Prime Mover: Will Ohio Become THE Play-ah? By: Mark W Adams

If this happens -- and I've really no idea whether it will or won't, your life could become something completely different -- I know mine will. I hope it does, only because, well ... it should.

BSB: Kearny Looks to Move Ohio Primary to January

(Columbus) — State Senator Eric Kearney, with the support of Ohio Senate Assistant Democratic Leader Tom Roberts of Dayton and State Senator Shirley Smith of Cleveland, announced the introduction of legislation to change the date of Ohio’s presidential primary to the last Tuesday in January. The bill would move Ohio’s presidential primary from March 4, 2008 to January 29, 2008, increasing Ohio’s impact on the primary process.

‘I believe it is critical that Ohioans have a voice in who the presidential nominees are before it is a foregone conclusion. The current primary date is so late, Ohio voters, including our substantial minority communities, will be disenfranchised if the date is not changed,’ Kearney stated.

Current Ohio law requires the presidential primary to be scheduled for the Tuesday after the first Monday in March, and was set years ago when the Super Tuesday primaries occurred in March of the presidential election year. With the advance of so many primaries to January and February, a March date is no longer timely for Ohio voters. The interests of cities, minority communities and organized labor suffer if the early nominating process is dominated by small, rural, right-to-work states.

‘Ohioans want the presidential candidates from both parties to come to our state, listen to our voices, and propose real solutions to our most pressing needs,’ said Senator Roberts.

‘The move of Florida to the last Tuesday of January opens the calendar for primaries to January 29, 2008, and the industrial Midwest should be represented along with the South on what could be a crucial primary election day,’ Senator Kearney noted.

‘As the key battleground state that decided the 2004 election, it just makes sense for Ohio to be a part of the process alongside Florida, which decided the 2000 election,’ said Senator Smith.

Greg Palast and the other folks who've been documenting the stolen elections in FloriDUH and Ohio since 2000 might want to buy some extra duck tape, because their heads could easily explode with both of these States voting the same day.

I'm all for it. This thing will be long over (as it usually is) by March. You don't win the general election without winning Ohio. The primaries should reflect who really can do it in the fall. This move will leave no doubt.

Besides the reports BSB acknowledged from the Cincinatti Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal, and Cleveland.com, the Plain Dealer moved the story from it's blog to the paper itself -- where we learn that Senator Kearney's wife hosted a fundraiser for Obama earlier this year, but denies it's a move to help his chances. Also two updated Enquirer articles have weighed in along with the Ravenna Record Courier and Dayton's WHIOtv and WCPO in Columbus

(Via Buckeye State Blog - Pamphleteers of the Revolution.)