What's the GOP strategy for getting Blackwell back into the running? Imply that Strickland is gay.

Yep, Ken Blackwell, the guy who so horribly screwed up voting in Ohio in 2004 is in trouble in Ohio, so the other guy must be gay. So what. The proper place for Blackwell is probably the Ohio prison system where he can find out the hard way what that menas (he was head of elections at the same time that he was head of the Republican drive in Ohio, but there's no conflict of interest there, he used the position to make sure Republicans got elected, see the RFK Jr piece from Rolling Stone for more on that).