Car dealer Tom Ganley has announced he’s running for the Republican Party’s nomination for U.S. Senate.

Ganley of Brecksville seeks the seat that will be vacated at the end of 2010 by the retiring U.S. Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio.

Starting with a Rambler dealership in Euclid in 1968, Ganley has built the Ganley Auto Group, with 32 dealerships. He is chief executive officer.

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Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora wants a probe of the federal investigators going after him.

Actually, the Department of Justice is going after people in a trail leading up to such as Dimora, who just stepped down as full-time county Democratic Party chief to become the interim chief.

During a press conference Monday, Democrat Dimora said an on-going feds’ investigation of the county’s Democrat leaders began under the administration of Republican President Bush.

Dimora wants Democrat Barack Obama’s DOJ to investigate the DOJ. Or something.

Hmm. Democrat Gov. Ted Strickland himself asked Dimora to step down as party chair. But Strickland might be pleased by Dimora’s lively, lengthy and humorous press conference.

Isn’t Strickland himself coming under some heavy fire in Cleveland in opinions that please Republicans?

--David W. Jones

Now that the Cleveland Cavaliers have traded for Shaquille O’Neal, who will be the bigger man in the city?

No, we're not talking about who will be the bigger star between LeBron James and Shaq.

Rather, will it be Shaq or county Commissioner Jimmy Dimora?

For more on this debate, click here.

For U.S. Senate in the latest poll on announced candidates, it’s Lee Fisher with 32 percent favorable toward him and 31 percent negative, Jennifer Brunner 32 positive and, yes, 32 percent negative.

The Public Policy Polling results might not be all that hot for Democrats Fisher, who is the lieutenant governor, and Brunner, the Ohio secretary of state.

But for Republican candidate Rob Portman, the former congressman? It’s 34 percent negative and only 22 percent positive.

To read about additional polling data and leave your comments, click here.

In the 2010 election for justices to sit on three of the Ohio Supreme Court’s seven benches, it might be interesting to see who’s endorsed by safety force unions, especially those in urban cities.

In the currently all-Republican seven-justice Ohio SUPCO, the 5-2 voted decision didn’t go with some interpretations of “home rule” used by municipalities.

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Lake, Geauga and Cuyahoga counties might raise some eyeballs if state agencies make 10, 20 and/or 30 percent spending cuts in the next two-year state budget.

Or as the Columbus Dispatch and Associated Press report it a larger story affecting Northeast Ohio:

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Former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine would likely give incumbent Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray a run for his money if DeWine decides to challenge him in 2010.

DeWine served two terms in Washington in the U.S. Senate from 1994 through 2006 when he was defeated by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio. DeWine also was Ohio’s lieutenant governor from 1990 until he was elected to the U.S. Senate.

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For those who missed it, U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, earned about 15 seconds of televised fame last week when he used a rather unique — though easily identifiable — diagram to illustrate the federal debt as a percentage of America’s gross domestic product.

To find out what popular video game character the senator used to illustrate his point, and for a link to the video, click here.

At last look in this writer's Wednesday column June 10, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner was asking her campaign staff to re-examine something.

That was all about the campaign switching $15,000 in funds from her defunct warchest as S.O.S. to her campaign for U.S. Senate, which had not officially yet, uh, functionally started.

But instead of investigating herself, what if Brunner saw the watchdog Federal Elections Commission step in? That's as mused in the Wednesday column.

Next thing you know, on the next day of Thursday (June 11), aha, Brunner asked the FEC to step in.

Her written statement: "While I remain confident that all state and federal campaign finance laws have been followed, the FEC has the legal authority and expertise to resolve this issue."

--David W. Jones

So is it still Republicans pointing fingers at each other, then firing off complaints?

The Ohio Republican Party, to no surprise, criticized U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton, D-Copley Township, for her “Cash for Clunkers” bill which got passed in the U.S. House in D.C., mainly by her fellow Democrats. State GOP Chair Kevin DeWine says the idea is "insanity" and "wasteful."

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Democrats and Republicans can sometimes agree, as shown Wednesday by the Ohio Supreme Court 5-2 ruling which upholds a "home rule" law written by state Sen. Tim Grendell, R-Chester Township.

On the Warren-based 11th District Court of Appeals, consider Judges Mary Jane Trapp, Cynthia Rice and Tim Cannon.

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With downstater Republican John Kasich running for governor, know any upstater prefered by fans, allies and maybe even Kasich as his running mate?

Right, it could be Lt. Gov. Matt Dolan, whose name keeps popping up on the short list.

He's known here in Northeast Ohio and especially in his Geauga County hometown as state Rep. Matt Dolan, R-Russell Township.

So it could be the Kasich/Dolan team seeking the GOP intraparty nomination in the partisan May primary next year.

Then it would be Republicans vs. Democrats in the November general election of 2010.

--David W. Jones

Carol-Ann Schindel, the certified public accountant and former state representative serving Mentor and eastern Lake County?

She's still doing her CPA business in Mentor.

But what if fans, allies and bookkeeping peers wonder if Schindel might ever someday become the announced assistant chief auditor to State Auditor Mary Taylor?

Don't, uh, count on anything you read in musings here until maybe you read an announcement that it all adds up.

--David W. Jones

It's already Republican Kevin Coughlin vs. Republican John Kasich maybe in the GOP primary for one to be choice by GOP political party members to run next vs. a Democrat, presumably Gov. Ted Strickland, for, yes, governor.


So as noted earlier, it also might be Republican Tom Ganley vs. Republican Rob Portman, and Democrat Jennifer Brunner vs. Democrat Lee Fisher, all for U.S. Senate.

Or at least any hour now we might hear the plans of Ganley, the Northeast Ohio car dealer.

Kevin, John, Tom and who, etc?

For governor so far it's state Rep. Coughlin, R-Cuyahoga Falls, and former Congressman Kasich.

For U.S. Senate, it's NE Ohio car dealer Ganley, former U.S. Rep. Portman, Secretary of State Brunner and Lt. Gov. Fisher.


--David W. Jones