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Nov

12

Cafaro elected minority leader, GOP adds 2nd woman in OH state senate


From the incomparable Capital Blog:

New Senate Democratic Caucus Leadership;

Leader: Sen. Capri Cafaro

Asst. Minority Leader: Shirley Smith

Minority Whip:  Ray Miller

Asst. Minority Whip: Jason Wilson

And Marc posts this information from Senate President Bill Harris (R):

At Tuesday’s Senate session, the Majority Caucus will vote on the appointments of Tom Patton (R-Strongsville) to the 24thSenate District, and Peggy Lehner (R-Kettering) to the 6th Senate District. The seats are open due to the recent resignations of State Senator Bob Spada and State Senator Jeff Jacobson, respectively.

I’ve written before about the lameness of Harris blaming term-limits for why there aren’t more GOP women in the state senate rather than take a more obvious, active stance to run women in state senate races.

Best of luck to all these folks.  It’s pretty wild to me that someone who has never been elected to anything by Ohio’s voters is now leader of the Dems in the state senate.

Thank you to Pho in the comments for keeping me honest:

Capri Cafaro, who lost to Steve LaTourette in 2004 in a run for the 14th Congressional district, and to Betty Sutton in the primary race in 2006 for a run in the 13th district, was appointed to the 32nd senate district in 2006, after Marc Dann vacated that seat and became the Ohio AG.  This year, she ran to retain the seat.  She faced no opponent, but received 106,178 votes according to the Ohio Secretary of State’s data.

My apologies to Senator Cafaro for my inaccuracy.

By Jill Miller Zimon at 4:24 pm November 12th, 2008 in Announcements, Democrats, Government, OH24th, Ohio, Politics, Women 

Comments

13 Responses to “Cafaro elected minority leader, GOP adds 2nd woman in OH state senate”

  1. 1 Pho on November 12th, 2008 4:32 pm

    Not to put too fine a point, but as of 2008 she now has been elected to something. Granted she was elected into the unexpired term of her seat in a stone blue district with no opponent. But the people have spoken.

  2. 2 Jill Miller Zimon on November 12th, 2008 4:34 pm

    You are right! Thank you. I will correct the post accordingly.

  3. 3 Paul on November 12th, 2008 4:48 pm

    Huh?

    Lehner will serve as a State Senator for 6 weeks and then go to the House?

    What is the purpose of that, exactly???

  4. 4 Jill Miller Zimon on November 12th, 2008 5:02 pm

    Hmm – good point – that didn’t sink in until you wrote it – so – will they just appoint another person after her? They don’t have a deep bench for that district?

  5. 5 Paul on November 12th, 2008 5:10 pm

    The senate seat is scheduled to be filled by Husted come 1/1.

    It just seemed strange first pick anyone to fill in the seat for 6 weeks and if you did pick someone, why pick someone who was just elected to the state house?

  6. 6 Jill Miller Zimon on November 12th, 2008 5:17 pm

    Oy okay I must step away from here! My acuity drops enormously as the afternoon hours pass.

    Thanks, Paul.

  7. 7 Greg Helms on November 12th, 2008 5:58 pm

    Possibly to start them on PERS sooner?

  8. 8 Jeff Hess on November 13th, 2008 8:11 am

    Shalom Jill,

    Please. Why do we expect people to take Ohio politics seriously?

    B’shalom,

    Jeff

  9. 9 Have Coffee Will Write » Blog Archive » MY COMMENTS… on November 13th, 2008 8:13 am

    [...] Cafaro elected minority leader, GOP adds 2nd woman in OH state senate Posted in Comments, Ohio, [...]

  10. 10 Len on November 13th, 2008 3:58 pm

    The new leader of Senate Democrats has never won a contested election, and yet Ryan is waxing lyrical about her helping take electoral control of the state senate? Please. What, exactly, does she know about winning contested elections?

    This move is absurd.

  11. 11 Ryan on November 13th, 2008 4:18 pm

    I’m merely saying that I refuse to come out of the gate swinging. As I said, at first I wasn’t thrilled but after thinking about it I decided that she deserves a chance to prove herself.

    Also, I’m not saying that we are going to take control of the State Senate. Sure, it would be great. But the reality is the districts are most likely too strongly Republican leaning. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to win one or two (or three or four.) Whats the problem with that.

    Also, besides the fact that people just dont like her, please tell me why she is unqualified to be a State Senator. She worked for Ted Kennedy and Al D’Amato in DC. She’s not stupid and I think saying that her family got her her Senate seat is unfair. I also think its a bit sexist.

  12. 12 Jill Miller Zimon on November 14th, 2008 12:04 pm

    Again I think we have to think in terms of 21-12, yes? So how much power are we really talking about? I really don’t know how things work in that chamber, in that caucus and I’m not sure how much it ends up impacting what becomes law and who we get to choose from to be our elected officials. But people were very unhappy with Ray Miller – is this pick worse? Well – what did he do while in that role that was bad? Will she do worse than that?

    There’s a lot of negatives in her past – but what about for the last two years since she got in there? I’ve seen almost no reviews of that time – anyone? I’d be interested to compare her last two years, just to see if we really even need to be worried – and I agree, that’s separate from being pissed off that Tom Roberts wasn’t selected.

  13. 13 Len on November 14th, 2008 1:25 pm

    Ryan,

    Whether that last comment was directed at me or not, I reject outright any suggestion that my remarks were motivated by sexist considerations.

    Now to address another of your straw men.

    I do not impugn her performance in office; not least because I know nothing about it. I don’t exactly follow her career, but based on her bio she seems to be well-qualified to hold office. That’s not the point. The point is this bit you posted at ODB:

    In 2010 we must look to recapture some seats in the State Senate regardless of who drew the boundaries. I think we must look to Leader Cafaro to make this a reality….

    Leader Cafaro – we put our trust in you. We know you can bring the Senate Democrats back from the spectre they currently are to a viable organization.

    Given her electoral track record, I again must ask the obvious question, which is wholly independent of gender or governance: What, exactly, does she know about winning contested elections?

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