The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that State Auditor Betty Montgomery, who has voiced her personal opposition to an Ohio law which allows law-abiding citizens to bear arms for self-defense, will announce later today that she will quit the Republican race for governor and announce her candidacy for attorney general.

The move comes less than three months after she told attendees at a central Ohio Republican banquet "Don’t let any of my opponents fool you — I’m in this race....Get comfortable with the fact that we’re going to have a primary fight...Pick a side." It is clear Betty now sees many have picked sides, and that the party faithful have chosen against the anti-gun candidate.

From the story:

Sources said Montgomery will announce her withdrawal from the governor's race this morning in Bowling Green during a press conference at the Wood County Courthouse, where she served eight years as county prosecutor beginning in 1981.

Mark R. Weaver, Montgomery's campaign spokesman, would not comment Monday night.

After a campaign which featured Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin of the Liberal Party blaming the United States for a recent surge in violent crime in his country, a campaign in which Bowling for Columbine's Michael Moore may have broken Canadian law (s. 331 Non-interference by Foreigners) by attempting to induce voters against the Conservative leader, and in the wake of a failed $2 billion dollar gun registry scheme, Canadian voters voted Monday to throw the Liberal Party out of majority power in the Parliament.

From Reuters:

Preliminary official figures at 11.30 p.m. (0430 GMT Tuesday) showed the Conservatives winning or ahead in 122 electoral districts compared to 105 for the Liberals of Prime Minister Paul Martin.

The result was a personal triumph for Conservative leader Stephen Harper, a 46-year-old economist who forced through the creation of the party in December 2003 by uniting two squabbling right-wing movements.

Support for the Liberals shrank amid voter fatigue and a major kickback scandal which brought down Martin's minority government in November.

"Canadians voted for hope over fear and accountability over corruption ... Tonight is the beginning of a moment of reckoning for the Liberal Party," senior Conservative Jason Kenney told reporters in the western city of Calgary.

Harper vowed to clean up government, cut the national sales tax, clamp down on crime, cut waiting times for health care and improve strained relations with the United States.

In his concession speech, Martin, who had promised to push for an outright ban on handguns should he have been reelected as Prime Minister, announced that he would step down as leader of the Liberal party.

In a recent op-ed from Second Amendment Foundation's Alan Gottlieb, in which he examined the fact that Canada's violent crime rate has surged ahead of the U.S., Gottlieb stated that "Martin and the Liberals are not the solution to violent crime in Canada. They're the problem." It is clear that the Canadian people agree.

Much as the voters of Brazil spoke loudly against attempts by their government to ban their right to bear arms, Canadians have voted to oust a man and a party whose answers to ever-increasing criminal violence was to further strip away the rights of law-abiding citizens. Bravo to our freedom-loving brothers and sisters to the north.

Click on the "Read More..." link below to read Alan Gottlieb's op-ed, entitled "Oh, Canada! Your restrictive gun laws pushed crime beyond U.S. rates", in its entirety.