I read the news that Paul Hackett would be on Hardball tonight over at Buckeye Senate Blog. Wanted to verify that, but to date hadn’t found any place that Hardball announces upcoming guests on their web site (would be handy for confirming upcoming Howard Dean appearances). Anyway, and I don’t know why this didn’t occur to me before, but I finally found it at the end of the transcript from the last show.

HARDBALL returns Monday at 5:00 and 7:00 Eastern.  Our guests, Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett in his first national interview since dropping out of the race for Senate in Ohio.

One more thing…last week, after finding out that Sherrod Brown does have a “Democratic” primary opponent, I decided that I wanted to write in Paul Hackett in the primary on May 2. Last night I visited the Ohio Secretary of State’s web site, and I’ll share what I learned about write-ins below the fold.
Here’s the scoop…

Write-In Candidates

A person desiring to be a write-in candidate at a primary or general election must file with the appropriate election officials a “declaration of intent to be a write-in candidate.” Only write-in candidates who have filed valid declarations of intent will have votes counted in the primary or general election. (R.C. 3513.041)

Qualifications

    Generally:

    A write-in candidate must meet all of the eligibility requirements of the office sought. (See “Qualifications” under the specific office.)

    Filing Deadlines:

    Primary election: By 4 p.m. on March 13, 2006 (50th day before the primary election).

    General election: By 4 p.m. on September 18, 2006 (50th day before the general election).

Here’s the page where I got that information.