An Invincible Summer: Ohio Democrats' bizarre war on Wall Street

In the past, I discussed that the Ohio Democratic Party puts off an especially reactionary message, and that this has a terrible effect on the business climate and economic growth prospects of the state. Every commercial I see from Ohio Democrats complains about New York, Banks, and especially foreigners who are "taking our jobs".

Fortunately, Ted Strickland can't run on "outsourcing" in 2010 since he is now the incumbent. So, as far as I can tell Strickland's reelection campaign wants to sidestep his destructive policies and term as governor, and instead focus on the fact that John Kasich used to work for Lehman Brothers in Ohio. Presumably, Strickland is trying to distort facts (Kasich worked in Ohio... and as far as I can tell, was not a senior risk manager for the firm) and play on some prejudice of Ohioans against easterners and especially bankers. Needless to say, I find this creepy and especially provincial. Unfortunately, it bas been a successful election strategy for that bunch the last few years (while also being a terrible governing strategy).

So, I get some joy out of seeing this in the Enquirer:

The Ohio Republican Party released a list of $1.5 million in campaign contributions to Gov. Ted Strickland from financial advisers, including $25,000 from the Lehman family.

The Strickland campaign is claiming these donations came from another branch of the family. But that there is no connection between these investments in the Strickland campaign and Lehman's investment banking seems unlikely. I'll update if there is more info or that it comes out that Kasich convinced Dick Fold to go heavy into Mortgage-backed Securities. Until then, here's some tragic comic Ohio Democratic Party television adds: