Ed FitzGerald is doomed. Is it time for him to drop out to save the party?
Ed FitzGerald, the underdog and little-known gubernatorial opponent to John Kasich, is completely finished. Far behind in polling prior to a series of embarrassing stories of illegal activity this past week, gaffes in attempting to deflect criticism, and badly lacking funds when the race should be heating up - FitzGerald has resorted to attempting to make political hay out of the Toledo / Lake Erie drinking water situation. While an issue that surely deserves discussing, FitzGerald lacks the political acumen he needs to draw a clear distinction between himself and Kasich (a governor who has at times bounced between barely popular and downright despised).
The FitzGerald campaign also lost it's first Lt. Governor candidate to a scandal. It seems less interested in the nuances of running a statewide campaign than headlining events geared more for a candidate that comes off less aloof and more spirited and sharp. The fact is the state party backed a bad candidate, didn't vet him, and allowed far too many early mistakes to get by without fixing them.
Now, the questioning moving through August and into September is what to do about Ed FitzGerald.
The time for him to drop out (as Senator Walsh did following his scandal in the Montana Senate race) and be replaced by anything other than a write-in has passed. We're a few days from the deadline for him to even be replaced by a write-in candidate and the thin bench of Democrats with statewide name recognition makes the option of fielding a write-in candidate daunting at best.
Recruiting a big name statewide Democrat to be defeated in a quixotic write-in campaign is near impossible and maybe even more damaging than allowing FitzGerald to run his race to lose by 20 points, which seems like the best outcome for the campaign at this point.
However, with FitzGerald at the top of the ticket in a midterm where some very capable candidates are running tight races with very conservative Republicans may serve to further depress Democratic turnout in what already would have been a low turnout year.
The option exists for FitzGerald to drop out and concede he will be beaten - and for the party to swallow their own mistake by losing the gubernatorial race and focusing on winnable elections.
The downside of course is the obvious black mark this would leave on the party - an unavoidable black mark with or without the presence of FitzGerald on the ticket. However, it's much deeper when you not only concede a loss but distance yourself from the establishment candidate you (the Ohio Democratic Party) championed. The only way to be any more pathetic than this saga has been is to have the state party shrug and abandon their own candidate.
As we get closer to election day, more people will learn about Ed FitzGerald. The gaffes, the embarrassing personal and legal history, the campaign that has been inept from the get-go...but as FitzGerald looms over the ticket as a reverse Midas Touch to the rest of the Democrats, perhaps it is time for the Democratic Party here in Ohio to acknowledge their own mistakes. Maybe there is time to question the judgment of an organization that elevated FitzGerald to this position and maybe FitzGerald's name off the ballot does help Democrats that could have won.
I'm afraid Nina Turner, Connie Pillich, and David Pepper will be victims of FitzGerald and the ODP decision-makers without a mea culpa from the party:
We screwed up, we're sorry, but there's important races to win.
It's that possibility or the possibility that the very presence of the name "FitzGerald" allows these conservatives to sweep Ohio's state wide elections and leave us in the hands of the people that have hurt us most.
I guess it's FitzGerald and the ODP's move. Please, stop screwing up.