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Sep
18
I could be wrong, one-dimensional nature of blogs and all, but I think Jerid is giving me guff on Buckeye State Blog for not playing harder when it comes to certain issues. Or maybe for not playing at all (and maybe that’s my guilt coming through – this blog moving has taken a lot out of me and I’m definitely not going after the issues or incidents that more naturally give way to argumentation or discussion). Even Bill Sloat wanted to know, on The Daily Bellwether, why I didn’t expect to find myself sleuthing the anonymous comment that outed Wood County Commissioner Tim Brown (to whom I apologize because my first post about the story named him as “Tom” – oy).
Well – the final paragraph in this Daily Briefing item by Columbus Dispatch senior political editor Joe Hallett, which starts out as a brief about and is headlined to indicate that it addresses Randy Gardner’s choice not to run for Paul Gillmor’s seat in the OH-5, is exactly why I haven’t been going after the anonymous commenter or pounding the fact that the comment appeared on the excellent Ohio Daily Blog.
It’s this very last line, a quote from Tim Brown:
Brown acknowledged his sexual orientation publicly over the weekend, telling The Blade of Toledo: “Quite frankly, if I were in the race for Congress this would eclipse every other important issue.”
If Brown’s assertion about how his being gay would eclipse every other important issue in an Ohio congressional race doesn’t make you sick to your stomach, and isn’t truly the one piece of information in the entire Daily Briefing post that you remember or that made you realize you were even awake, then you too are focusing on all the wrong things.
This Toledo Blade columnn, hattip to Lisa Renee ad Glass City Jungle for flagging it, is the kind of discussion we should be having.
And, as I explained in this follow-up comment, it makes me irate that Brown feels that the amount of money a candidate must raise to be in a congressional race prohibits him from running as a gay, Republican candidate. I assume he believes this because he does not believe that he could count on the usual financial supporters to still support him, now that he is out.
WE are Ohioans. How can we let this be? Why? To what end? Can it possibly benefit us, in the short-term or long-term?
People can do whatever they want with their money. Support whomever they want, based on whatever criteria they want. But the fact that a prospective candidate feels that he can’t be a candidate because 1) it costs a lot of money and 2) people in his political party won’t give that quantity of money to a gay man, no matter how able, completely baffles, angers and saddens me.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 3:47 pm September 18th, 2007 in Blogging, Elections, Government, Media, Ohio, Politics, Scandal, Statehouse
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10 Responses to “How is it that in Ohio, candidate believes that gay would “eclipse every other important issue”?”
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There are exceptions, Bob Casey etc., but your party would likely treat a pro-life, anti-gay candidate badly too.
Hi Jill –
I think he could have raised money as an openly gay candidate, but didn’t think it through, or his heart wasn’t in making the race. The gay community itself could have been a fundraising target, and easily was reachable through the Internet. Over and over in recent years, it has been demonstrated that interest groups will give, and give big, via the Web if they feel they have a stake in a political contest. Additionally, I believe Tim Brown could possibly have become a figure of some import in the ongoing national debate about rights, equality and sexual orientation if he had entered the contest for OH-05. His race would not have been a dull as dishwater NW Ohio contest conducted in near obscurity.
I just don’t believe that race, religion, gender or sexual orientation should immediately disqualify, or self-disqualify, a person from seeking office.
Jill, I’m not saying Tim Brown would be the winner, or should be the winner of an election for Congress. Just saying that people would have paid attention, perhaps been riveted, and maybe a barrier would fall. The reaction to his candidacy might have been akin to what happened in OH-02 when Paul Hackett ran in the 2005 special election. Suddenly, everyone seemed to take notice. This time it would have occurred much quicker than it did in 2005.
Hm. Well – Let’s get this straight though. Tim Brown didn’t withdraw based on any actual incidents of being shunned or rejected because of being gay. He withdrew because he perceives that that will happen. Whether it would or wouldn’t I don’t know. But unless I’ve missed it, I haven’t seen anyone to the right of center say, Oh – he’s crazy! Of course we would give him money! He’s a great candidate (or even an okay enough candidate that they’d give him money).
I probably haven’t been following politics long enough so maybe that’s why I can’t think of anyone in particular, but sure – I would imagine that there might be some candidates whom the official party structures would put lower down on the totem pole, depending on how many core issues they were copacetic on. For example, Judge O’Neill I believe is pro-life. I believe – but I’m not 100% sure – I seem to recall that from his prior run but I should be corrected if I’m wrong.
Now – once he got the nomination, the party was behind him, no one on the Dems. side smeared him etc and since he wasn’t taking money, that was never an issue. Might it be this year?
I just don’t see that, Scott. He is such an able person in every other way.
So – I’d prefer you offer up some examples of a candidate being forced to withdraw as a Democratic candidate because he or she could not raise money due to his or her beliefs.
I completely agree with you, Bill. And situations like this one really make me think: what is going on? Was it a personal decision and he’s using the can’t fundraise as a guise? Or, are we underestimating some other threats that may or may not be out there re: don’t rock the boat? This reminds me of how I feel about so-called moderate Republicans who just don’t speak up. What is with that? They could be the leaders, the ones that keep things reasonable so that more needs get met, not fewer and not more extreme ones.
I’m a huge believer in the space between. People should have more faith in it.
I think his belief that this would hurt his fundraising is real. Candidates like Latta who don’t have the additional personal issue that has now been raised will raise more money. Sad as it may be, money matters when it comes to these races. Candidates are told they have to raise a certain dollar amount to be considered “credible” and they don’t normally get the help from either state party until they reach that goal.
He was going to have an uphill battle raising the amount of money needed against some of these bigger names so whoever anonymous was succeeded in planting a seed that grew into an enormous killer oak tree.
Like you, I really don’t care who anonymous ends up being, whatever their motivation it doesn’t change the end result of what happened. It’d be nice to think we lived in a world where qualifications mattered most, but we don’t. Until more people start demanding quality, who you know and your ability to raise money will be considered more of a priority from a political party standpoint.
Hmm. Well, I really appreciate that insight, Lisa Renee. So, as I suggested elsewhere, do you think that public financing of campaigns would strip away some of the barriers? Or would the votes dry up too?
I think public financing of campaigns would eliminate some of the back room power deals…
I’d sure be willing to give it a try.
I think it would be worth considering as well, it certainly couldn’t be any worse than what we are experiencing right now as far as seeing great candidates not get financial help because they don’t or won’t kiss the right behinds.
Well, Chris Redfern is on the record as saying he supports public financing – I was there when he spoke about it last year. Something to think about…