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Jan
13
I want to know who Ohio’s junior U.S. Senator, Sherrod Brown (D) likes for replacing George Voinovich (R) as Ohio’s other senator. Brown has knowledge and/or relationships with nearly all the possible Democratic and Republican possibilities. Don’t you just know he must have great things to tell us about the odds for each option – and who he really thinks would best serve Ohio?!
Personally, I still love the idea of Mary Taylor (R) v. Marcy Kaptur (D). Talk about giving Ohio some good juju. And while that match up might be one of the least likely, it definitely fulfills my hopes for getting more women into ever-higher positions of leadership and opening up spots where more women can continue to flow through the pipeline.
And, frankly, every time I look at a line up or photo that looks like this, I just can’t help think about how re-tread it is. Please, Ohio, break out of the retread. Or we have no one to blame but ourselves.
NB: I know lots of people are on the brink of going gaga over Tim Ryan (D) I don’t know him – only know of him. But my gut sense is that he’s as much a politician as any of the others, just a little younger, hence the references to energy and charisma.
And the whole John Kasich (R) for governor? Eek, seems completely like a dead end. Are people really forgetting just how many independent voters there are in Ohio? And then there’s John Boehner – would he do better, be more influential, as a member of the minority party in the senate?
Energy and charisma are nice and sometimes necessary. But there is in fact more to leadership than just those two things.
Say, like, experience and accomplishments.
And isn’t it interesting just how many of these names hedge building on the younger, new voters that came out? What was that all about? Shouldn’t we want to build on that – both parties? Isn’t that part of the talk Kevin DeWine was criticized for regarding how to change the appeal and direction of the Republican party in Ohio?
Sigh – the more I think about it, the more I’m very unenchanted by people’s thoughts on the replacement. Very uninspired for the most part.
Oh – okay – one more thing a la Columbo – oops – now it’s two – I keep editing into this post:
1. These names are like the idea of casinos – they keep coming back, round and round showing no creativity when it comes to giving answers to an evergreen issue (casinso – economy, elections – leadership).
2. And don’t you just hate we don’t start with: what do we need? what do we want?
Shouldn’t those be the first questions we ask before people start telling us that they think we need them and that we should want them?
This is so backwards. We’re looking at what we’ve got, rather than what we need. That is really wrong.
Okay – that’s it. For now.
No – it’s not.
This point about being backwards? Yeah – see – I asked about this regarding what the news should cover, just a week ago – here’s what I asked (and it was answered):
I would like to see our news outlets do a series on leadership, but not about the people currently in elected positions, corporate, non-profit or academic jobs, but rather an examination:
What does good leadership look like?
Where do we find and how do we support current and future leaders?
And yet what’s the first story jumped on?
All the currently elected or previously elected people we always talk about.
Bla. Bla. Bla.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 7:20 am January 13th, 2009 in Congress, Marcy Kaptur, Mary Taylor, Ohio, Politics
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4 Responses to “U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown”
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I feel ya’ on this one.
Everytime though….it comes down to the word, “electability”, something you allude to on Kasich.
Only the Very Serious People know who’s electable. That’s a given. And the problem.
A strong Ohio woman-leader? I’d vote for her in a heartbeat.
I’m not so ga-ga about how exciting it would be to have two women running just because they are women. The idea of Mary Taylor running deserves a LOT more scrutiny before those of us on the left in particular should be getting all fluttery about it. She has ethical challenges that were swept under the rug by this state’s conservative mainstream media, she ran a nasty, dishonest campaign in 2006, and she’s recently shown signs of using her office in a partisan manner. In addition, what do we know about her stands on key issues? All I know is hey, she’s a CPA and Barbara Sykes wants to raise your taxes. That doesn’t sound like anything I’d be thrilled about, particularly if her being a woman is used as a selling point to try to get people who would find her unacceptable as a man to vote for her — the way so many pundits initially thought the GOP could with Sarah Palin, and the way some were afraid would happen with Sandy O’Brien in the treasurer’s race in Ohio in 2006 (including the Cordray campaign).
There’s a lot more I want in a candidate beside a vagina.
Eek – lol – well, you raise a lot of good points but I wouldn’t take what I say so much to the Nth degree re: women. Yes – I will gravitate and promote when there’s quality but my focus on Taylor is more about the jockeying that the GOP might do with her or that she might choose to do and evaluating how it plays into stereotypes and whether it promotes female leadership in general. For ex., I can admit that Palin made headway for herself, but for women in general? There’s very little evidence that women’s rights was near and dear to her heart in any holistic way at all. However, to the extent that her presence in the race motivates more women to seek political office, I can live with that (esp since she didn’t win).
I’m happy to have Taylor evaluated precisely as the male candidates would be – but we don’t get to that – we don’t to the point where women are being subjected to that scrutiny – if they aren’t even running. So in that regard, I just want to see it more of a regular thing.
My hang up on this issue is that the leadership in both formal party structures is prohibitively male. I think that’s a problem and engenders systemic bias against women running. Yes, the ODP has Liz Shirey who I think works very very hard and with GREAT sincerity. And Cafaro is minority leader and Brunner won etc. There are victories. But we can never stop.
So – I do agree with all your specific criticisms of Taylor – but I’m thinking/focusing on the vagina just being able to get in the game – not to necessarily win my vote.
I am happy that Sherrod will soon be the senior senator from Ohio.
Ohio is woefully behind in terms of gender equity in our elected representatives. I’d go for Brunner over anybody else.