The latest polling for the Ohio governor’s race shows Democrat Ted Strickland an amazing 36 points ahead of Republican Ken Blackwell, up from a 19-point lead a month earlier. The Columbus Dispatch notes that Blackwell recently “began airing positive commercials after other Republicans said his harsh criticism of Strickland was hurting the entire ticket.”
That criticism, of course, centered on sex-related issues regarding Strickland — his purported homosexuality, the hiring of a person who had once been convicted on indecency charges, a vote on a House bill condemning a sex-related study. As we’ve noted, all of these issues Blackwell raised were mirrored in a series of articles written by Jerome Corsi — co-author of a book with Blackwell — for WorldNetDaily.
Such overaggressive gay-baiting attacks, and the subsequent polling showing plummeting support for Blackwell, raise the question of whether Corsi ended up hurting his friend instead of helping him. He was over the top, at one point writing a column containing the phrase “lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender” or slight variants a whopping 22 times. That may also be why Corsi used his Nov. 3 column to praise Blackwell instead of bashing Strickland — again, mirroring Blackwell’s switch to more positive advertising.
It’s two more days before the election, and two more days for Corsi to comment on it. Will Corsi go positive, or will he keep up his negative attacks on Strickland — and risk hurting Blackwell’s performance even further?