Ohio House 37th: Fogle (D) Gets Blackwelled; Husted (R) to Run Unopposed

While I was away, the Montgomery County Board of Elections divided along party lines on a challenge to the successful write-in election of former TV personality Guy Fogle (D), and Secretary of State Ken Blackwell (R) decided the issue by upholding the challenge. (Fogle ran as a write-in candidate because his nominating petitions to run as a regular candidate in the primary had been rejected on the basis that one of the 50 signatures he gathered was printed rather than written in cursive script.) Blackwell's decision leaves House Speaker Jon Husted (R-Kettering) unopposed in the general election. Coverage in the Dayton Daily News is here.

According to the newspaper report, Blackwell "cited a recent Ohio Supreme Court decision he said dictates that a candidate cannot run as a write-in in a primary for a state office after having nominating petitions for that office rejected." Of course, that is precisely what State Sen. Charlie Wilson did this year, running for Congress. I don't know the basis given, if any, for distinguishing candidates for state and federal office in this regard, but it sure seems like a technicality, at best. Fogle "said he is disheartened Husted won't have a Democratic challenger in November" and he "blames political maneuvering by Husted and Blackwell for keeping him off the ballot." However, Fogle says "he's focusing on his new job as co-host of the WGRT's Fox 45 in the Morning and no longer seeking to get on the November ballot."

The excellent blog Dayton Politics is putting up a series of posts this week examining the failed Fogle candidacy in detail, showing how Husted engineered the challenges to Fogle through surrogates.