Ted Strickland's not-so concealed weapon

When was the last time you heard a Democratic candidate for Ohio governor raking Republican state legislators over the coals for being soft on gun rights?

The answer is, you haven't.

But Ted Strickland is not the typical Democrat. He comes from hard-nosed, hard-scrabble southeast Ohio, where gun-toting is a way of life, whether for hunting deer or just for some peace of mind when you live down at the end of a long farm lane in the middle of nowhere.

So Strickland touts his 2nd Amendment beliefs at every opportunity, much to the chagrin of the upscale urban Democrats who shudder at the thought of J. Kenneth Blackwell in the Ohio governor's office.

It was not so strange, then, that the Strickland campaign cut loose a press release Monday morning taking Ohio Senate Republicans to task for adjourning for summer recess before acting on House Bill 347, a piece of legislation that gun owners belive would strengthen the Ohio Concealed Carry law. One of the things it would do is eliminate the requirement that concealed carry permit-holders keep their weapons in plain sight while in their vehicles.

"As governor, I would support passage of this bill in its entirety and would sign H.B. 347 into law the moment it hit my desk,'' Strickland said in the press release.

The statement of support for H.B. 347 came just as Strickland was winding up a three-day, 19-stop "Turnaround Ohio'' bus tour.

The tour assiduously avoided all major urban centers with the exceptions of Dayton and Columbus, winding its way instead through small towns and rural areas like Waverly, Chillicothe, Wilmington, Troy, Sidney and Wapakoneta.

These are places full of conservative, Republican-leaning voters - the same kind Strickland has depended on in his southeast Ohio congressional campaigns - who might well appreciate a gubernatorial candidate eager to protect their 2nd Amendment rights.

They also happen to be the backbone of the Republican voter base in Ohio, the kind of voters Republican candidates for governor can't live without.