Ohio Governor's Race To Get Interesting And Not In The Polls

[Danielle Masters]

Can it get any funnier? The PD is now reporting that Fitzgerald only had a temporary drivers license on the night in question and was therefore not in compliance with Ohio law - you need a licensed driver with you when you drive with a temp.

What a comedy of errors.

Maybe she was teaching him how to pass the parallel parking test.

I do hate to laugh at people's misfortunes but I do have to wonder if Ed was really ignorant enough to believe this stuff wouldn't come out when he ran for a statewide office. Did he have a car when he was mayor? Did he walk or have a driver? Perhaps he road his bike everywhere. If he did drive illegally what does that tell us about Ed, is he lazy or does he just think laws don't apply to him? Or is there some reason he didn't have a valid license?

I don't care about his sex life, it's none of my business but an illegal driver who lives near an elementary school driving around a city with lots of pedestrians is a big deal. If he drove at all alone over the five years between 2007-12 then he did so illegally and that tells me all I need to know about him.

[Will Brown]

If you let your license expire, you have to get a learners' permit and retake the tests. He could have been in that situation.

I don't know if the Irish visitor (was it a male or female?) would qualify as the accompanying licensed driver. Certainly not if she was only 12.

[Grace O'Malley]

The Columbus Dispatch now reports that Fitzgerald did not have a valid Ohio driver's license for 10 years! And fellow Democrat C Ellen Connally says she saw him numerous times driving alone, going in and out of the county parking garage.

The Republicans couldn't do a better job of making Fitzgerald look like a doofus than he does himself.

[Danielle Masters]

If you let your license expire, you have to get a learners' permit and retake the tests. He could have been in that situation.

I don't know if the Irish visitor (was it a male or female?) would qualify as the accompanying licensed driver. Certainly not if she was only 12.

I'm a little younger than Ed but about his age and I have moved across the country multiple times, I have held a license continually since I was 16, it has never lapsed. My husband has had a license for 25 years continually, his has never lapsed. My parents licenses have never lapsed. It's not that hard to go wait in line at the BMV, and obviously if he had a valid permit he could find time to wait in line.

My oldest child is taking his drivers test today, he feels old getting his license at 18. Should I let him know a valid license isn't needed, he can just drive around for years with just his permit, after all Mr. FitzGerald did it.

All the excuses he may have for not having a valid license for 10 years (but yet driving) tell me he is not qualified to be governor.

[Scott Meeson]

I finally get it!

[Bill Call]

The Columbus Dispatch now reports that Fitzgerald did not have a valid Ohio driver's license for 10 years! And fellow Democrat C Ellen Connally says she saw him numerous times driving alone, going in and out of the county parking garage.

The Republicans couldn't do a better job of making Fitzgerald look like a doofus than he does himself.

Here is the Dispatch article:

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories ... alone.html

[Bill Call]

I am not one of those Democrats which automatically vote D in every single race. I always do vote the D in primaries and usually vote the D in the general elections but have on occasion voted for a (gulp) Republican. I voted for George Voinovich for Governor and Senator merely because I felt having a Clevelander in those positions would benefit us in N.E. Ohio which turned out to be true. I feel the same way with Fitz not because he is a fellow Democrat but because he is a Lakewoodite.

There is no reason to believe that Fitzgerald would do anything for Cuyahoga County if he were governor. He hasn't done anything for Lakewood as the County Executive.

One of the ironies of Ohio politics is that Democratic governors neglect Cuyahoga County because the votes are guaranteed. They lavish attention on the more Republican Southern Ohio because they think they can buy votes. It doesn't work but they do it anyway. Republican governors ignore Cuyahoga County because they aren't going to get the votes so why bother.


Kasich is the exception.

Kasich has promised hundreds of millions for Cuyahoga County. If your vote is determined by who gives your region a bigger piece of the action then you should vote for Kasich.

Our last Democratic governor made sure Cleveland got no stimulus dollars but found $200 million for the Nelsonville Bypass to Nowhere:

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories ... opens.html

[Grace O'Malley]

More details emerging. Fitzgerald and the woman were in the backseat of the vehicle and the original caller says that the woman was interviewed by the police wearing a man's jacket.

Of course, we can go on and on about whether he was or wasn't doing the nasty, but the more important aspect of this is that he lied. He lied about getting separated from his group (ask Nate Kelly about that), he lied about "getting his bearings," and he lied about just sitting in the car talking.

His arrogance in thinking that his excuses would be blindly accepted is striking. He should have gone on immediate damage control mode and either said absolutely nothing or made a quick and concise apology and appeal for forgiveness. He's botching this horribly and it only proves to so many that he's not really ready for the big time.

[Grace O'Malley]

Brent Larkin says Fitzgerald is history:
http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/08/ed_fitzgeralds_campaign_is_ove.html

Some pertinent quotes:

Not only will Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald lose the election for governor by a huge margin, he’ll probably take the entire statewide ticket down with him.

Calling the lack of a license a bizarre turn,

Worse yet, driving around without a valid license is so fundamentally wrong, so incredibly stupid, and its wrongness and stupidity so easy to understand, that it will raise doubts about FitzGerald in the mind of nearly every thoughtful voter - of either political party.

[Michael Deneen]

Because the race is so one-sided, the national media has not picked up on the story.
It's a sad day when a Democrat can't even get a tonguelashing from Fox News or Rush Limbaugh.

However, I think this could be a good "Daily Show" item.
Most of America hasn't heard the story, and it has a lot of humorous aspects.

Jason Jones should be the correspondent.
He can come back to Cleveland for the first time since the epic "You Jackin' It" story.

http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/nc7h2 ... -out-crime


Perhaps he and Carl Monday could even team up!

[Jim O'Bryan]

Do you think, Lakewood has checked everyone who drives a city vehicle for a valid driver's license yet?

Just saying...

.

[Grace O'Malley]

I think Fitzgerald has hit a new low. In a disgusting display, he has sent out an announcement today claiming that his son had some worrying symptoms, but has been declared cancer free.

If you recall, his son was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma during Fitzgerald's campaign for County Exec. He vowed to continue to campaign and not much has been said since. In fact, the subject of his son's illness has rarely been discussed, and thankfully, the boy has been treated and has done well.

Today, however, perhaps due to his floundering campaign, he decides to "put it out there" and remind people that his son had been ill. I find this highly suspect and it looks like he is using that poor boy. I'm not the only one who feels this way - there are already negative stories on other news media sites. Is he that desperate? Who is running his public relations/media? Did no one think that the timing of this might look awfully smarmy?

He's digging a deeper hole.

[Matthew Lee]

I am an unashamed Democrat in every way, shape and form. However, I see no way how I can vote for FitzGerald. This should be a slam dunk but there is nothing I have read or heard about that makes me think Ed would be a good governor. I may disagree with Kasich on a LOT of things, but I never doubt that he has Ohio at his heart. FitzGerald seems to put himself first, over everything else. I just can't vote for that.

[Grace O'Malley]

I completely agree. I'm a strong Democrat, but I just cannot vote for Fitzgerald. His behavior is bizarre and inexplicable. As Chris Evans wrote in the PD today:

the email FitzGerald sent out Thursday to elicit the pity vote by mining his son's cancer (which is in remission) was an obscenity.

He has only himself to blame for his failure, but somehow, I don't think he will see it that way.