While I'm far from blameless I thought that I would do something constructive about the Hackett/Brown incident instead of destructive by talking about what else we can do in Ohio instead of complaining about a situation that we can't change. Even if you don't like Brown there are a number of things we can do to help Democratic candidates in Ohio. We can do well and elect people who would do a good job and can win. Regardless of our feelings, whether Hackett or Brown supporter there are other things we can be focusing on. What things? Well there are a number of races we can look at that would be worth following and helping (whether financially or man hours wise):
Ohio Governor
This one should be fairly obvious. Ohio has had Republican Governors since 1990 (when George Voinovich pulled out a squeaker over the late Tony Celebreeze) and we have our best chance in a long time to reverse the trend. Ted Strickland (
http://tedstrickland.com/) is the best candidate we've had for Ohio Governor in a long while and he seems to be a good guy even if he's more moderate than a lot of folks here. He is facing opposition from former State Representative Bryan Flannery but it seems likely that he'll be the Democratic nominee. Meanwhile Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and Attorney General Jim Petro seem to be in a fairly nasty primary. Strickland is doing alright fundraising wise (he had raised $3 million and had over $ 2 million cash on hand which is slightly ahead of Petro and Blackwell) but it certainly can't hurt to contribute or volunteer.
Secretary of State
We don't need to ask about why this is important and further we have a good candidate in Franklin County Judge/ex-Secretary of State aide Jennifer Brunner (http://www.jenniferbrunner.com/) who could also use our contributions and time. The Republicans have a 3 way primary.
Attorney General
This race just got harder as former Attorney General/State Auditor Betty Montgomery just transfered here after her aborted bid for Governor (she may be damaged somewhat by the weakness of her bid but, remember, this woman has won 3 statewide elections including one to this seat). Which is a shame as State Senator Tim Grendell would have been a much weaker candidate. Meanwhile we have 2 solid candidates of our own running for this one in ex-Cleveland Law Director Subodh Chandra (http://www.chandraforohio.com/) and State Senator Marc Dann (http://www.dannforohio.com/).
A lot of people think that some fairly minor scandals are going to scuttle Dann but they seemed fairly minor or inaccurate but time will tell. However, regardless of Dann's scandal's I perfer Subodh Chandra as not only is he qualified but there seems to be something special about him and he seems to be a true reformer in a state that sorely needs it. Chandra has been campaigning fairly hard for the office (http://www.chandraforohio.com/... and he's been doing events like these for quite awhile before) and has had some solid fundraising typically raising just under $200,000 a quarter (which is better than Grendell was doing).
State Treasurer
Janette Bradley is the only incumbent running for re-election in the Ohio Constitutional offices but she was appointed not elected so that would probably serve to blunt any incumbent advantage she has. Further there are currently two solid Democrats running against her in Franklin County Treasurer/ex-State Rep. Richard Condray (http://www.cordraycommittee.com/) and Montgomery County Treasurer Hugh Quill (http://www.hughquill.com/). Currently Condray seems to be a clear frontrunner for the Democrats and seems like a good choice.
State Auditor
Another open seat and the Republicans have a primary between state party executive director Christ McNulty and State Representative Mary Taylor. The Democrats running are State Representative Barbra Sykes (http://www.house.state.oh.us/... no campaign site) and Mahoning County Treasurer John Reardon (http://www.reardonforauditor.com/). I know very little about either Democrat though I heard less than positive comments about Sykes and as I understand it Mahoning County has some negative connotations (from the Youngstown presence).
Competitive congressional races - In the interests of time I'm going to do much shorter write-ups on these:
Ohio District 1
While the district isn't super competitive it does feature the more Democratic portion of Hamilton county and Cincinnati City Councilman John Cranley is a good candidate (http://www.johncranley.com/) who did alright in his 2000 run (and who's raised a respectable $187,000 so far).
Ohio District 15
Deborah Pryce is running against Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy (http://www.kilroyforcongress.com/) in a district that went for John Kerry. Further Kilroy has shown suprisingly good fundraising having raised $171,000 ($140,525 from individual donors) in one quarter despite not having campaigned for the whole quarter. Further, the vast majority of Pryce's fundraising is from PACs (67% according to opensecrets.org), which can indicate that the incumbent may be losing steam in their district.
Ohio District 18
Bob Ney seems likely to be indicated and he is pretty much going to be the GOP nominee (his only primary opponent is listed simply as James Harris by politics1 with no website, which generally indicates a low key campaign if there isn't a listing of occupation). On the Democratic side is a 4 way primary between Chillicothe Mayor Joe Sulzer (http://www.joesulzer.com/) who is the leader in fundraising (even if some of it was his own money), Dover Law Director Zack Space (http://www.zackspace.org/), State Board of Education member Jennifer Stewart (http://jenniferstewartforcongress.com/), and training consultant Jeff Woollard (http://friendsofjeffwoollard.com/). Currently Sulzer seems to be the leader in fundraising and establishment support while Space has some support from people here. Jennifer Stewart just entered the race and I don't know as much about her while Jeff Woollard seems to be more of a longshot. It'll be interesting but winnable with hard work.
So, in short, even if the Senate race is giving you reason to be upset there are still important opportunities here that we need to work on. So channel the anger in a constructive as opposed to destructive manner.