee Fisher should thank the GOP for its help

THE GOP'S sexually overripe attack ad on Ohio Democratic senatorial candidate Lee Fisher has hardly helped its effort to beat him. The internet ad, which shows him bare-chested and ecstatically weaving with one hand under the table was a clear message that he was ...eh... enjoying an auto-erotic moment or two and has drawn an avalanche of national coverage and comment (except in my hometown newspaper). Considering the number of denials posted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, it obviously is has become circle-the-wagons time within the GOP precincts. Even Fisher's Republican opponent, Rob Portman, has distanced himself from the ad's content, saying it was in bad taste.

The denials will have little effect on the story. There's a constant in political campaigns that once a negative becomes firmly implanted in the public mind, it will never die. The ad lasciviously taunts the viewer "Dare to see more?" It concludes, "People are more focused on results than ever before." In this instance, I couldn't agree more.

Let's see: First the Medina Republican Party wants to send U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton back to the kitchen, and now this. Ray Bliss, the Hall of Fame Republican guru, must be turning in his grave.

Ganley campaign insists on brakes for clunkers

THE PLAIN DEALER'S Sabrina Eaton of the paper's Washington Bureau has opened a Pandora's box with today's piece on the business workings of Republican congressional candidates Tom Ganley and Jim Rinacci. While Ganley, the giant auto dealer who is on the ballot in the 13th District, has made his opposition to government programs a staple of his campaign, Eaton noted that his dealership took advantage of the Cash for Clunkers program with the sale of 934 cars worth $20.6 million. Here, the narrative gets a little sticky for Ganley because after the GOP primary, which he is quite likely to win, he will be running against U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton, the Democratic congresswoman credited with setting up the clunkers program.

Likewise, Rinacci, a conservative whose many business enterprises include a Chevrolet dealership, sold only 40 cars worth $754.167, Eaton reported. In this context with Ganley, Rinacci's sales could have qualified for a flea market.

It is interesting to hear the negative spin that Ganley's campaign chairman put on the trade-in program.

"The program," Jeff Longstreth told Eaton, "was, at its basic level, an unnecessary intrusion of government into the private business sector," adding that it merely helped car buyers and not the dealers. "It was unnecessary federal spending that is indicative of the current administration's policy of spend, spend, spend."

But as Sutton's campaign manager Julie Sweet replied: "If he is now saying it's a bad program, he's trying to sell you something, and it's not a car."

I doubt that you will see many clunker traders lining up at the dealers' counters to return their ill-gotten machines as their patriotic duty. I also doubt that Sutton will take Ganley at his doleful word on the program by returning her Distinguished Service Award from the Ohio Automobile Dealers Association for her work on the clunkers program.

Whose turn is it to make the mashed potatoes?

LADIES, IN CASE you're looking for a job, you might check the Medina County Republican Party. It has an opening in the kitchen and sort of advertised it in a party newsletter that told its loyalists: "Let's take Betty Sutton out of the House and put her back in the kitchen." Rep. Sutton is being challenged in the 13th Congressional District by car dealer Tom Ganley so it's not likely that she will be wearing an apron this election year.

The Medina County GOP chairman, Bill Heck, said he didn't see any sexist intent in the county newsletter but explained that it was published by the Republican Party and not written by him. (Don't those guys talk to each other over in the next county?) After all, he said, his wife was twice elected to county offices. They doubtless ate out a lot.