In a move that was quickly contested by Democrats, Republicans on May 15 attempted to add another controversial policy to John Kasich’s mid-biennium budget review: drug testing for welfare recipients.   

A Democratic candidate in the March 6 primary election has sent a letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office asking for an investigation into help that his opponent received from a super PAC with mysterious origins.   

A Democrat who was challenging Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Hartmann in this fall’s election has left the race due to work commitments.   

For the last few weeks, prominent leaders in the local Democratic Party have been privately talking about a dispute between Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory and first-time council candidate Tony Fischer that could have serious consequences for Fischer's campaign. Well-connected sources at City Hall and within the Democratic Party say Mallory and Fischer recently had a stern confrontation during a meeting of the party's slate of candidates for City Council. Mallory told Fischer (a one-time political protege of sorts) not to mention Mallory's name or use the mayor's image on Fischer's Web site or in any campaign literature.   

With Ohio’s 20 electoral votes — more than Nevada, Utah and Colorado combined — presidential candidates work hard to win over the state’s modest, workman-like and pragmatic voters. Last year both presidential campaigns spent so much time here their team could probably order at Skyline Chili without even glancing at the menu.  

Whom do you trust to fix the problems facing the federal government: the Republican members of Congress who, backing President Bush’s every hair-brained move, led the U.S. into the dead end in which he find ourselves? It’s difficult to imagine how intelligent people could decide to re-elect incumbents who caused the very problems we need to fix.