OH-05 Robin Weirauch: Dem Is In The Race, Announces On YouTUBE

BOWLING GREEN (TDB) -- Democrat Robin Weirauch, a 50-year-old retired policeman's wife who worked as an economic development official at Bowling Green State University, is officially in the race to fill the vacant OH-05 congressional seat that covers a large swath of NW Ohio. Her campaign has posted the official announcement launching the bid on YouTUBE. Weirauch is the child of military parents and was born on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton. But she says she does not favor prolonging the war in Iraq any longer.

"It is time to bring this war in Iraq to a responsible end,'' she says in the YouTUBE annoucement.

[UPDATE: 7:38 pm -- Weirauch just finished a conference call with a handful of Ohio bloggers and said she put the likelihood of a Nov. 6 Democratic primary in OH-05 at "50-50." She ran as the party's nominee in 2004 and got 33% of the vote in the general election, and reached 43% in 20o6. Gov. Ted Strickland and Sen. Sherrod Brown both carried OH-05 in 2006, but not by overwhelming margins. However, their numbers clearly show that a Democrat can win in the region.

Weirauch said during the conference call that she believes the Iraq war now outweighs all other issues, even dominating the job losses in Ohio's small towns as the economy has globalized and factories have closed or moved offshore.

"I think that is going to be the top issue," she said of the war, adding that she does not believe a military solution is possible. "If the administration is not going to do something about this, we want people to know it's not going to go on and on and on forever.''

Perhaps her best line about the war : "There just doesn't seem to be a military solution to political problems."

She noted that 6 Ohioans from the district have been killed in Iraq. Weirauch said she expects to file her nominating petitions within a few days. Under state law, the deadline is Sept. 28. Weirauch was candid and engaging, direct and conversational as she spoke, and demonstated a good sense of herself. She came across as someone comfortable in her own skin.]

Ohio's 5th Congressional District is rural and conservative, and was held by Paul Gillmor, who died suddenly on Sept. 5 in a fall at his apartment in suburban Washington. Weirauch was the Democratic nominee in 2006, a race that she lost to Gillmor.

OH-05 Paul Gillmor: Died During Sex Says Altered Wikipedia Entry

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Somebody has written a wickedly snarky Wikipedia entry that says Republican U.S. Rep. Paul Gillmor passed away suddenly this week in the throes of a romantic encounter. Or, as the unknown author put it bluntly, "He died on Sept. 5, 2007 of sexual misadventure."

Gillmor represented Ohio's 5th Congressional District, and he appears to be another victim of the vandals, pranksters and propagandists who have been altering Wikipedia entries for malevolent purposes. A cleaned up reference to Gillmor is locked and cannot be changed until Sept. 9. The sexual comment is no longer accessible and what is now available cites a newspaper's speculation that the congressman suffered a fatal heart attack.

But -- you can check out the now censored version on Wonkette, the D.C. gossip blog. There are some pretty crude and twisted comments there about Gillmor and amour. If you are easily offended don't look.

[UPDATE: 5:57 PM edt -- Tom Blumer is always mining for fresh carats to add to the news nuggets delivered at Bizzyblog and has uncovered some unflattering information about Wonkette. And Blumer's find is not gossip. He's learned the gossip blog seems to be fading away as any kind of force majeur in the blogosphere.]

OH-05: House Pulls Down Paul Gillmor's Website

COLUMBUS (TDB) -- U.S. Rep. Paul Gillmor passed away a day ago and his official House Website is now gone, too. The quick action by the House Clerk's office makes it seem like he didn't exist.

The House district Republican Gillmor represented in Northwest Ohio is the second largest in the state, and covered an area larger than Connecticut. Political insiders say the early buzz is that former Ohio Attorney General and Auditor Betty Montgomery, who is from Wood County (Bowling Green) in the district, will be urged to run as Gillmor's replacement. Meanwhile, Gov. Ted Strickland has to call a special election to fill the seat and reportedly plans to schedule the vote for Tuesday, November 6, when local and county elections are already scheduled to be conducted in many communities across the state.

Strickland is said to believe that a November 6 special election would save millions of dollars because polls will have to be open and staffed for Election Day. Out of respect to his former House colleague (Strickland represented the state's biggest congressional district along the Ohio River in Appalachian Ohio), the governor is not expected to make a public announcement of his decision until after Gillmor's funeral and memorial services are completed.