Blackwell conquers Miami County

Miami County, Ohio is not one of the super-counties of Ohio politics. It sits on the Great Miami River in western Ohio, just north of Dayton and is home to the prosperous county seat of Troy, some very good farm land, and the somewhat creaky industrial town of Piqua.

It is also home to a whole lot of Republican primary voters.

Maybe that is why the campaign operation of gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell expended such an enormous effort to win the county party endorsement at Sunday's Miami County Republican Convention, an annual event that draws hundreds of GOP faithful to a rural high school near the village of Casstown.

Blackwell ended up winning the straw poll vote at Sunday's convention over Attorney General Jim Petro by a vote of 241 to 197.

The Blackwell camp worked overtime to get those 241 votes. According to Miami County GOP chairman John W. "Bud'' O'Brien, the Blackwell campaign delivered three-minute campaign DVDs to every Republican household in the county. Those Miami County Republicans who signed up for the Blackwell campaign on www.kenblackwell.com were handed a free Blackwell/Raga T-shirt if they showed up for Sunday's convention.

"They worked it pretty hard,'' O'Brien said. "Much harder than the Petro folks.''

Earlier this month, Blackwell won the endorsement of his hometown Hamilton County Republican Party in a vote that took place behind closed doors at the Queen City Club.

In Miami County, there is no such thing as "behind closed doors.''

They ran their county convention - "a miniature version of the presidential convention,'' O'Brien said - right in front of the whole world, with a high school band blaring, a gymnasium full of balloons and banners, floor demonostrations by sign-waving delegates, and hours of bloviation from the speakers' podium.

To add to the festivities, Sen. Mike DeWine - who also won an endorsement Sunday - brought along a barbershop quartet to entertain the crowd.

"We like to put on a show,'' O'Brien said.

Blackwell's win was signifcant, but the biggest surprise from the convention was that State Sen. Tim Grendell, running an uphill primary battle against Betty Montgomery for Ohio attorney general, won the endorsement vote by a two-to-one margin.

"Betty worked the county really hard,'' O'Brien said. "But Grendell made a heck of a speech.''

Grendell used his six-minute speech to talk about his "pro-life, pro-Second Amendment record; and to remind the delegates of his military service,'' O'Brien said. "It really won people over.''