Hell's Cooling

I might have been wrong about something. So much to listening to a Columbus, OH, newspaper reporter. I can hear the SideKick chortling over a blue bottle of Reisling.

Republicans are still determining whether state Sen. Joy Padgett might be disqualified from running based on what's called the "sore loser" statute in Ohio law. The law prevents a candidate from running in a general election after losing a primary. Padgett ran for lieutenant governor earlier this year.

But there's yet another statute that might prevent Padgett from running. A year-old statute prevents Ohioans from running for both state and federal office in the same year. "Ironically," the Columbus Dispatch notes, "Republicans slipped that restriction into the state budget bill last year — apparently to prevent Democratic U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland from running both for re-election and governor this year."