The public is invited to attend and help question local candidates at the annual endorsement meeting of the Cincinnati Women's Political Caucus 7-9:30 p.m. June 24 at First Unitarian Church, 536 Linton St., Avondale.

Although the public may attend, only caucus members will be allowed to vote on endorsements after the question and answer session.

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For all the chatter about conservatives and Tea Partiers trying to take over the Republican Party by becoming precinct executives, the person who is perhaps the most prominent local conservative lost his race.

Amid the pages and pages of results from the May 4 primary election is the news that attorney Chris Finney, a leader of the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST), was defeated in his bid for a seat on the Hamilton County Republican Party’s Central Committee.

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Digging Ohio's primary election today. Everyone's expecting low turn-out, which only makes your vote even more valuable. If you're not sure what's on the ballot, check out CityBeat's roundup of election coverage for background on the U.S. Senate Democratic primary, the Democratic and Republican primaries for Hamilton County Commissioner, Issue 1 and more.

Dogging David Krikorian, running today in the Democratic primary for the 2nd Congressional District against Surya Yalamanchili and Jim Parker for the right to face incumbent Rep. Jean Schmidt in the fall. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann named Krikorian his "Worst Person in the World" a few days ago for suggesting that Indian-American Yalamanchili's name is too foreign-sounding to win an election.

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With just five days left until the primary election, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is touring the state in her converted school bus, “the Courage Express,” for some last-minute campaigning in her U.S. Senate bid.

Brunner made local stops at Take the Cake in Northside, Keller’s IGA in Clifton and Fountain Square downtown.

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CityBeat stands corrected.

In this week’s Porkopolis column, which examines political fallout from the health care reform vote last month by U.S. Rep. Steve Driehaus (D-Price Hill), we said Steve Chabot — Driehaus’ predecessor and current opponent — hadn’t done much during his 14 years in Washington to improve access to affordable health care.

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The Ohio Elections Commission today dismissed a complaint filed by Cincinnati Tea Party founder Mike Wilson against his Republican primary opponent in the race for the 28th Ohio House District seat. Wilson had filed a complaint with the commission contesting statements used in a telephone poll recently conducted by Tom Weidman’s campaign.

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The weekly “State of the Nation” poll by Research 2000 found that President Obama is viewed favorably by 56 percent of respondents, compared to 39 percent who hold an unfavorable opinion about him. Five percent had no opinion.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-West Chester) had a whopping 64 percent unfavorable rating, with just 17 percent viewing him favorably. Nineteen percent had no opinion.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Louisville) also had a 64 percent unfavorable rating, compared to 20 percent who view him favorably. Sixteen percent had no opinion.

The poll was conducted for The Daily Kos Web site.

A total of 1,200 registered voters nationwide were interviewed by telephone from March 22-25.

The margin of error is 2.8 percent, meaning there is a 95 percent probability that the “true” figure would fall within that range if the entire adult population were sampled.

Boehner and McConnell can take some solace: Democratic Congressional leaders fared poorly too.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had a 54 percent unfavorable rating, while Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) had a 66 percent unfavorable rating, according to the poll.

Still, Congressional Democrats fare better overall than their Republican counterparts.

Congressional Democrats had a 56 percent unfavorable rating, compared to 40 percent who view them favorably. Four percent had no opinion.

By comparison, Congressional Republicans had a 71 percent unfavorable rating, with 21 percent viewing them favorably. Eight percent had no opinion.

That’s an increase of 3 percent who view Democrats favorably from a week earlier, compared to a decrease of 7 percent for Republicans.

Also, the Democratic Party had a 40 percent favorable rating, compared to the Republican Party’s 28 percent.

There’s still seven months until the general election so anything could happen but, if those numbers persist, it might be time for GOP leaders to scale back their talk of a Republican landslide in Congressional races.

The Tea Party might be good at organizing rallies outside the Capitol building in Washington and staging rallies at Fountain Square, but just how pervasive is the group’s views among the American people?

Not very, according to a new poll.

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Republicans already have introduced a bill that seeks to repeal the health care reforms passed this week by Democrats, but only the most delusional of GOP “true believers” expect it has a chance of passage.

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Now that the U.S. House of Representatives approved a health care reform bill by a 219-212 vote and the Senate appears likely to follow suit, the political wagons are circling in what’s sure to be some nasty congressional races this fall.

Republicans, however, shouldn’t expect to cruise to victory, and here’s why.

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