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Jul
25
I was angry at myself for not supporting Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential candidate nomination when maybe, maybe he had a chance (okay, he may never have had a chance, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have supported him).
Now, I have to live with a race I don’t even want to look at when I complete my November ballot. I’m referring to the Ohio Senate’s 24th district race, which will now be between Democrat Gary Kucinich – who appears to have no campaign website and his highest Google search return is a dKospedia entry and was just anointed by the Ohio Democratic Party on Wednsday, after Rosemary Palmer has been campaigning and doing all the right things for months, and Republican Tom Patton, a house rep for the 18th district who is also, factually speaking, a term-limited, seat-swapping career politician whose name “tom patton” as a search term brings up a top result of…his 2006 campaign website for the 18th district (a race to be discussed below). His senate campaign site is a graft of info from his house campaign site except that it has even less information: there isn’t a single paragraph or section on what he intends to do for the district.
These two might as well be John “I Know Nothing About The Internets” McCain. Great.
What must someone be smoking and drinking to think that a district that’s been held by moderate Republican Bob Spada for years and years would ever go for a Kucinich? Probably the same thing as the people who believe that my state rep., Josh Mandel, is facing a “tidal wave of cash” in his “fight” to “survive” his race in a district that has been a GOP staple since 2000.
That might sound cruel, but not as cruel as it will sound to voters in the 24th who will be reading the name “Kucinich” on November 4, no matter what Gary has to say for himself at this very, very, very late date.
Sigh.
Buckeye State Blog and Ohio Daily Blog have been following this race’s leadership-driven (as opposed to candidate and voter and district residents-driven) developments for a long time now. Political Science 216 offers its endorsement of Palmer here and here’s a glimpse from yesterday’s post at BSB:
The crux of why they chose Kucinich is that an article in the Ohio Constitution requires senators and representatives to reside in the district for 1 year prior to the election. Apparently the Palmer’s have two homes: one in Cleveland and one in Bay Village which they have recently acquired. Rosemary voted in the March primary in Cleveland Ward 15 which is not in the 24th District, so the CCDP legal counsel believes that she would be disqualified from running and that would allow GOPer Thomas Patton to run unopposed.
Palmer’s lawyer stated that because the constitution requires senators and reps to be residents and not electors of the distrct for 1 year, than Rosemary should be fine. He was backed up by Don McTigue, who’s written opinion he had with him. However, the CCDP Exec Cmte chose to follow Chairman Dimora’s lead and take the safe route by nominating Kucinich. He has not been campaigning and will get absolutely trounced in this GOP-leaning district because of his last name if nothing else, so why is he better than a candidate who has been campaigning but may be disqualified? We’re not sure.
If you believe in a candidate, you fight for that candidate (especially when the underlying challenge is so debatable) but in the case of the 24th district Senate seat, it appears as though the party didn’t want to lift a finger or fight any fights and that they just don’t care about the 24th Senate district, since they’re sacrificing it (as well as the House seat in the 17th) for trying to win a majority in the Ohio House. That’s a laudatory goal, but at what cost? To whom? It feels as if they don’t seem to care about collateral damage like me and the residents of the 17th and 24th (where Independents nearly outnumber Dems and Republicans combined).
You know, I remember being on WCPN in 2007 on one of the regional reporter roundtables, saying that maybe “community” is now being enlarged to be encompass entire state. This comment came when we were examining how the legislature and the courts have been parties to breaking up the home rule doctrine which is enshrined in Ohio’s constitution. The others on the show were kind of silent. But I stand by that notion and this approach by the ODP certainly rings of the same and swaps out concern for certain locales for a state-wide plan that, ta-da, will probably have a hand in making sure that certain current leaders can leap to certain bigger roles in leading the state, in the state or in the federal arena.
Anyway, don’t even get me started on the problems with some of the past ODP-endorsed candidates like the two who immediately come to mind, Matthew Barrett and Marc Dann, not to mention how Capri Cafaro got to where she is today (appointed to fill Marc Dann’s senate seat, after he pushed for her to get it).
And if you battle back with, “well, this is the leadership you elected,” honey – don’t try going there either. That’s all brokered by the same leaders and followers as well. Just review some of this stuff about Ray Miller in the Ohio Senate and how he became the minority leader (by ousting a woman, Teresa Fedor (D-11); have I mentioned lately how the GOP may have zero women in the Ohio Senate in 1/09?). Why do you think one of the few things I’ve worked on consistently since 11/06 has been getting women into the political pipeline?
Back to this NEOhio area that’s getting thrown under the bus: The only question left is, who, among so many sacrificial lambs this election cycle in Ohio, is the biggest of them all? Some choices, for starters:
Gary Kucinich and the residents of the 24th Senate district?
Bob Belovich and the residents of the 17th House district?
Michael Crites? (If you’re saying, “Who??” don’t worry – no one else but political junkies knows who he is either, but Marc Kovac offers a superb smorgasbord of info on Crites).
Switching to the Ohio House 18th seat, it’s the one Patton currently occupies and from which he will be term-limited out. My current state senator, Bob Spada, of the 24th (which Kucinich and Patton now will vie for), a moderate Republican who is term-limited out, has withdrawn as the GOP candidate for the 18th (reneging on a seat swap with Patton).
Why did he withdraw? According to The Daily Briefing:
Strickland also confirmed that his administration might hire Sen. Robert F. Spada, a North Royalton Republican. Spada had planned to run for the 18th House District, a competitive district in Cuyahoga County, but told House GOP officials that he won’t run. Spada reportedly is being considered for an appointment to the State Employment Relations Board.
“I have not directly talked to Sen. Spada about anything, but I do believe there have been discussions with my team,” Strickland said. “But I don’t know that anything definite is decided there. But I am not ruling that out.”
This move leaves Democrat Matt Patten facing no one, as of right now, for the open seat in the 18th, and will help Democrats move closer to winning a majority of seats in the Ohio House. No doubt doing so will improve the chances for Strickland to accomplish more of what he’d like to get accomplished before he runs for re-election in 2010. I don’t live in the 18th, but the fantasy of such a thing happening in my house district will remain just that, I’m sure.
One note about the tone against the men’s club perspective on these moves:
At least two of the candidates who are valued for the contribution they will make to turning the Ohio House blue are women:
Nancy Garland (D-New Albany) is running against a three-term incumbent in the 20th district who won by less than 400 votes in 2006, and Connie Pillich (D-Montgomery) is the beneficiary of Strickland’s job offer to Repubican Jim Raussin who holds the seat in the 28th but has dropped from the race in order to become director of insurance and financial development for the Ohio Department of Development. She lost to him in 2006 with 47% of the vote, so both Garland and Pillich appear to have great chances of winning their races.
As for the choices I’ve made that have resulted in little blog attention to this race in the 24th, although I can rationalize away my anger about the current state of the race by saying that I don’t hold any position of influence when it comes to party-driven decisions, and I can say that I’ve been besieged with personal and professional obligations, and I can say that I held out hope and belief that Palmer would earn and receive what she deserved and worked for, the fact is, she got screwed by men in power at nearly every level of the party structure who think they know better, when I know that I live in the 24th and I shouldn’t be blase, even when I think the world cannot possibly go wrong on something.
Have I learned my Biden lesson all over again? It would be arrogant and wrong to think that shoving aside family and other responsibilities as I choose what I can juggle actually could and would have made a difference – or can in the future.
But if Patton wins, I know who to blame in addition to myself.
There is no greater value to blogs (though no doubt there are values that match this one) than having them be outlets of expression written by voters about what they want and what they don’t want in their community – whether the community is defined as the neighborhood, the city, the county, the region, the state or the country. And I’m working to use this blog, given my increasingly diminishing amount of time that I can give to it, as such an outlet. So many topics and incidents fascinate me, but the availability of information that we need to influence decisions we should be allowed to influence is next to nil. I hope to make that availability a little bit further away from nil.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:14 pm July 25th, 2008 in Blogging, Campaigning, Cleveland+, Democrats, Elections, OH17, OH24th, Ohio, Pepper Pike, Politics, Republicans, Statehouse, Voting, Women, leadership
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3 Responses to “Ohio Senate District 24, House 18 show politics for boys’ club it continues to be”
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I wouldnt say its a boys club, more a ” Dennis Kucinch has more power” club.
I don’t read it that way at all, Ben – why do you think it’s a “Dennis Kucinch has more power” club”?
i think he means that spada’s seat is in oh10 congressional district. spada would bring out alot of voters for kucinich’s opponent jim trakas. a weak republican candidate here will depress trakas’ chances of upsetting dennis.