Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is facing a primary in 2010 for the US Senate seat being vacated by Republican George Voinovich. The Ohio Democratic Party needs to be neutral in this primary, and there's a petition asking candidates to refrain from asking for the ODP endorsement. We need Kossacks (especially in Ohio) to sign it.
The back story - The Ohio Democratic Party has a pretty sorry history of endorsing candidates in primaries who end up either losing or leaving their seat in disgrace, at the expense of a legitimate primary process which gives Democrats the chance to vote.
There are multiple reasons why Chairman Redfern is right that under these circumstances the Ohio Democratic Party should not endorse in this race. First, an endorsement by the Ohio Democratic Party would result in the remaining candidates being left out in the cold as if they are somehow less than "true" Democrats. Second, endorsements by ODP have a history of rendering the actual primary election as nothing more than a formality, thus leaving millions of Democrats essentially out of the process. Third, such "boss politics" machinery reeks of 1990s Ohio Republicanism and is offensive to the very sense of progressive politics that is the Democratic Party. Fourth, but most importantly, such endorsements hurt the process, the party, and even the endorsed candidate itself. You need to only look at the two last elections to see the difference.
In 2006, the Ohio Democratic Party's wise and sound judgment resulted in endorsements of Marc Dann and Barbara Sykes. Sykes ran an uninspired campaign that was hit hard by soundbytes regarding her support for higher taxes and her lack of qualifications for the job compared to her likely Republican opponent, Mary Taylor. Neither Sykes, nor the Ohio Democratic Party, had an effective response to Taylor's attack regarding taxes, or the issue of qualifications. As a result, Mary Taylor won the only statewide election in 2006 for the GOP, and kept one of the seats on the Apportionment Board in Republican hands. The pre-primary endorsement by ODP scared off a number of county auditors who did not have the baggage of supporting Bob Taft's tax increases, and would have had an effective response on the issue of qualifications for State Auditor.
A far more controversial endorsement went to Marc Dann, even though Dann already had a disciplinary record with the Ohio Supreme Court that led to his public reprimand. Dann narrowly won election only to disgrace his office to such a degree that the Ohio Democratic Party went to the extraordinary length of stripping Dann's affiliation with the party barely two years after they endorsed him as the party's preferred standard bearer.
The problem? If only one candidate asks for an endorsement, an endorsement process is triggered, which always leads to inside baseball, back room deals, and party bosses making decisions for voters.
Chairman Redern has publicly declared that he wishes to stay neutral in the Senate Democratic Primary, but yesterday, he pointed out that if any candidate seeks the ODP's endorsement then he will have no choice under the Bylaws but to form a screening committee to consider making a recommendation to the Executive Committee to endorse one of the Democratic candidates.
Redfern said he would be "saddled" with the responsibility of launching such an endorsement process despite his belief and stated intention to remain neutral in race.
So, the Ohio leftysphere is organizing a petition drive to ask ALL candidates in the 2010 US Senate primary to refrain from seeking the ODP endorsement. We need Ohio Kossacks (and other Ohio-loving Kossacks too!) to GO AND SIGN THE PETITION.
We, the undersigned, support Democratic candidates for the U.S. Senate in 2010 making the following pledge:
"I will not seek, participate in, accept, or promote any endorsement by the Ohio Democratic Party. I will leave the decision in the hands of the people that our electoral system intends it to be left to: the people of the Great State of Ohio who I trust in their wisdom and judgment. And I will do whatever I can to ask that my primary opponents join me in this pledge."
We feel the decision should be in the hands of the Democratic voters in Ohio and should not be influenced by party bosses via an endorsement process. Chairman Redfern has stated his intention to keep the party neutral. We feel this pledge by all candidates is the best way to ensure such neutrality.
Come on, Kossacks! This could be our 60th senate seat in 2010, we need our candidates to go through a primary that isn't short-circuited by party bosses, so they come out of it strong, tested, and ready to take it to Rob Portman (who by the way, was George W. Bush's trade rep - need I say more).