Portman in, Ryan leaning yes [Southwest vs. Northeast]

[Lunar]

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http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/0109/Portman_running_to_succeed_Voinovich.html?showall

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http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/0109/Tim_Ryan_considering_Senate_race.html?showall

[Holmes]

Bah, if Jennifer Brunner runs, I'll be disappointed.

[Keystone Phil]

Politics1 has Mike DeWine and Ken Blackwell as potential Republican candidates (as well as a few others).

[Lunar]

DeWine, I believe, is looking more heavily at the AG race

Blackwell is the odds-favorite (IMHO) candidate to win in the RNC Chairmanship Race

Kasich is expected to take on Strickland

[Ronnie]

Portman vs. Ryan would be a very exciting race.  I'm looking forward to some premature polling.

[DownWithTheLeft]

Republicans have quite a bench in Ohio, which is good

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Republicans have quite a bench in Ohio, which is good

Which makes one wonder why they're going with Portman.

[Lunar]

Republicans have quite a bench in Ohio, which is good

Which makes one wonder why they're going with Portman.

He has the most access to fundraising and lots of trade & economic experience inside the Bush administration.  Mitch Daniels is a former Bushie and did just great in Indiana in 2008 though.

Portman's campaign chest is what makes him formidable.  The fact that he's out of a job means  he's got nothing to lose while the current slate of congressmen certainly do

For example, Portman has already signed on board Bush's 2004 chief financier

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Portman vs. Ryan would be a very exciting race.  I'm looking forward to some premature polling.

I am as well. This promises to be very exciting.

Republicans have quite a bench in Ohio, which is good

Which makes one wonder why they're going with Portman.

Who else could we run? Pryce is done with politics for now. Kasich will proabably run for Governor. Latourette would be good but I don't think he is interested. Portman is not a bad candidate and he does have a lot of experience with the economy and that won't be 100% bad either.

[Sam Spade]

Republicans have quite a bench in Ohio, which is good

Which makes one wonder why they're going with Portman.

He has the most access to fundraising and lots of trade & economic experience inside the Bush administration.  Mitch Daniels is a former Bushie and did just great in Indiana in 2008 though.

Portman's campaign chest is what makes him formidable.  The fact that he's out of a job means  he's got nothing to lose while the current slate of congressmen certainly do

Also, like Tim Ryan, Portman always ran well-ahead of the Presidential candidate in his Congress seat (even though it was quite Republican to begin with - never under 70%) and got joke opponents, which means he understood the area well.

Should be interesting.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Politics1 has Mike DeWine and Ken Blackwell as potential Republican candidates (as well as a few others).

Haha, sweet!

[Rust Belt Blue]

I agree that a Ryan/Portman race would be exciting.  I'm a bit biased toward Ryan since I am one of his constituents.

I also would like to see the Kasich/Strickland race for governor.

[Padfoot]

Bah, if Jennifer Brunner runs, I'll be disappointed.

No kidding.  Brunner is a terrible candidate IMO.  Although she's done a much better job than Blackwell as Sos, she's still put herself out on a limb and then fallen off too many times. 


Ryan seems like the best candidate to me.  I think he could easily pull off a Sherrod Brown style win especially if he can tie Portman down to Bush.  The Bush ties might not resonate as well as they did in the last two elections but I still think it will be recent enough to hinder Portman's chances.

[Holmes]

It's not really relevant, but if you wanna watch Ryan blow a red light...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT3DLPj8s7E

1:42. Eyes on the road, Congressman.

[Lunar]

Boehner just endorsed Portman

[Padfoot]

Boehner just endorsed Portman

not surprising.  Ohio Republicans are in a pretty good mood over Voinovich's retirement actually.  Many were bracing themselves for a battle between Kasich and Portman over the nomination for governor in Voinovich didn't leave.  Now they get to have both of their top tier candidates on the ticket and there probably won't be a whole lot of serious competition in the primary unless Mary Taylor throws up her middle finger and decides to make things difficult for her party.

[Ronnie]

Both the gubernatorial and senatorial races will be exciting.  I think that Portman has a better shot, even though he has somewhat of a regional disadvantage.  If Kasich is close, it could propel him to winning the gubernatorial election 4 years later.

I want Kasich to win, but that race is not as important as the Ohio senate race.  Tim Ryan would be as much of a disaster as Sherrod Brown.