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Column
The Blade (Toledo, OH)
3-24-00
FOLLOWING UP: Toledo Public Schools Superintendent Merrill Grant argued in the Readers' Forum this week that the campaign for passage of the recent 6.9-mill school levy was well-organized and well-executed, even though voters rejected it.
He said the campaign was based on the projection by pro-levy backers that voter turnout would be low.
The problem: Turnout was quite high, eclipsing projections by local election officials. Pro-levy strategists apparently forgot about the other minor race on the ballot - the one for president.
ALSO IN THE Forum this week was a letter from Sandy Isenberg, president of the Lucas County commissioners, who protested the insinuation by Rob Ludeman that the commission as a body was not advancing the process to establish a Fallen Timbers historic battlefield site.
But Mr. Ludeman never criticized the commissioners as a body, and he didn't call for the county to write a "blank check" for the land, as she wrote. He was critical of Commissioner Bill Copeland's apparent disinterest with the subject.
Mr. Copeland said he favors developing the site as a tourist attraction, though the county could not now afford to spend any money on it.
Mr. Ludeman, a Republican member of Toledo City Council, is challenging Mr. Copeland, a Democrat, for his seat on the commission in the November election.
Ms. Isenberg, who is not up for re-election this year, sang a familiar refrain when she stepped into the middle of the campaign between Mr. Ludeman and Mr. Copeland. A loyal Democrat, she did the same thing four years ago for Mr. Copeland, now 77, when he was ill for part of that re-election campaign.
AT A RECENT news conference, Mr. Ludeman said Mr. Copeland seemed so pre-occupied with construction of a new Mud Hens baseball stadium downtown that he apparently cannot think about anything else, including the Fallen Timbers battlefield.
The project is stalled because of a disagreement over the value of the land in question. The city of Toledo owns the land, and wants more than $7 million to part with it. Two appraisals by the state of Ohio rendered figures under $4 million. The state and federal governments have pledged millions for the project and are standing by while the city and a local parks agency, which would manage the historic site, haggle over a price.
The matter cries out for leadership from somewhere. If an agreement on the land's value is not reached soon, the federal and state money will go instead for projects elsewhere.
Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner recently declared he was not holding out for more money for the Fallen Timbers battlefield site to help pay for cost overruns at the new city-subsidized Jeep plant, but members of city council who are familiar with city finances say they don't believe him.
The mayor was upset that his budgeting abilities were questioned in this space. Moments later in the same conversation, he admitted underestimating by more than $30 million the city's cost of helping keep Jeep in Toledo.
Though the city owns the Fallen Timbers battlefield site, the county stands to gain by its development as a tourist site. As a candidate for the county commission, Mr. Ludeman said he stands by his point that county leaders should do more to see that the battlefield is developed, and soon.
IT IS NOT CNN, but Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura is no doubt hoping a new Web site, known as the Jesse News Network, will help counter negative news stories about him.
A report in PoliticsOnline, a weekly electronic newsletter that tracks the development of Internet politics, said this week that Ventura webmaster Phil Madsen is recruiting 50 volunteers from around the country to scan local news reports and post retorts on the JNN site, which is not yet operational.
Mr. Madsen's creative use of the Internet in 1998 played an important role in Mr. Ventura's third-party upset of two well-known major party candidates in the Minnesota gubernatorial race.
Also in the report:
The Internet seems to be saving political organizations some serious money. The Republican National Committee has said it is conserving $18,000 per month by e-mailing material instead of faxing it to supporters.
35,000 people voted online in the Arizona Democratic Party primary on Feb. 22, more than half the number of people who voted overall. Less than 13,000 people voted in the state's Democratic primary four years ago, but the comparison is weak - in 1996 President Clinton was unopposed in his re-election bid.
The election was the first binding primary that included an online component. Mr. Gore was the overwhelming victor, defeating former Sen. Bill Bradley. Analysis of the Internet election continues.
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