Cordray, DeWine battle for Ohioans’ stomachs
Oh, the places you go and the people you see when you run for governor of Ohio and say, “Elect me!”
Look! Here’s Rich Cordray. He’s speaking to a sweltering union crowd from inside a Teamsters’ semi-trailer with one side removed.
Over there! It’s Mike DeWine. He’s handing out his wife’s cookbook and buying zeppole — deep-fried dough — at St. Rocco’s parish festival in Cleveland ... and handing out his wife’s cookbook and buying longos — deep-fried dough — at the Hungarian Scout Festival in Parma ... and handing out his wife’s cookbook and — surprise! — digging into half a muskmelon topped with scoops of watermelon sherbet and muskmelon ice cream at the Milan Melon Festival.
And now, Cordray is inside a huge tower supporting a wind turbine near Findlay, pressing the green button to start the massive blades turning 265 feet above.
But just look at DeWine, the oldest guy on the ballot, out-high-teching them all by going Facebook Live after each event he attends where he and wife Fran show off the food they’ve tasted.
All these efforts to win hearts, minds — and apparently stomachs — are designed to start paying off exactly one month from today, when Ohioans can begin casting early ballots.
The candidates are fairly even in the polls. Both have enough money for the TV ad wars already in progress. So what might separate them by Election Day is the grueling, voter-by-voter ground battle.
Neither candidate exactly lights up the sky with political oratory, but then we knew that going into this campaign between two men from the middle of the road of their respective parties. At the St. Rocco festival near where the zeppole were cooking, Michelle Vitale had to be reminded that Cordray was the Democratic candidate. “That blonde guy? He doesn’t have much personality,” was her reaction.
A few yards away, Tony Miranda, a University Hospitals accountant was selling “instant bingo” pull-tabs. He said he appreciates DeWine’s honesty and regular appearances at the parish event, but he worries about the Republican’s stance on Medicaid expansion and his age — 72 when he would take office if he wins.
To those who question his age, DeWine has a ready retort: “Try and keep up with me.”
He has become a natural at walking parade routes and touring the festivals and fairs that dot Ohio at this time of year. The attorney general weaves his way through a crowd, a bespectacled Energizer Bunny grabbing every hand in sight, exchanging a few words — and of course passing out those ubiquitous cookbooks.
A collection of recipes — including a campaign message — may seem an odd technique to win the highest office in Ohio. But after a while, it becomes clear that people are hanging onto them. They are never seen in the trash later, like so much traditional campaign literature.
Along the way, DeWine gathers stories and accumulates information — on the St. Rocco Parish School from the principal and church’s pastor, about the challenges faced by a young couple at the Hungarian festival raising a child because her parents are addicted to opioids, from a law enforcement officer providing security.
“I think retail politics is important. It is by far the best way to gauge what people think, because you’re meeting them on their own turf,” DeWine said after the sun set on a Sunday crammed with campaigning.
“It’s like a constant poll, a constant focus group,” he said. “You get a feel, to me that’s very valuable, to get instant feedback.”
Learning firsthand
Cordray also is an information-gatherer. One of his campaign stops last week was at One Energy’s North Findlay Wind Campus, where seven wind turbines provide electricity for local manufacturers and parts for several more windmills lay scattered across the 80-acre property next to a Whirlpool plant.
Although the Democrat often speaks in bullet points or long sentences with a whole series of clauses, he delighted in relating a simple factoid that one of the turbines was installed near a Marathon Oil pumping station south of Findlay where wind energy is harnessed to move a fossil fuel. To Cordray, that’s the epitome of his “all of the above” energy strategy.
He also joked about his “power” after One Energy CEO and general manager Jereme Kent took Cordray inside one of the windmill towers and let him push the green button to start the huge turbines turning 265 feet above.
While Fran DeWine is Mike DeWine’s security blanket, Cordray often turns to running mate Betty Sutton when it comes time to warm up a traditional Democratic constituency, such as the Every Vote Counts labor rally last weekend on a steamy blacktop parking lot next to Golden Lodge Local 1123 of the United Steelworkers in southern Canton.
The former state lawmaker and congresswoman showed up early to meet with union loyalists, including a veterans group. “People in this state have been an afterthought with this state government,” is one of her messages.
That’s a frequent talking point from a party that occupies not a single statewide government slot in Columbus. But the fact that there even is a common theme among Ohio Democrats shows a key difference with GOP campaigns this year, who seldom appear en masse. The Canton gathering featured the entire Democratic ticket for statewide offices.
The Trump factor
Just as armies can’t choose their battlefields, candidates can’t pick their political environments.
DeWine readily acknowledges that he is asked frequently about a man over whom he has no control: Donald Trump.
“I talk about the things I talk about publicly, which is basically judges, district court judges and circuit court judges, where I think he has absolutely kept his word,” DeWine said. “I talk about regulations where I think he’s been more rational and reasonable on regulations. So I talk about things like that.”
But no qualifiers about the polarizing president?
“I try to focus on what I’m going to do as governor. That’s what I owe the people of this state,” DeWine said.
A couple of days later, it became public that Donald Trump Jr. is coming to Ohio this week to raise money for DeWine.
Cordray and party leaders say they think Democrats who bolted to Trump in 2016 will return to the fold.
“They’re coming home because they want to know that people will stand up for them, stand up for their rights in the workplace, stand up for safe conditions in the workplace, stand up for a better future and retirement — and they want a state government that works,” Cordray said.
Two minor-party candidates are also on the ballot in the governor’s race: Travis Irvine of the Libertarian Party and Constance Gadell-Newton of the Green Party.