The Ohio Problem: The Capitulation of Ted Strickland
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Ohio has once again become ground zero for Presidential politics. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump desperately need to win the Buckeye state. Professional surrogates and dedicated volunteers have been dispatched all over the state to gain us much ground as possible for their respective major party nominee. With early voting about to begin, the battle for Ohio’s electoral votes has begun.
The voters in Ohio will not only be casting their votes for President this October and November, they will also vote for a number of local officials and one national Senator. Republican incumbent Rob Portman will face off against former Democratic Governor Ted Strickland. There are a few fringe party candidates on the ticket, but the real race is between Portman and Strickland. Both candidates faced primary opponents, with Portman winning with no struggle and Strickland easily besting upstart Cincinnati Councilman PG Sittenfeld. The Democratic and Republican candidates have spent two years, or longer, preparing for the 2016 Ohio Senate race through back door strategy meetings and very public fundraising. Outside of the race for President, the Ohio Senate election has captured the minds, and opinions, of all registered Buckeye voters.
With a few weeks left in the 2016 election, Republican Rob Portman has been assumed as the victor in the Ohio Senate race. The polls give Portman a commanding lead over Democrat Strickland. The money is still steadily coming in for Portman, while the Strickland is cutting staff and cancelling ad buys. The race for President is still a tossup in Ohio, the race for Senate ended in the summer.
The Ohio Problem has once again been a detrimental force to any Democrat who is not the Presidential nominee. A big reason Ted Strickland decided to run for the US Senate was his tight relationship with the Clintons. It was thought having Strickland on the ticket would further enhance Hillary Clinton’s ability to win Ohio’s crucial electoral votes. Unfortunately, once Republican nominee Donald Trump started to close the gap in Ohio, the Clinton campaign started to consolidate as much of the money and manpower in the state. Since Strickland was willingly playing second fiddle to the Presidential nominee, there were no table scraps left for the former governor. The political operatives in Ohio starved their own homegrown candidate so the national party could once again consume every available resource. A contest at the national level meant no time for a race at the state level. The people of Ohio were once again told a Democratic President is so much more important than any state representation in Washington DC.
Governor Ted Strickland never had the chance, or the will, to mount a credible campaign against Republican Senator Rob Portman. During the Democratic Primary, Councilman Sittenfeld was travelling the state and running ads portraying his vision for Ohio and America. Strickland ran no ads, traveled only to meet with Democratic Party leaders, and refused to debate Sittenfeld. Once the primary was over, Portman started to conduct voter outreach while Strickland only appeared in public to promote Hillary Clinton. In the middle of the summer, ads painting Ted Strickland as a bad choice for Ohio started to appear on the airwaves all over the state. No ads supporting Strickland could be found. By the end of the summer, Senator Portman was being featured in ads as a positive, and inspirational figure for Ohio. The only time anyone would see and hear Ted Strickland’s name were in ads that highlighted the failures of the former Governor. By Labor Day, the race between Portman and Strickland was already cast as a race between the positive Republican incumbent who cared for Ohioans, and the out of touch and failure to the people that is the Democrat Strickland. First week of September, Portman and his political allies put the Ohio Senate race away.
Many things said about Ted Strickland’s time as Governor were true, when all context is removed. Ohio did see many economic problems during the Democrat’s four years in Columbus. Ted Strickland easily won the Ohio Governor election in 2006, and officially took office in 2007. Strickland inherited a state teetering economically due to the corruption of the previous governor’s regime, Republican Bob Taft. As Strickland was getting his policies in place to heal Ohio’s economic woes, the 2008 economic collapse hit the nation. Ohio, like most of the nation, was in financial hot water due to the terrible economic decisions made by the Bush administration in Washington DC. Ohio lost jobs, Ohio lost economic stability, and Ted Strickland was governor. With a reelection bid only two short years away, Governor Strickland had to move fast. New President Barrack Obama was interested in spurring economic growth with upgrades to the US passenger rail system. Ohio was to be the recipient of some of these infrastructure funds to create a high speed passenger rail line from Cleveland to Cincinnati. Other new economic measures were being put in motion by Governor Strickland’s office all the way up to the 2010 election. The future was looking a little brighter for the Buckeye state.
Even after the 2008 economic collapse, the 2010 contest looked like an easy reelection for Governor Strickland. The Republicans nominated former congressman, Fox News talking head, Lehman Brothers associate, and generally rude human being John Kasich. The republican candidate's work history for failed banking firm Lehman Brothers should have been enough to sink his campaign. Unfortunately since it was not a Presidential election year, the skilled Democratic party operatives were no where to be found in Ohio. The big money Democratic party donors sat out of the 2010 Governor’s race. Ted Strickland himself seemed to be giving up, even when the polls in late October were showing the democrat having the electoral advantage. Due to the total Democratic party giving up, a man who unapologetically defended his work with one of the banking firms responsible for the 2008 economic collapse won a very narrow election against the Governor Ted Strickland. National Democratic Party malaise gave the country John Kasich.
2012 saw the Democratic party, and its donors, back in Ohio in full force. President Obama won the state, and nearly every other democrat lost. 2014 saw the absolute disaster of the Ed Fitzgerald campaign, and former Lehman Brother associate John Kasich easily won reelection. A few higher ups in the state Democratic party left in disgrace, a new group of insiders took over, and the regional leaders of the party stayed the same. Their failures were not punished. 2016 was coming, and Ohio had many of the same faces who should be focused on the local elections being used to only enlarge the Presidential candidate. Former Governor Ted Strickland was primarily being used to help the Clinton campaign, and secondarily he was trying to win a Senate race. That is the playbook for the Ohio Democratic Party.
Since the Senate was a second concern for Ted Strickland, his full attention was never on his own race. PG Sittenfeld tried to run a race for the US Senate, but the national Democrats wanted a candidate who would defer to the top of the ticket. While Rob Portman and his allies were painting Ted Strickland as a failed politician, Ohio Democrats turned all of their attention to the Presidential campaign. The Strickland campaign was not even trying to show how their candidate compared to the Republican incumbent. Even Senior Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, has not been seen assisting the Strickland campaign. Like in 2014, Democrats in Ohio have been failed by their own party in trying to be competitive in any local race.
The Strickland campaign could have easily put Senator Rob Portman on the defense and made the election about the incumbent Senator's support for some very bad ideas. While in the US House of Representatives, Portman voted for NAFTA and was a yes in the decision to impeach President Bill Clinton. He was briefly the United States Trade Representative under President George W. Bush. During Portman's time as the trade representative, the US trade deficit with China increased by over 20%. Also under President Bush, Rob Portman served as Director of the Office of Management and Budget. This appointment positioned Portman as one of the key architects of the US economy. Shortly after Portman left this position, the United States economy collapsed. As a current US Senator, Rob Portman signed onto the UnConstitutional, disrespectful, and pointless Tom Cotton letter to Iran. With a record spanning over two decades in Washington DC, there are many problematic decisions Rob Portman has made. There are many ads the Ted Strickland for Senate campaign could make to show Portman is unworthy of reelection.
Yet there were no ads connecting Rob Portman to the failed Bush economy. There has been talk of the waste, and pettiness, of the Senator signing the Cottan letter that disrespects the US Constitution. Democratic leaders, like Senator Sherrod Brown, have not been travelling the state and tell the people of Ohio how Senator Portman has put party ideology above his constituents interest. The Ohio Democratic Party has been cowering to the national party, and Ted Strickland capitulated to Rob Portman by the time summer ended.
The Ohio Problem is not going away while we have the same failed local leaders, and the same disinterested candidates, populating the Democratic Party. The professional political operatives in the Buckeye state have once again focused all of their energy on the Presidential campaign, and voters have once again been left with no support to have people in Congress that represent their ideals. Ted Strickland may have official thrown in the towel in September, but he never had the will to put up a credible fight. Ohio will once again be talked about as being a crucial swing state for Presidential race, but when it comes to local politics it is as red as any other Republican stronghold. Thanks to inept leadership, Ohio Democrats continue to let the Ohio Problem grow. The voters deserve leaders who care.
RD
RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Do you have a thought about the Ohio Problem. Tell us all about it.
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