Padgett may be ineligible to run for Ney's seat

State Sen. Joy Padgett talks to a reporter Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2006, in New Philadelphia, Ohio, while attending Tuscarawas Regional Technology Park groundbreaking ceremony. Padget, leading Republican candidate to replace scandal-scarred Rep. Bob Ney on the November ballot, consulted with national and state Republican party officials about her eligibility to run. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

The woes for the Republican Party just keep coming. This is from Yahoo News:

NEW PHILADELPHIA, Ohio - The leading Republican candidate to replace scandal-scarred Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record) on the November ballot may be ineligible, party officials said Tuesday, complicating GOP efforts to assure a smooth transition for the fall campaign.

The developments came one day after Ney announced he would abandon his race for re-election, acting under pressure from party officials who feared the loss of his seat. The six-term lawmaker has come under scrutiny for his ties to Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist at the center of a congressional corruption scandal.

In stepping down, Ney threw his support to Padgett, who also said she had been encouraged by House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, to run.

One Republican strategist, speaking on condition of anonymity, said lawyers had concluded Padgett was likely covered by the so-called political sore loser's law and thus would not be eligible to run.

But Bob Bennett, the state party chairman, said he didn't believe the law applied to her, and said he would seek a formal ruling from the secretary of state.

One official said the legal controversy arose at least in part because the law as drafted differed from what lawmakers had said they intended — which was to prevent a primary loser from later filing as a candidate in the same race.

Wikipedia has some background information regarding Padgett. It would appear that Padgett ran for Lt. Governor on the May 2, 2006 Ohio primary and lost. Now Ohio has a "sore loser" election law which bars a politician who loses one primary to enter another on in the same year. I would say that the law was written so that a losing candidate in the primary could not enter the general election race for the same office as either another political party candidate, or as a write-in candidate. However, I will also admit that nothing was said for a politician, who loses the primary race for one political office, to enter the general race for a completely different political office.

If this issue goes into the Ohio courts, you can expect the Republicans to say that the Ohio "sore loser" law does not explicitly say that a losing candidate for one office is barred from entering into the general race for a completely different office. And that Joy Padgett is eligible to run for Ney's seat. The Democrats will obviously take the opposing side--as the losing candidate for Lt. Governor, Padgett is ineligible to run for any political office in 2006. But I'm getting ahead of myself here--the Ohio secretary of state has yet to make a ruling on this issue.

But I will say that this issue has quickly gone up the GOP food chain. I found this little article in the Cincinnati.com:

Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman is headed to Ohio tonight.

He'll be here until Wednesday meeting with GOP supporters, speaking at the Cleveland City Club and attending a rally with Sen. Mike DeWine, who faces a tough re-election campaign this year against Rep. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Avon in northern Ohio.

Maybe that's why Mehlman's first visit is to the Lorain County Victory Center in Avon? He'll be there at 6:30 p.m. to meet with grassroots supporters.

Tomorrow, Mehlman will speak to the City Club of Cleveland at 7:30 a.m. He'll then attend a rally with DeWine at the Highland Heights Community Center in Highland Heights at 3:30 p.m.

Something tells me that Mehlman isn't just going to Ohio to support DeWine. Ney's withdrawal and Padgett's possible ineligibility to replace Ney on the ballot will be the hot issue for Mehlman as he talks to Ohio GOP officials. The Republicans need to replace their Abramoff-corrupted candidates with new faces. They have tried to use the courts to replace Tom DeLay's name on the Texas ballot, and failed. With Ney pulling out, they have tried to bring in Padgett--only to discover this new controversy of Ohio's "sore loser" law. If Padgett is considered ineligible by Ohio's secretary of state, the Republican Party will be in a serious pickle by handing over two hotly contested House seats to the Democrats on a gold platter. So Mehlman's heading off to Ohio to talk political and legal strategy.

More to come.