Blackwell flush with city cash [View All]

[Judi Lynn]

Blackwell flush with city cash
But Cincinnatians open wallets for both candidates
BY JON CRAIG | ENQUIRER COLUMBUS BUREAU
COLUMBUS - For Ken Blackwell, home is where the money is.

The West End native and Republican governor candidate has gotten three times as much money from Greater Cincinnatians as his Democratic rival for the governorship, Ted Strickland.

As Labor Day marks the traditional start of full-fledged campaigning leading to November, an Enquirer analysis of campaign donations since January 2005 finds that:

Contributors in Hamilton, Butler, Clermont and Warren counties have given $1.4 million to Blackwell and just over $400,000 to Strickland.

Nearly 18 percent of Blackwell's contributions have come from Southwest Ohio, compared with less than 5 percent of Strickland's total. The four-county region makes up about 13.5 percent of Ohio's population, according to the latest Census estimates.

The candidates for Ohio governor are approaching a new campaign record, having raised more than $17 million through July. They are expected to smash the 1998 record when Gov. Bob Taft and former Attorney General Lee Fisher spent a combined $18 million.
(snip/...)

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060903/NEWS01/609030355/-1/CINCI