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Is GOP poised to make inroads in the Valley in 2010?
Published:Friday, September 25, 2009
A MYSTERY: Ex-Attorney General Marc Dann’s campaign finance reports continue to be a mystery — at least to me — more than a year after he resigned that post. Dann paid $85,000 to Neal and Harwell, a Nashville law firm. He owed the firm $46,935 as of June 30. Dann’s campaign also spent a fortune on two Columbus-based law firms during his fight over election law violations. Why did Dann’s campaign retain Neal and Harwell, a national litigation firm that handles “highly visible criminal cases,” with “white collar crime” as the focus of its criminal defense practice, according to its Web site? Dann’s not commenting. The Ohio secretary of state’s office refuses to check into it. Aubrey Harwell Jr., the firm’s managing partner, said the firm provided Dann with “legal advice and counsel” and that it has clients all over the country. Harwell declined to discuss specifics of what the firm did for Dann. skolnick@vindy.com |
John Kasich, the leading Repub-lican candidate for governor in 2010, is campaigning in the Mahoning Valley.
Kasich spoke to the Mahoning County Teenage Republicans on Thursday and was to discuss his campaign platform and why he’s running for office at a Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber breakfast event today.
Among the Republican statewide candidates running next year, Kasich is likely to be the one making the most campaign stops in this area.
The 2006 statewide election results showed that Republicans wasted their time campaigning in this heavily Democratic area.
No Republican statewide candidate won in Mahoning or Trumbull counties three years ago, and most weren’t even competitive here.
For example, Ted Strickland, a Democrat, crushed Republican J. Kenneth Blackwell in the 2006 gubernatorial election. Strickland received 60.5 percent of the vote statewide.
An impressive victory for sure.
But compare his statewide percentage to Mahoning County, where he received 76 percent of the vote, and Trumbull County, where he captured 74.2 percent.
So is Kasich wasting his time campaigning here?
With the sharp downturn in the economy the past few years, people point fingers at those currently in elected office. Most statewide officeholders are Democrats. Ohio Republicans are framing their campaign next year around the failures of the state under a Democratic administration.
Strickland admits he’s going to have a tougher time in the 2010 election, and he’ll be depending on a strong Valley turnout.
“Next year is going to be a more competitive election than I had” in 2006, he told me last month. “It will be important next year to both parties. If I’m going to win next year, I’m going to have to do well here.”
There is no doubt Kasich will do better than Blackwell did in 2006.
In order for him to have a shot at winning, he’s got to keep Strickland’s Valley voting percentage to no more than 60. Yes, only 40 percent of the Mahoning and Trumbull vote for Kasich would be huge for his campaign.
But it’s a tall order because despite the state’s problems, Strickland remains a popular politician in the area.
Keeping Strickland to no more than 60 percent of the vote is challenging.
But it’s at least a possibility.
What Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras wants is next to impossible.
Betras has vowed to get at least 80 percent of the county’s vote for every statewide Democrat running in next year’s general election.
You can’t say Betras isn’t giving it his all.
In response to Kasich’s visit to the county, Betras said, “He has a lot of nerve coming here after he decimated our economy. Free traders like him should just stay away. He’s to the right of Rush Limbaugh.”
Betras attacked Kasich for his support of free trade agreements and other economic policies that “killed our economy.”
He added: “Mr. Kasich has always placed the interests of Wall Street ahead of the interests of Main Street and I, quite frankly, have no idea how he can even show his face in an area that has been so devastated by the legislation and policies he has supported over the years.”
Mark Munroe, Mahoning County Republican vice chairman, sees it quite differently.
“John Kasich is a guy who can bring real positive change and finally make Ohio and the Mahoning Valley a strong place to do business,” Munroe said. “He cares about developing a climate for economic development. He’s going to do well in the Valley because he has a plan to create jobs.”
We’re getting close to full campaign mode well over a year before the 2010 election.
Comments
The valley likes their dems too much. They like the status quo. High taxes, decreasing tax base, job deterioration, corruption, and basic regression. The dems have controlled the valley for decades through several administrations and look at what the valley reaps. As the country has fluctuated between D and R, the valley keeps the same people in power.
The people of Youngstown obviously like their current state. Let them enjoy it.
Betras is so out of touch with what the "Joe-bag-of-donuts" average person in the Mahoning Valley thinks it's unbelievable. Hey David Kasich cares about developing a climate for economic development which would include incentives for business to move here. Give Betras a stage and he's starting to sound like Traficant and Timmy Ryan.
"Strickland remains a popular politician in the area."
Popular with who ? Certainly not me or the majority of the people that I have talked to.
Betras can't really be that stupid. He's a typical liberal Democrat telling the same tired old lies about the Dems being for the "little guy" and the GOP being for the "big" guy and I venture to say even he is mystified how Valley residents can still be so stupid after decades of Dem promises and obvious lies and continued high employment. Dumb, hypenated ethnic, pro union, anti-capitalist, greedy, selfish, socialists never wise up, they just remain dumb, hypenated ethnic, pro union, anti-capitalist, greedy, selfish, socialists and the exploting Democrat Party loves it; b/c it can always depend on their votes by just making a token visit to the Valley occasionally to supervise a cheer leading session for those useful idiots.
There was a national conversation before the election of 2008, and after debating and discussing the issues, the citizens voted convincingly for a socialist regime.
If after a taste of a spending spree that will triple the national debt in 10 years, higher taxes, wildly radical Czars, a Neville Chamberlin-style appeasement foreign policy, and greater government power over individual rights...if after all this you still see the likes of Ryan, Pelosi, Frank et al retaining power after the 2010 elections, than there can be no doubt that we are driving full speed for the socialist cliff.
The only purpose TEA parties would serve at that point would be as a social gathering.
Team Obama: Channelling Clinton, extending Bush?
http://links.org.au/node/778
If Dems are for this area why did Tim Ryan vote FOR the cap and trade tax?
Tim Ryan is a man's man.
Let's see, the Dems have been in charge of this area for how many years and what has changed? Nothing. They give the same story every election and nothing ever gets better. They always blame it on someone or something else. However, I don't blame them I blame the people that live in this area that keep voting for the idiots every election. Now they say that Obama is going to save this area just like Clinton was going to save us. Do you really believe anything is going to change here. I doubt it.
Strickland is not popular here. I backed Strickland in 2006 and I cannot stand him. I honestly thought he'd be better than Taft, and I've been greatly disappointed.
He has done NOTHING good for this state.
Kasich is going to crush Ted next year. The historically red areas of this state are going to push him to victory by great margins.
Betras appears to be the typical Mahoning County Democrat rectum orfice. They would run a road-killed skunk and it would get a 60% vote in this area. It says a lot about the mentality, analytical abilities, and mindset of people here. It doesn't seem to be getting better, does it? And what is amazing is that they think the Democrats have done a lot of good things here? Name one. The old knee jerk reflex is to blame the corporations, the free trade agreements, unions, etc. Never their own actions or voting patterns and who they elect to office. But, that's another discussion.
God can only hope that GOP or a third party can make some inroads here.
Gonzo.....Ryan is not a man's man....he is a "LAPDOG" for the Democratic Party and "Nancy"!
The valley doesn't seem to come off as a highly liberal area. Kasich says some very common sense things such as making ohio competitive again, even central Ohio (the good part of the state) is now struggling under democratic rule. I think kasich will appeal to some of those people in the valley who see this.... If Jim traficant appeals to many in this area there's no reason Kasich can't just because he has an R after his name.
In my above comment I meant liberal as in progressive, I think a lot of people are more blue dog type democrats in the area.
I was being facetious.
Youngstown is a microcosym of what might be in store for the country if the pendulum does not shift back to capitalism.
Simply put, when the private sector here was larger than the public sector, prosperity was the result. Remember, free enterprize only works if the public sector can be supported by the private sector. Kasich says his platform is to reduce government, isn't it strange that all our leader's rallying cry has always been how much pork they can bring back from Columbus or DC? It is almost accepted here that our future is dependent on how much subsidy we can beg for. Strange what has become of a once mighty industrial center in the free world.
However, it maybe said we were the first to shift towards a prolitariat revolution and that DC is just following our form of government.
Only business minded leaders can bring us back, here and there.
it's absolutely amazing to hear the call for republican leadership here...you cons who dominate these boards like to pretend that republican policies have not had a heavy hand here through years of republican governors, years of republican senators, years of republican state legislatures, years of republican presidents, years of republican congresses, and years of republican judiciaries, not to mention years of bush-loving mckelveyism...truly pathetic
Isaac.........I agree the Republicans SCREWED UP,it's now OK for the Dem's to make it WORSE....3 TRILLION in DEBT,ILLEGALS to get Hospitalization at no cost,Iraq was the wrong war- BUT NOW the President has to think about what we should do in Afghanistan after his General said he needs more men to win it,Medicare/Medicade need to be fixed, but I will tackle it in 3-4 YEARS,Insurance Companys need to be fixed, I will tackle it in 3-4 years...THE LIST GOES ON AND ON.I am a democrat
The Democratic Party in the Mahoning Valley has nothing to gain by a change in the status quo--absolutely nothing.
Chairman Betras can harp on 80% all he wants, but being in politics in this area the last 5 years, I can tell you that George Bush has a better chance getting elected to a third term than the Democrats taking 80% in 2010. It is just not going to happen with the current state of things in Ohio and the nation.
The GOP is the more moderate wing of the Democrat-Republican Party. Not much improvement over the more radical wing of Dems. It's a one party system and it's playing us like we're WWE fans. Each one of their players alternate between being heros and or villians. If you are taken in by either major political party, you will being exploited by the masters of deception. They're highly paid prostitutes, we're their Johns, they take our money and we get a little pleasure and a pack of lies about how great we are.
Pro,You're dead on. Politics is a big game and we're not even allowed on the field. Many people think Glen Beck is crazy,but this one party (dems and pubs) system is what he rails about almost daily. the elected officials are supposed to work for us,you know like we're supposed to be the bosses. We pay them with our money,only thing different is they set their own pay scale. Nothing we can do about it. The people in congress just voted to give their office expences an 8% increase. Nothing we can do about it. Vote them out? doesn't change a thing,the rules are in place. Nothing we can do about it. Glen Beck has this problem in his crosshairs,he's looking out for all of us. Truth.