Party says it’s energized for ’18 governor’s race

Amid surging enthusiasm, the Ohio Democratic Party’s high hopes for 2018 were in evidence Saturday night.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, along with three declared candidates for governor and two other statewide hopefuls, plied the crowd at a dinner celebrating the legacy of John Glenn, the fighter pilot, astronaut and Democratic senator from Ohio who died in December and was interred at Arlington National Cemetery earlier this month.

Close together on the issues of jobs, education and fighting the opioid scourge, the gubernatorial candidates touted their electability as they tried to stand out from the pack.

Former Ohio Rep. Connie Pillich, 56, of Cincinnati, said she can draw Republican votes.

“I’m the candidate who has run and won in a Republican district, which I’ve done three times,” she told reporters before the dinner in Glenn’s honor at the Ohio Expo Center. She also said her experience as a captain in the Air Force gives her the executive training needed to win in November 2018 and to run the state thereafter.

“What this campaign is going to be about is leadership,” she said.

One of her opponents in the Democratic primary has leadership experience of his own. Ohio Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Boardman stepped down as Senate minority leader last week to focus on his run for governor.

Schiavoni, 37, said he’s been calling the chairmen of all 88 county parties and traveling everywhere he can, meeting with residents as well as business and labor leaders. He’s been hammering at what he sees as Gov. John Kasich’s feeble response to Ohio’s intertwined problems of unemployment and opioid addiction.

The third declared candidate in the race, former U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton, said it’s time to turn the page on an era of Republican rule in Ohio that she said has disproportionately benefited the wealthiest Buckeyes.

“We’ve seen Republican policies that are aimed at the top,” Sutton said, adding that she intends to reverse many of them.

As with her Democratic opponents, Sutton, 53, of Barberton, said that she’s focusing on average Ohioans.

“I’ve spent my whole life standing up for families,” she said.

Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper said he’s bullish on the party’s prospects next year.

The party suffered a bruising loss last November when Republican Donald Trump carried the state by almost 9 percentage points. But Pepper said Ohio Democrats have a history of rebounding from such losses.

“Democrats seem to get energized when they lose,” he said.

On Saturday morning, the party held a grassrootsorganizing boot camp at the state fairgrounds, expecting 200. But Pepper said that 500 returned an RSVP.