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Nov
11
Ohio Democratic Party Chair, Chris Redfern, who remembered my name this year, and Ohio Republican Party Chair, Bob Bennett, appeared together at B’nai Jeshurun Synagogue in Pepper Pike for a post-election discussion. It was sponsored by the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland.
The crowd of about 60-80 listened to explanations about how Barack Obama won Ohio and the Ohio Democrats won back a majority in the Ohio House. We heard about the impact of the economy on the presidential election and the very first audience question was about Sarah Palin (no, it wasn’t from me – I asked Bennett his opinion about the GOP netroots efforts by Patrick Ruffini, in the name of John Kasich, and the national GOP effort, and what kind of support from the ORP we might see of such organizing – more on that below).
Overall, it was an interesting gathering but somewhat more sedate than 2006. There was pride in the fact that local lawyer and second term statehouse rep, Armond Budish, is likely to become the speaker of the house. That is very cool indeed. And Armond’s really great wife, Amy, was there today.
On the blogger end, I got to sit with Jeff Coryell and Jeff Hess and discuss my future – which made me laugh with a head throw back because just this morning I was thinking that I’d ask readers to make suggestions.
Two more photos and I’ll offer up my notes after the jump:
ODP Chair, Chris Redfern (term-limited and retired from House for now):
ORP Chair, Bob Bennett (retiring after 20 years at helm):
Redfern highlights:
-Ohio had the largest state political office in the country for Obama (700 people assigned to the Obama campaign at ODP)
-the best performing county in the state was Williams County, near the border with Indiana; didn’t go blue but Dems improved percentage of votes there by 20 points
-Cuyahoga County was one of the worst performing counties, ranked 57th out of 88
Bennett highlights:
-that McCain got 47% of the vote shows Bennett that Ohio is still a “very competitive state”
-points to “financial meltdown” as point at which everything changed
-believes that there were three times as many undecideds in Ohio going into the last weekend of the campaign
-sees Columbus as the swing area of the state
-as far as Bennett sees the problem, the “strong headwind was the economy, as strong as I’ve ever seen it.”
-proud that they retained the state senate seats that the GOP did, picked up some local seats also
First Question: What was the effect of the Palin selection
Bennett says: This is a woman who came onto the scene quickly and faded at the end. He says that the Democrats did “an effective job of marginalizing her with the media.” Says twice, “she’s a very intelligent woman.” But also that, and this is a direct quote, “They do strange things in Alaska.” And he talks about how Ted Stevens wouldn’t have made it here after what he’d been accused and convicted of doing. Bennett concludes by saying that “when things settle down…she came onto the national scene, people had their own ideas of what ought to be done and these ideas are formed on one coast or another and doesn’t have to do with what’s going on in the middle.” He does not believe that Palin hurt McCain and the selection fit the maverick image.
Redfern says: Horrible choice, as bas as Spiro Agnew and that she will, in the future, be paid to write books she didn’t write. Eek – yeah – I wouldn’t have said that, but I’m not the ODP chair who just turned Ohio blue. (Overall, I have to say, I found Redfern to be far less overconfident or overzealous than I’ve felt he’s been in the past, I actually thought both representatives were very subdued, relatively speaking.)
Second question: Speak about fundraising
Bennett: GOP will never again opt to take spending limits under federal funding guidelines. We will see more and more expensive races. “McCain-Feingold is dead.” Full disclosure is the way to go and let voters decide if they look who’s giving it and who is getting it.
Redfern: Don’t give to MoveOn.org and other far left organizations – it hurts us. (He said other things but that was the statement that most stood out to me.)
Third question: What will happen in the state level
Redfern: We will have the Secretary of State race in 2010 and we hope to nibble at the state senate, maybe get 4-6 seats inby 2014, 2016
Fourth question: Technology (my question)
Bennett (Redfern didn’t respond but it wasn’t directed to him): acknowledges that the way 18-29 year olds communicate is by texting and that the GOP has to get with it as far as communicating. He said that in 2004, they’d have trouble making sure cells were charged, but this year, they were using VOIP and computers all the time.
I didn’t have a chance to follow up but here’s my concern about Ruffini et al.’s efforts: the group that most reliably votes GOP is 65 and over – they are also the least likely group to use computers or cell phones. The other group that most reliably votes for the GOP? Rural voters – who are most likely to be victims of the digital divide and not have anything but dial-up, if that.
But I have a great solution!! Something for everyone: the ORP and the GOP in the statehouse, should work with Gov. Strickland on his broadband and One Community initiatives to eliminate the digital divide so that for education purposes AND for purposes of political canvassing, Ohio can get into the 21st century with its computer access and use.
Isn’t that a great idea for bipartisan compromise and benefit?
By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:38 pm November 11th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Democrats, Elections, Government, John McCain, leadership, Ohio, Politics, PostWH2008, Republicans, Sarah Palin, Tech, Ted Strickland
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6 Responses to “[photos] Redfern & Bennett, Together Again: The 2008 Tour”
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“On the blogger end, I got to sit with Jeff Coryell and Jeff Hess and discuss my future – which made me laugh with a head throw back because just this morning I was thinking that I’d ask readers to make suggestions.”
I still think you should challenge Mandel in the 17th District. The demographics of the district dovetail nicely with your background and experience.
Thanks for the post! It was nice to see you.
The comment I am still pondering is Chris Redfern linking the disappointing turnout in Cuyahoga County to situation involving Jimmy Dimora and then saying that we can all expect that situation to be “addressed” in the next several weeks.
“Addressed”? Like they addressed the Dann situation? Are Sheriff Strickland and Deputy Redfern going to ride in and clean up Dodge?
That is such a great pick up, Jeff. Maybe Bill Callahan, Gloria or Tim Ferris, some Columbus-centered folks – not sure who – can fill us in?
I think you should follow up on that, of course.
They keep pulling you back in!!
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Scott. Very unlikely though.
My guess is now that the elections are over, within the next 6-12 months Dimora will resign from office. That way, the county party can appoint his successor and that person can run in 2010 as a county commissioner.
Not sure if Dimora will also step down from the head of the county party as the most likely successor is Mason, and I don’t know if he’d want the press that is would most likely come along (i.e., how can the county prosecutor be objective in his pursuit of justice if he’s also the head of a local party).
Interesting stuff. I called Chris Redfern after I read it yesterday and came up with this: http://clevelandmagazinepolitics.blogspot.com/2008/11/should-dimora-resign-im-not-there-quite.html