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COLUMBUS Ohio Republicans are trying to tie the troubles of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer to their nemeses — Attorney General Marc Dann and Gov. Ted Strickland.

Spitzer, a Democrat, resigned as governor after being linked by a federal investigation to a high-class prostitution ring. He made contributions to Strickland’s campaign for governor in 2006 and may have contributed to Dann’s campaign, as well, but that’s a bit murky.

Welcome to the PoliticsNow blog I am writing for GateHouse Media. I am Paul E. Kostyu, the Columbus, Ohio, bureau chief for GateHouse Media. I have written about Ohio and national politics since September 2000 and have covered a number of presidential campaigns during my 35 years as a journalist, dating to Gerald Ford's run in 1976. More recently, I covered President Bush's re-election and John Kerry's challenge to it in 2004. Now I'm tracking this year's candidates.

It behooves the good citizens of this fair land to do their homework on the candidates currying favor with us in the run up to the 2008 contest.

Unfortunately, that's a bit of an excercise in futility.

It may be true that Obama is on a "date," while Clinton is on a "job interview" but regardless, the responsibility lies with us to know who, exactly, we are voting for.

So, you go on the Web and you do some research and guess what?

March 13, 2008. It is the 102nd anniversary of suffragist Susan B. Anthony's death. We've sure come a long way, baby.

Wait a minute - scratch that.

Miss Anthony would likely turn in her grave had she lived to hear the plethora of knuckle-headed pundits waxing idiotic on television about how Client No. 9's foray into sex-for-money is a "victimless" crime.

There are some serious challengers out there from New York this election season. And a couple of them are women.

The story goes that the statue of justice in the Ontario County, New York, courthouse dropped its scales when Susan B. Anthony was convicted of illegal voting there in 1873.

"From politics, it was an easy step to silence." - Jane Austen The funniest thing about the latest bickering-that-has-nothing-to-do-with-the-issues-and-is-therefore-useless between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Cinton is that their spokesparrots have gotten in on the action. There has been jabbing. There has been snarking. There was a particularly harsh fashion critique. But I digress.

It’s fitting that the keynote speaker last week at the Susan B. Anthony birthday luncheon in Rochester would be someone who is known for exposing what she calls the “fault lines” of sexual politics.

While it may seem as though there is little outward animosity between the sexes, author Susan Faludi posits, an event as catastrophic as the terrorist attacks of September 2001 can cause buried gender tensions to erupt.