ODP screening group makes endorsement recommendations

Amid what pundits this week have hailed as the strongest Democratic ticket in decades, the Ohio Democratic Party held a Screening Committee to hear from statewide candidates who filed for office last Thursday.

Chapter Nine of the Ohio Democratic Party By-Laws (posted at www.ohiodems.org) requires ODP to consider pre-primary endorsements. The full Executive Committee will meet on Wednesday, February 22, 2006 at the Fawcett Center Auditorium on the Ohio State University campus, 24000 Olentangy River Rd. ODP by-laws dictate a 60 percent approval for an official Ohio Democratic Party endorsement to occur at that meeting.

Members of the ODP Screening Committee met from 9:30 a.m. until late afternoon Saturday in a meeting chaired by Attorney Jim Friedman, of Beachwood, OH. Panelists reflected the diversity of Ohio both regionally, in gender, and racially.

Ohio Supreme Court Candidate William O’Neill declined the opportunity to screen.

Mahoning County Treasurer, John Reardon, a candidate for State Auditor sent a note canceling his appearance before the screening committee indicating that he planned a related announcement sometime next week.      

Screening Committee Endorsement Recommendations:

U.S. Senate:  Sherrod Brown

Governor/Lt. Governor:  Ted Strickland/Lee Fisher

Attorney General: Marc Dann

Auditor: Barbara Sykes

Secretary of State: Jennifer Brunner

Treasurer: Richard Cordray

Supreme Court (O'Donnell Seat): A.J. Wagner

Supreme Court (Resnick Seat): Ben Espy

Screening Committee recommendations are non-binding. Only the Executive Committee has the sole power of endorsement in statewide candidacies. Any endorsed candidates emerging from next weeks meeting will have the full advantages of Ohio Democratic Party support for the duration of the primary election period.

Comments

[FSURules]

It would be interesting to find out how many members were on the committee and how they were selected. Any chance of the executive committee not following the recommendations?

[Jill]

Brian/John Sauter (since I'm not sure who blogged the "screening group makes endorsement recommendations" post- it doesn't appear to be signed - might want to check on that, I'm pretty sure that Chris Redfern mentioned something in his Meet the Bloggers session about how the blog posts are signed by the individual blogger):

First, thanks so much for putting a link to the ODP home page!

Next, a couple of questions:

1. Regarding the part of this blog post that says, "Any endorsed candidates emerging from next weeks [sic] meeting will have the full advantages of Ohio Democratic Party support for the duration of the primary election period":

a) What can the non-endorsed candidate(s) expect, as far as behavior toward that candidate from the ODP between now and the primary? Is there any kind of code of conduct that ensures that although the candidate didn't get the endorsement, as a Democrat trying to make progress toward getting Democrats elected in our state, the ODP will remain...neutral? as far as that unendorsed candidate goes? Do unendorsed candidates get any kind of assistance at all from the state party, as just being a Democratic candidate trying to help Ohio Democrats?

b) If the non-endorsed candidate wins the primary, does that person then get "the full advantages of Ohio Democratic Party support for the duration" of time to the general election?

2) Could you please provide a hyperlink to the list of Screening Committee members and Executive Committee members. As you know, I'm self-educating here and would appreciate your assistance in learning the ODP's structure and who specifically, by name and location from within the state, comprises the committees.

Thanks so much in advance for your hard work in getting me these answers! I look forward to receiving them. I'm going to post these questions on my blog because I suspect other "newbies" to the inside of Ohio politics would love to read the answers too.

[Jill]

Thank you John for putting up the link to the exec. comm. list on the ODP website's front page. I saw that BuckeyeSenateBlog has the screening committee list.

Brian - if you could provide more information about the first set of questions, that would be great. Thanks. Very much.

[Jill]

John/Brian -

I haven't checked this out myself, but some feedback is coming in that the information on your Excel sheet regarding the Executive Committee members seems to be outdated. Do you have anything more current?

Also, some folks would like to know if the meeting tomorrow evening is public. Could you please post something updating Ohio Democrats about the time, place and accessibility to the executive committee meeting tomorrow at which the endorsement screening committee's recommendations will be voted on?

Thanks!

[Jill]

FYI - I know the meeting info is here, but since others are asking about it today, perhaps it could be placed somewhere on the front page of the ODP website? Just a thought.

[John Sauter]

Jill,

The Executive Committee meeting is open to the public and will begin at 6PM. It will be held at the Fawcett Center Auditorium (2400 Olentangy River Rd), located on the campus of The Ohio State University.

[wayne marchant]

I would like to express my feelings on the way Paul Hackett was done in by the Ohio Democratic Party. What is wrong with those people. In Hackett you have a candidate that brings to the table everything a political party could want. He is dedicated, intelligent, a very good speaker, probably the most recognized political figure in Ohio (both parties) and he is a veteran of Iraq. What more could a party want from a candidate? On tiop of that he would no doubt run much stronger in southwestern part of the state. His showing against Gene Schmidt proves that. This not a knock on Mr. Brown. I know nothing about him and therein lies the problem. He has no name recgnition in the greater Cincinnati area. The same cannot be said about Mr. Hackett in northern Ohio. It would be much wiser in my opinion to run Mr. Brown against Voinavich. Also as far as Republicans go DeWine is not as bad as it could be. He has voted with Democrats on several important issues. The ODP must have been reading from the Karl Rve handbook on how to screw an opponent. The did a good job of it. The only thing they have done I'm afraid is to insure Mike DeWine will be re-elected.

[Jill]

Tx, John.

[John Sauter]

Wayne,

The Ohio Democratic Party had absolutely nothing to do with Paul Hackett's decision to leave the Senate race. No one from the ODP, including Chairman Chris Redfern, ever asked Paul Hackett to leave the race. The ODP has been a strong supporter of Mr. Hackett, especially in his 2nd Congressional District race against Ms. Schmidt, and we desire to see Paul active and involved in politics.