More Secretary of State Drama Coming Tomorrow
Submitted by Anthony Fossaceca on Sat, 01/30/2010 - 11:46pm.
We don't mean to tease, but this thing is getting more bizarre by the minute. We've been working to get the whole story (unlike some of the print dailies) and should have a bit more to share on Sunday before all hell potentially breaks loose on Monday.
And would all hell breaking loose be a bad thing? Depends who you ask. Right now, we're catching our breath - because something tells us we may need it later.
Before we go, one word of caution for our friends on the right. We Dems may seem like a dysfunctional family at Thanksgiving, but we weren't a shining example of unity in the spring of 2006 either. And we still managed to come together to kick your asses from Toledo to Marietta in the fall. So, don't worry yourselves about our little dust-ups. Just sayin'.
Oh, boy.
Garrison v. O'Shaughnessy/Neuhardt/Brown = O'Shaughnessy v. Neuhardt.
I appreciate the enthusiasm, Anthony, but as I've said here before, Husted's the kind of candidate it's hard to beat if you have a charismatic candidate AND money (his smarm is mistaken for charm by many). Having a primary battle here between relative unknowns only deepens the hole we need to dig out of. I'll pull for the winner, but let's not expect any miracles...
Pity. Let's just hope a Husted SoS Office doesn't pull Blackwell-esque tricks on Ohioans.
The good news is that with the Auditor's race a likely switch, losing SoS is a wash in terms of the Apportionment Board. Now we can focus on keeping the Gov's Mansion, which I think is where this cycle needs to be anyway (we've got a stronger candidate with actual ideas and some history of success, as opposed to Kasich's "down with all taxes" and "I fixed the budget" nonsense).
Primaries are a good thing.
Primaries are a good thing. The old, standard line that we waste resources is just wrong. Primaries force us to spend them earlier and they result in better, and earlier, name ID for the winning candidate. Ohio voters won't meet Jon Husted until September. Our candidate, assuming there is a primary, will already have a statewide run under their belt and decent name ID.
The Obama-Clinton primaries, which were to be the death of our political world, ended up giving both candidates huge exposure while John McCain drifted into obscurity for months. This primary could actually energize the Democratic base the same way the Senate primary is. We're all paying attention - and that's a good thing.
I also think
that if Shaughnessy, about whom I currently know next to nothing, is really such a "superb" candidate as Bill O'Neill claims, SHE will benefit by a fair contest in which she can contrast what she has to offer with Neuhardt. I think her accpetance will be rendered more difficult and her campaign will suffer if she received an insta-annointment from the party before Democrats have a chance to check her out. I hope the party does not go this route.
The other minus in dumping an irregular party endorsement and a bucketload of other endorsements for someone tomorrow is that if the party has arm-twisted the officeholders and unions who endorsed Garrison to simply switch to the new candidate of the party's choice, they will look like tools and puppets of the Democratic party, rather than individuals and groups that think for themselves and whose endorsements are meaningful because they actually deliberate over them. I would like to think, for instance, that any union would withhold an endorsement until it got to speak with both (or all) the candidates in the race. Otherwise, it seems to me they are diminishing their own influence, and the value of their endorsements, by being willing to rubber-stamp a political party's decisions.
I'm going to hold out hope until the very last minute that Chris Redgern is too smart to do this. I understand some people think he's the devil — and his support of Garrison was ill-advised — but he has brought life and energy back to the party, and deserves thanks for that. Let's hope he doesn't work against that with a premature annointing of Shaughnessy.
Is Neuhardt even running?
Seriously, I don't understand all this pity for a person who was suppoed to announce on Friday, made no announcement, and as far as I know isn't running...
I just don't understand your comments Anastasa.