Where are Dem candidates for down-ticket?
At this point in the election cycle four years ago, Zack Space and Rob Richardson – respectively the Democratic hopefuls for state auditor and treasurer – had been campaigning more than five months for races in 2018.
Former U.S. Attorney Steve Dettelbach began his quest for attorney general in late May of 2017. Kathleen Clyde, then a state representative from Kent, launched her campaign for secretary of state about two weeks earlier.
All that begs the question: Where are the Democratic candidates for downticket statewide offices in next year's election?
Two of those races are especially important. Unless something unexpected occurs during coming court battles, Ohio's new legislative and congressional maps expire in four years. Two members of the Ohio Redistricting Commission are down-ticket state officials: the auditor and secretary of state. The governor also is a member.
Mayors John Cranley of Cincinnati and Nan Whaley of Dayton have been visible in their competing gubernatorial campaigns. Otherwise, Democrats are invisible in other state non-judicial contests on Ohioans' 2022 ballot.
That will change in the weeks before the holidays for at least a couple of the offices, says party spokesman Matt Keyes.
“Conversations are ongoing where we're confident we're going to have a good, strong ticket by the filing deadline,” he said.
It's the first statewide races for party Chair Liz Walters, chosen after David Pepper stepped down late last year.
Keyes said the party has been concentrating on the battle against the progop maps approved by the Republican super-majority in the legislature and GOP Gov. Mike Dewine.
Late campaign starts could add difficulty to what already shapes up as a challenging election year – with the Democratic brand currently suffering while a set of GOP incumbents already is raising money in an effort to pull off the seventh Republican sweep since 1994.
If Gop-run Iowa can pass bipartisan redistricting maps, why can’t Ohio?
Speaking of redistricting, citizens groups continue to lament the failed promise of constitutional amendments touted as ending gerrymandering that Ohio voters overwhelmingly approved. But they openly wonder how they could make the system any better.
For a possible solution, they need look no further than Iowa. The Hawkeye State, while smaller and less diverse than the Buckeye State, is run by a Republican
governor and a Gop-controlled legislature, just like Ohio. But unlike the partisan strong-arming in Ohio, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed new maps into law Nov. 4 that were backed almost unanimously by both parties.
The big difference? For the past 50 years, a nonpartisan agency has drawn Iowa's congressional and legislative districts.
Iowa Senate Democratic Leader Zach Wahls said, “I think all the credit for making sure that we actually followed Iowa's nonpartisan process goes to the people of Iowa, across our state, who spoke up and made clear that Iowans deserved fair maps that were not going to be amended by the legislature,” the Des Moines Register reported.
Unlike Ohio's map, Iowa's does not “pack and crack” Democratic urban strongholds.
Republican House Speaker Pat Grassley told a party gathering that the GOP could win without gerrymandering – or at least they can in Iowa.
Renacci uses insults, questionable claims in attempt to dent Dewine
It's no secret that GOP Gov. Mike Dewine is unpopular among some in his own party. The mere mention of his name was loudly booed during more than one rally last year for Donald Trump.
But here's the big question: How much of that dissent will translate into votes for Dewine's main Republican challenger, former Congressman Jim Renacci?
Renacci's campaign so far has been based on insults. His rhetoric has taken on an especially harsh edge recently. A sampling: h “Joe Biden is forcing Ohioans to choose between the jab and their job – and Mike Dewine is doing nothing to stop him.”
h Dewine's Vax-to-school program is “sickening and a waste of taxpayer's money . ... Let's stop these dirty Dewine gimmicks and get back to allowing people to follow the advice of a health-care professional, not a carnival barker like Dewine.”
h A pre-thanksgiving message referred to “Dewine's draconian lockdowns.”
As often happens in campaigns, some of the rhetoric crosses the line into outright falsehoods, such as Renacci's claim that “Mike Dewine wants your children to be taught they are racist. It's no secret that Dewine supports Critical Race Theory being taught in Ohio classroom . ... Mike Dewine is calling for the RADICALIZATION and INDOCTRINATION of your children.”
Renacci, in a news released entitled “Back the Blue” just three days after Michigan beat Ohio State's highly ranked football team, touted a made-up claim that Dewine “sided with violent mobs and protesters” in the summer of 2020. drowland@dispatch.com @darreldrowland