OH-05 Dem Robin Weirauch: Some Capitol Hill Money Starts Flowing Her Way

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (TDB) -- Financial support from some of Ohio's big name Democrats in Congress has started flowing to Robin Weirauch for a Dec. 11 special election. She was nominated Tuesday in Ohio's 5th District and is campaigning for an open House seat that had been in GOP hands since the 1930s. Sen. Sherrod Brown's leadership PAC, America Works, donated $5,000 this week. And two House Democrats -- U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Cleveland and Tim Ryan of Youngstown -- have each sent $2,000. Weirauch needs every dime she can get her hands on to compete against State Rep. Bob Latta, R-Bowling Green, who is trying to regain the seat his father, Delbert Latta, held for a generation.

After Del Latta retired, Paul Gillmor had a long run in OH-05. He died September 5 after falling down the stairs in his suburban Washington apartment. The special election Dec. 11 is scheduled to fill the vacancy.

OH-05 in Northwest Ohio is a rural Republican bastion, but Weirauch has a shot. She polled 43% of the vote against the popular and entrenched Gillmor in 2006. Sen. Brown and Gov. Ted Strickland both carried OH-05 when they ran that fall.

Jerid Kurtz, the proprietor of Buckeye State Blog, says Democrats have a duty this year to dig deep for Weirauch, and he's a bit perturbed that some officeholders are sitting on large piles of cash while a House race is under way. He's says some of the money should be steered into OH-05 where there may not be another shot at an open seat for 20 years.

"The price of leadership in Ohio these days is not simply representing your district, and representing it well. Rather, Democrats need to make a concerted effort to look out for the future of Ohio. After all, as the Ohio Democratic Party started to slide into decline in the early 90's, an 'everyman for themself' attitude was part of the problem."

Kurtz, in particular, says U.S. Rep. Zack Space -- who now holds the House seat that convicted former GOP Congressman Bob Ney left during the Abramoff scandal -- should kick in $2,000 for Weirauch. Kurtz said she is running in the same kind of rural territory that Space represents, and that Space needs to give her a hand in an uphill battle.

"I think it's reasonable to ask Space to make a contribution to Robin Weirauch's campaign for Congress. With nearly $600,000 on hand 12 months out from re-election, he has the funds to occasionally support important causes to further our state and our party."

Without money, Weirauch has no chance. She can't be viable without cash. The race clearly is shaping up as a test to see if Ohio's Dems -- who are in power at the Statehouse for the first time in 16 years -- can make a fight of it in the kind of place they usually avoided. Others wonder if the national Dems -- in power at the Capitol for the first time since 1994 -- are willing to force the GOP to fight on its home turf, a district that has traditionally gone red.

OH-05 is the only game in town, the only House seat left in play this year. Inquiring minds want to know: Will the Dems hold 'em, fold 'em, or raise the bet? If Space writes a check, that would send a strong signal that the Democrats intend to fight for OH-05. It would show that a Democratic congressman from rural Ohio, a freshman in a traditional GOP seat, believes that Democrats can compete successfully in rural Ohio.

OH-11 Stephanie Tubbs Jones: La. DA Should Reopen Jena 6 Case

CLEVELAND (TDB) -- U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a Democrat who served as Cuyahoga County's prosecutor and a judge before entering Congress, said she supports the peaceful civil rights protests "demanding fairness and justice in the case of the Jena 6."

Tubbs Jones represents Cleveland's East Side and is the only black member of Ohio's congressinal delegation. She is national co-chair of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's Democratic presidential campaign. Tubbs Jones said the said the racially explosive case of six black high schoolers accused of attempted murder in the beating of a white classmate should be reopened and reexamined to see if the original charges involved bias against blacks in Louisiana's criminal justice system. Tubbs Jones said she wanted to shine a light on the plight of the six.

"While I am pleased that the charges against Mychal Bell have been reduced, justice requires that his incarceration be reexamined. As a former prosecutor and judge, I know that District Attorney Reed Walters is vested with significant discretion, and he is ethically bound to charge a defendant with crimes within the facts.

"In this instance, based up the fact that a court has thrown out the charges against Mychal Bell, he is bound to reexamine the facts and make a determination as to whether the charges are consistent when applied to the law. I call upon my colleague to do just that so the American public, regardless of color, will have faith that there is justice for all people. So today I join all of the concerned citizens across this country and the world demanding fairness and justice in the case of the Jena 6."

Cleveland State U's Rooftop Windmills: U.S. House Panel OKs Seed Money

CLEVELAND (TDB) -- Cleveland State University scientist Majid Rashidi is closer to obtaining federal financial aid to help develop energy-producing "windspires," four of which may soon be spinning on the rooftops of Northeastern Ohio. The House Appropriations Committee has agreed to authorize putting about $1.1 million of taxpayers' cash into the project, which also has backing from the state.

U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Cleveland, announced the influential House panel's decision to support the windspires, which are souped up breeze-powered machines without the huge spinning blades typical of windmills. Rashidi wants to set build test devices to see how effectively they function.

Tubbs Jones said the project is an investment in retooling the state's economy and portrayed it as critical to efforts to get Ohio growing again.

U.S. House Ethics Counsel Hired: Former Cleveland Prosecutor

CLEVELAND (TDB) -- A former assistant prosecutor in Cuyahoga County has been hired as chief counsel for the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, the ethics panel which is chaired by Cleveland Democratic Stephanie Tubbs Jones. Dawn Kelley Mobley is a graduate of North Carolina Central School of Law and is licensed to practice in North Carolina and Ohio.

She was a trial lawyer in the Cuyahoga County prosecutor's office and handled rape, homicide and drug cases. She also worked as a supervisor in the felony and juvenile justice sections. Tubbs Jones was the was the county prosecutor in Cleveland before her election to the OH-11 seat.

Mobley has been working for the U.S. Attorney's in Washington. Her new role could make her fairly high-profile if there is any kind of congressional scandal. Democrats has promised an emphasis on ethics. The announcement of Mobley's appointment is not on committee's Web site, nor does it appear to be on Tubbs Jones' House portal. But it is HERE on the pr newswire.