The Democrat I should have voted for is Richard Cordray for Ohio Treasurer. His experience as a county treasurer is probably the best indicator for me that he will do a good job. I am grateful that his campaign for Treasurer has had very few negative ads.

Although Ted Strickland will likely become Ohio’s next governor I am still ambivalent about him. Last week we got a heavy dose of the “courtship” political ads. These are the ads that try to woo the voters to a candidate. I saw his ad talking about his vision several times before the irony in it struck me. The words that caught my attention were “Turnaround Ohio”. The problem is that I think that Ohio has done a pretty good job economically. I know if you work for the auto industry you may have a different opinion. In fact I was surprised the economy was not mentioned more by the candidates. The national economic numbers are really quite good. It was not too long ago that economists discussed permanent unemployment and inflation rates considerably higher than today. Countries like France continue to remind us how bad an economy can get. The reality is that Ohio will continue to lose manufacturing jobs as the auto and steel industries continue their long term decline in Ohio. For the most part both parties have philosophically gotten over this problem and are looking at increasing the number of small businesses as the keystone of Ohio’s economic future. When you look at the countries in Europe, the United States has done an outstanding economic job. The people in Europe are envious of our economic growth, our flexibility, and our ability to create jobs. If you believe that Ohio has been doing a good economic job, doesn’t it follow to reason that if you turnaround Ohio that the economy will get worse? Does his plan want us to be like France?

Ted’s best characteristic is that he has a lot of political experience. I believe he is politically savvy enough to not kill the goose while pursuing partisan issues. Some of the partisan issues worry a lot of small business owners so he will have to be very careful. He needs to appease his constituents but like Bill Clinton he will remember that he was not elected because of his vision or the party loyalists. He was elected because those fickle independent voters voted his way and that his opponent’s campaign sucked. If Ted plans to win the re-election in a couple of years, he will have to convince these independent voters that a “Bill Clinton”-like governor is good for Ohio’s future.