Debate report

From the Columbus bureau

Republican candidate Ken Blackwell’s charges against Democrat Ted Strickland won’t have much punch unless Blackwell decides to put them in television ads.

Blackwell was noncommittal following the debate when asked if he intended to devote his last weeks’ television time to the sex issues he hurled at Strickland during their fourth and final debate Monday night.

The charges blew all the other issues off the agenda as Blackwell must have hoped they would. In political jargon, Blackwell’s claims are referred to as an “October surprise.”

Although the charges are old and have been raised and discounted in Strickland’s previous campaigns for Congress and in this year’s gubernatorial primary campaign, they seemed to gain more traction in the venue Blackwell chose.

Blackwell criticized Strickland for not doing background checks on his staffers and coddling to a pro-pedophilia group in one of his votes in Congress.

Although Blackwell’s charges gave reporters a fresh angle on what had become routine debates between the two men, most saw it, as Strickland’s running mate, Lee Fisher said, “Mr. Blackwell heaved a Hail Mary tonight, and the pass was incomplete."

But the voters could prove the press wrong and, in an environment drenching of the page-scandal in D.C., take Blackwell’s allegations to heart and turnaround Blackwell’s months-long double digit deficit in the polls.

No one in Ohio has been more successful in generating support and action from the religious right than Blackwell. Prior to the debate, it was speculated that some of the right would stay home on Election Day because of the morass their party seemed to be in on both the national and state levels. Blackwell may have re-energized them again.

But last night’s and this morning’s news reports won’t carry Blackwell into the winner’s column unless he hammers the messages home with paid media.

However, if some of the polls hold true, Blackwell may be too late because voters have become numbed to all of the negative political ads cluttering the air and cable waves.
Either way Blackwell goes has its risks.

In Monday’s debate, Blackwell claimed that Strickland had, in the late 1990’s, a staffer who was charged with exposing himself to children and that Strickland voted “Present” when a resolution condemning pedophilia came before him in Congress.

Strickland said that he could not support the resolution because it said that a child who had been sexually abused could not have healthy relationships as an adult.

"I believe in the power of God," Strickland, a psychologist, said. "Even if psychologists and psychiatrists can't help such a child, I believe God can help such a child overcome such abuses."

Blackwell claimed that Strickland’s vote of “Present” when the resolution was put forward was applauded by the North American Man/Boy Love Association.

Strickland claimed that he had never been applauded by the association and that Blackwell seemed to know more about the charges against his staff and NAMBLA than Strickland did.