Congressman Ted Strickland Leads GOP Rivals by 4 to 16 Points in Head-to-Head Match-ups

Columbus, Ohio - Ohio gubernatorial candidate Congressman Ted Strickland holds a lead over every Republican challenger for the governor's office, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports poll released Saturday.

The survey, conducted January 3, shows Strickland with a four-point lead over Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, 44% to 40%. Strickland leads Attorney General Jim Petro by five points, 43% to 38%.

The survey also found that Strickland leads Ohio State Auditor Betty Montgomery by a sixteen-point margin, 49% to 33%.

According to Rasmussen Reports, Strickland is viewed favorably by 54% of respondents, higher than the Republican challengers and significantly higher than the 40% favorability rating attributed to Strickland in the previous Rasmussen Reports poll (November).

For more information please visit: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/2006/State%20Polls/

Last week President Bush took advantage of Congress’ holiday recess to appoint Ellen Sauerbrey as the Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM). The Senate had stalled on approving her nomination because Ms. Sauerbrey has no experience. This State Department position administers the government’s policies regarding refugees and international migration issues and oversees approximately $700 million in federal funds for refugee protection, resettlement, and humanitarian assistance programs. Given the importance of this position, and the nominee’s total lack of experience, Mr. Bush abused his authority by circumventing the Senate.

Although the Bush administration insisted that Ms. Sauerbrey was well qualified for the position, her resume was appallingly slender.  She twice ran as the Republican nominee for Maryland Governor, loosing both times. She served as a representative in the Maryland legislature from 1978 to 1994. In 2000, she was the chairperson for the Maryland for Bush Campaign. Her only experience in federal government is having served as the U.S. representative on a United Nations committee on women’s issues.

AUSTIN, Texas -- The governor of Texas is despicable. Of all the crass pandering, of all the gross political kowtowing to ignorance, we haven't seen anything this rank from Gov. Goodhair since, gee, last fall.

Then, he was trying to draw attention away from his spectacular failure on public schools by convincing Texans that gay marriage was a horrible threat to us all. Now, he's trying to disguise the fact that the schools are in freefall by proposing we teach creationism in biology classes.

The funding of the whole school system is so unfair it has been declared unconstitutional by the Texas Supreme Court. All last year, Perry haplessly called special session after special session, trying to fix the problem, and couldn't get anywhere -- not an iota, not a scintilla of leadership.

Instead of facing the grave crisis that may yet result in the schools being closed down, Perry has blithely gone off on creationism -- teach the little perishers the Earth is 6,000 years old, that people lived at the same time as dinosaurs and who cares if the school building is falling apart?