At a time when control of the Ohio statehouse hangs by a thread and has national ramifications, Democrats are ceding two key statehouse races without a battle. In the 93rd Ohio House district, no Democratic candidate has yet declared, and in the 89th, the declared Democratic candidate has just withdrawn.
Both districts lie in Ted Strickland's old congressional territory, along the Ohio River, and both seats are being vacated by Democrats who are close Strickland allies -- Jennifer Garrison and Todd Book, darlings of the Ohio Dem machine.
This is what happens when political machines crumble.
Assuming both seats go red, Republicans need only recapture two more to regain a majority in the 99-seat body. That's out of about a dozen that are considered "in play." The Ohio legislature elected in 2010 will control congressional redistricting, and Ohio is expected to lose 1 or 2 seats in the 2010 congressional reapportionment. Republicans will almost certainly retain a narrow majority in the Ohio Senate.
Quite a time for Ohio Democrats to be folding and going home.
That the two forfeits (and even Party stalwarts concede there is little hope) both come in Stricklandia is no coincidence. This, the southern portion of Appalachian Ohio, is where the Democratic machine that now controls Ohio originated and festered. Here I'll look at what's going on behind the scenes of the Ohio machine's decrepitude.
In district 93, which includes the city of Marietta, House Majority Leader Garrison has left to run for Secretary of State, a position in turn being vacated by Jennifer Brunner so the latter can run for U.S. Senate. Garrison, widely considered a DINO, has alienated about 90% of Democrats in the state by reactionary deal-making, and progressives are still mourning the departure of progressive Marilyn Brown from the SOS primary race -- a departure that appeared to be a force-out by the machine.
That there are no "Democrats" ready to step up to the plate behind Garrison in Old Marietta, as it is called, is just par for the course. The machine destroyed its own base in that region. Blue Dog Charlie Wilson represents the area in Congress. Charlie is widely suspected of calling Ted Strickland each morning for instructions on how to tie his shoes. We need a new designation for Blue Lap Dog Democrats like Wilson -- BLAP Dogs?
The 89th is even more interesting. Current state rep. Todd Book is term-limited, and has declared his candidacy for U.S. Congress in OH-02, about 93% of which (by population) falls outside his statehouse district. That congressional run challenges the much-more viable candidacy of David Krikorian, who has name recognition and support throughout OH-02.
But Krikorian is an insurgent with no machine credentials, and he won't take PAC money, which makes him untrustorthy for the machine. Therefore, Strickland and the ODP have rallied to the Book cause, just to stop a potential insurgency.
And therein lies the big problem. The machine Dems in Stricklandia have been so fucused on fighting off insurgent Democrats, they haven't had time to also fight Republicans.
An even better example lies in Portsmouth, the biggest city in the 89th statehouse district and arguably Ted Strickland's hometown. (Strickland grew up in the outskirts.) The Democratic machine has run Portsmouth for eons, and run it into the ground. Scioto County recently became the first of Ohio's counties to be declared in a state of fiscal emergency.
Meanwhile, Portsmouth's Democratic machine mayor, Jim Kalb, has urged voters for the last four years to approve a new city center, to be built with non-existent funds, but of course providing lots of union construction jobs, in theory.
Portsmouth voters already told the Dem machine to go to hell by defeating the city hall proposal soundly in a 2008 referendum. They did it again by giving Kalb's challenger, Jane Murray, the Democratic Party nomination for mayor, for the 2009 election, coming in less than two weeks. Kalb, however, is still running without the nomination. The suspense, I am told, is whether the incumbent mayor will place second -- or third.
It is in this environment that the Strickland machine has collectively thrown up its hands, at least for the statehouse races. With the real fight now between Republicans and a new generation of insurgent Democrats like Murray and Krikorian, the old machine hacks seems to have a preference for Republicans.
Thus, Bob Walton, Jr., who once was considered a shoo-in to take Todd Book's statehouse seat in the 89th, announced his withdrawal from the race two weeks ago, according to the Ironton Tribune: http://www.irontontribune.com/... "It's not the right time" for his "young family," so he says.
It's impossible to understand Bob Walton, Jr., without understanding Bob Walton, Sr. The senior Bob has been the force behind the Scioto County Democratic machine for at least the last three decades. He not only directs the Community Action organization (a powerful force in impoverished Appalachian counties), but he he also sits on the board of the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative (SODI) -- a fancy name for a federally funded development corporation.
It was SODI that partnered with another developer from Cleveland to form the consortium that proposed turning the Piketon federal reservation into the world's largest dump-site for spent nuclear fuel. You may recall that congresswoman Jean Schmidt was tagged (by me) with supporting that nefarious plan.
But it was Walton's development group that proffered the plan that Schmidt supported. (By the way, Portsmouth mayor Kalb and Ted Strickland also provided SODI with letters of support for that plan.)
If it's true that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, the loss of Walton Jr. from the statehouse race is no great loss to genuine Democrats.
Just please, Mr. Walton, don't show your face in any future political contest from here on out. Regards to your dad.