Ex-congressman Tiberi questions GOP future
Politicos expect incoming rounds from the opposing party. But last weekend Republicans took some friendly fire from one of their own: former Congressman Pat Tiberi.
“In the short term, I am not very optimistic for the future of our party,” Tiberi told several dozen at a gathering for the Jo Ann Davidson Ohio Leadership Institute at Otterbein University in Westerville.
“In this 24/7 news cycle ... it’s not just our problem as a party. It’s a problem within our country. It’s a problem within both parties.”
Tiberi, now head of the Ohio Business Roundtable, lamented an era when “winning is the only thing that matters. It’s all identity politics. It’s all emotion based.”
And the formula for political success lies in riling up your party’s base by emphasizing hot-button issues.
“Public officials, members of Congress, now are rewarded for becoming, essentially, social media influencers,” he said on Nov. 20 to an audience that included Ohio GOP Chairman Bob Paduchik, a key player in Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns.
“And (that means) for Democrats and Republicans running for office, or being in office, doing a Tiktok, doing a video, going on cable news. That instant gratification of people who are most engaged in the political process means a hell of a lot more than actually getting something done, unfortunately. It doesn’t matter about getting stuff done anymore.”
Democratic boss: ‘We got to make her seem like a really bad person’
The toxic mess existed years before Trump took office, Tiberi said.
He hearkened back to the “brutal election cycle” in 2006, the year of the most Democratic success in recent Ohio history.
Tiberi recalled that his GOP colleague from Franklin County, Deborah Pryce, came to him, all upset.
“She said, ‘I just found out from one of my Democratic friends that I can no longer work with her.’”
The problem? Rahm Emanuel, then head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (and future chief of staff for President Barack Obama, and mayor of Chicago), had put the word out: “‘We’re going after Debbie and we have to make her more partisan than she is. So don’t sponsor any bills with her. Don’t co-sponsor any legislation of hers. Don’t help her run any amendments. We got to make her seem like a really bad person.’ And it was really shocking to her because that’s not who she was,” Tiberi said.
“People blame it on President Trump. No, this was happening way before President Trump. He was just a really smart marketer who understood before many other people understood how to get people motivated.
“Now, I’m not saying that’s the right thing to do, but he did become president. I mean, pretty good, pretty outcome.
“But long term as a country? This is, to me, is much bigger than about party. This is about our country. And what happens when you go down this road in both parties of personality and identity politics? We start losing the country, in my opinion.”
After hearing about Tiberi dinner with Pelosi: ‘I can never vote for you again’
Tiberi, who left office in early 2018 after nearly nine terms in the district once occupied by John Kasich, said things got so bad during the final years of his tenure that he couldn’t hold town hall gatherings for his constituents.
“It wasn’t about ideas anymore. It was about trying to embarrass me. It was trying to take down Republicans. And it wasn’t about having a debate about an issue or trying to solve problems.”
So he began holding office hours for public input. The year after Trump was elected, a district resident walked in and said he had no problem with Tiberi’s voting record.
His big issue? “You don’t defend President Trump,” Tiberi recalled. Oh, and another thing: “You were never critical of Barack Obama.”
Tiberi said he tried to explain that his job was not to defend or criticize the president, but rather to represent his district.
Then things really went off the rails. “So I said to him, ‘I don’t agree with (then Democratic House leader) Nancy Pelosi on almost anything. But I had dinner with her last week,’” Tiberi said.
With a shocked look, the visitor grabbed his heart, saying, “You had dinner with the enemy!”
Tiberi said he believes in communicating even with those who hold mostly opposite beliefs.
“We share a common heritage and that’s what we mostly talked about, quite frankly. But you have to have a relationship. You don’t demonize the other side to try to actually get things done.
“Yeah, I had dinner with her. And she’s not the enemy. The Chinese government might be the enemy. The Iranian government might be the enemy. The Russian government might be the enemy. But the Democrats aren’t the enemy.”
Before walking out, the constituent informed Tiberi, “I can never vote for you again.”
“That was when I said, ‘You know what? I don’t want your vote. You can vote for whoever you want. I won’t keep my mom and dad’s vote if I do what you want me to do. And that’s more important to me. I gotta look in the mirror.’”
Did Dewine inflate number of swing districts in new congressional map?
When Gov. Mike Dewinesigned GOP lawmakers’ revamp of Ohio congressional map last weekend, he praised the new map for having seven competitive districts, out of 15.
Yet such sites as the popular Dave’s Redistricting showed only six.
Competitive districts generally are defined as areas where the average Republican and Democratic voting record in major statewide races during recent elections is within 10 points, as in 55% to 45%.
Asked for an explanation by Andy Chow of the Ohio Public Radio’s Statehouse News Bureau, Dewine’s office said they got the figures from House Republicans. It turns out those numbers do not include gubernatorial elections, as did the calculations by Dave’s and others, Chow discovered.
The different baseline transformed the new 6th Congressional District — on paper — into a competitive area. That’s even under the GOP lawmakers’ more stringent definition of a competitive district: one that’s within 8 points (54%-46%).
The 6th district snakes along the eastern Ohio border essentially from Warren to Marietta.
Interestingly, using the narrower GOP definition on Dave’s calculations would reduce the number of competitive districts to five. Of the remaining 10, eight would favor Republicans. drowland@dispatch.com @darreldrowland