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SEVEN
TABBED TO BE OHIO CHAMBER PAC
CHAMBER CHOICE CANDIDATES
Since 1994, P.a.C.E. has performed district and candidate research to
identify races for the state legislature where business people can best
target their support to pro-business candidates. This research is used
to select the Ohio Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee’s
Chamber Choice list.
With the November 2 General Election just more than three months away,
OCCPaC this week announced the selection of seven Ohio General Assembly
candidates as its slate of Chamber Choice endorsed candidates for 2004.
The purpose of the Chamber Choice list is to identify pro-business candidates
running in competitive races that need business help to get elected.
In short, it offers Ohio Chamber members the opportunity to make a real
difference in the pro-business composition of the legislature by targeting
their involvement and resources in districts where they can make the
greatest difference.
Prior to this year, 36 candidates had been Chamber Choice candidates,
15 of whom are still serving in the General Assembly. As a group, these
15 legislators have demonstrated pro-business voting records well above
the average. For their careers, their average pro-business voting record
is nearly 97% – more than 16% better than the average for the General
Assembly as a whole. And, during the current session, their average
score is almost 19% better. Moreover, these lawmakers were elected in
races where their opponents were much less favorable to the business
community.
The seven 2004 Chamber Choice candidates represent a mix of Democrats
and Republicans, House candidates and Senate candidates, and incumbents
and open seat candidates. What they share is a commitment to advancing
a pro-jobs and economic growth agenda.
The slate of OCCPaC Chamber Choice candidates:
Ohio Senate
Sen. Joy Padgett (R-Coshocton)
20th Senate District
Of the 16 Senate races this fall, this campaign in the 20th district
between appointed Sen. Padgett and Terry Anderson (D-Athens) is clearly
the one to watch. Padgett replaced former Sen. Jim Carnes (R-St. Clairsville)
in January after having spent the past five years as director of the
Governor’s Office of Appalachia. She picked up right where she
left off when she resigned her House seat back in 1999, casting pro-business
votes all nine times this session. This gives her a 91% cumulative General
Assembly voting record over her career.
Rep. Charlie Wilson (D-St. Clairsville)
30th Senate District
Wilson, a small business owner, has been in the House since 1997 and
has compiled a 92% cumulative pro-business voting record – higher
than all but two other House Democrats. He received the OCCPaC endorsement
in his last two re-election campaigns and in this year’s March
Democrat primary. On paper, the 20th district leans Democrat, but this
race is primarily on the Chamber Choice list because of the tremendous
financial advantage enjoyed by the Senate Republican Campaign Committee.
With very few places to spend their money, Senate Republicans may choose
to make at run at the 20th even with their relatively unknown candidate,
Michael Wilkes (R-Columbiana). They attempted a similar play two years
ago, spending over $400,000 in a losing effort against Sen. Tom Roberts
(D-Dayton).
Ohio House
Rep. Earl Martin (R-Avon Lake)
57th House District
Martin is seeking his first full term after being appointed to succeed
the late Rep. Jeff Manning (R-N. Ridgeville) in April 2003, and he is
widely considered to be the most vulnerable incumbent legislator. His
real world business experience – he owns three delis and also is
involved in property development and rental management – has translated
into him becoming a strong business advocate in the legislature, as
evidenced by his 100% pro-business voting record since his appointment.
Rep. Kathy Walcher (R-Norwalk)
58th House District
Freshman Rep. Walcher, the former Huron County Clerk of Courts, has
a solid 85% pro-business score during her first term. In recent years,
this district has proven to be particularly difficult for a pro-business
candidate to hold, with the winner capturing more than 51% of the vote
just one time in the past six elections. In addition, Walcher’s
re-election will have the added benefit of derailing the political ambitions
of her opponent, a plaintiff’s attorney.
Chris Galloway (R-Concord)
62nd House District
This district is currently represented by Rep. Jaime Callender (R-Willowick),
who is term-limited. It is the top target for Democrats among GOP-held
open seats and the Democrat candidate is five-term Willowick Mayor Lorraine
Fende. Galloway is accounts receivable manager for a Cleveland-based
office equipment distributor and was twice elected a Republican State
Central Committeeman. He demonstrated an impressive understanding of
an array of complex business issues during a sit-down interview and
scored a solid 91% on his candidate questionnaire.
Rep. Jeff Wagner (R-Sycamore)
81st House District
Wagner was first identified as a business advocate when OCCPaC endorsed
him in a four-way GOP primary two years ago. The farmer and former Seneca
County Commissioner hasn’t disappointed, either, turning in a perfect
100% pro-business voting record during his first term. His opponent
is popular seven-term Sandusky County Auditor Bill Farrell (D-Fremont).
Ron Hood (R-Ashville)
91st House District
The 91st district is currently held by Speaker of the House Larry Householder
(R-Glenford), who is prevented by term-limits from running for re-election.
Hood, who represented a northeastern Ohio district in the House from
1995-2000, is attempting a comeback after relocating to Pickaway County
in 2003. During his six years in the House, he put together a 96% pro-business
voting record, and was endorsed by OCCPaC in his 2000 and 1998 re-elections.
OCCPaC
ENDORSEMENTS TRULY EARNED IN 2004
Though the focus for OCCPaC this fall will be on supporting the seven
Chamber Choice candidates, we’ve also endorsed candidates in other
legislative contests. These endorsements recognize candidates who have
demonstrated an understanding of important business issues and support
for a business-friendly agenda. A complete list of OCCPaC’s 2004
General Election endorsements can be found here.
For incumbents, P.a.C.E. General Assembly Voting Record scores are the
primary endorsement criteria. Legislators with high voting records earned
them this session, as there were votes on a number of pro-business bills
that caused significant splits in the legislature. There were also two
bills – one in the House and one in the Senate – that had
floor votes on legislation opposed by the Ohio Chamber. The voting record
scores, as a result, ranged widely – from a low of 31% to a high
of 100% in the Senate and from 22% to 100% in the House.
The voting records of each member of the General Assembly is available
at http://www.ohiobusinessvotes.org/record/default.asp,
and the responses of all candidates to our written candidate questionnaire
can be seen at http://www.ohiobusinessvotes.org/survey/default.asp.
NOW
PLAYING ON TELEVISIONS ACROSS OHIO
We wrote before (May 6, 2004 The Political
Edge) about the political canard that, “No Republican has
ever been elected president without wining Ohio” and we all know
how important the Buckeye State is to both presidential candidates’
campaigns. In fact, Ohioans have supported the eventual winner in every
presidential contest since 1964.
A recent review of TV advertising by USA Today illustrates just how
important Ohio is again in 2004. From the day after Sen. John Kerry
became the de facto Democrat nominee – on March 2, “Super
Tuesday” – through June 26, Ohio is one of four states in
which the campaigns of Pres. George W. Bush and Kerry have run more
ads than in any of the other so-called “swing” states.
While the volume of money spent on TV ads doesn’t tell the whole
picture – certainly neither candidate is writing off Florida, for
example – it provides a look at how the presidential campaigns
view the political landscape right now.
Looking at the frequency of ads in just the 17 states viewed as “battleground”
states, the Bush campaign has run an average of 393 ads per electoral
vote, while the Kerry campaign average was 405 per electoral vote. Ohio,
however, with 20 electoral votes, saw 9400 Bush ads, for an average
of 470 per electoral vote, and 9520 Kerry ads, an average of 476. (In
addition to ads paid for by the campaigns directly, these numbers also
include ads focused on the presidential candidates run by outside interest
groups, such as MoveOn.org.)
The other three states that saw ads run by both campaigns at a rate
significantly higher than the overall 17-state average were Iowa, Missouri,
and Wisconsin.
TOP
CAMPAIGN OFFICIALS BREAKDOWN PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST FOR CHAMBER MEMBERS
With so much attention nationally on Ohio’s role in choosing our
country’s next president, the Ohio Chamber invited key Ohio strategists
from both campaigns to discuss the campaign with our Public Affairs
Committee during its meeting last week.
Jim Ruvolo, a former chairman of the Ohio Democrat Party currently serving
as state chairman for the Kerry campaign, and Jo Ann Davidson, a former
Speaker of the Ohio House who is Ohio Valley regional chair of the Bush
campaign, each shared their observations.
Ruvolo noted significant differences between the 2004 campaign and any
other presidential campaign in the recent past. In particular:
• the low
percentage of undecided voters – less than ten percent more than
six months out from the election.
• the level of animosity, not between the campaigns themselves,
but between the supporters of each campaign.
• the firmness of each party’s base – “raiding”
isn’t going to work for either party.
He, of course, is optimistic about Kerry’s chances of capturing
Ohio, and also pointed out key strategic differences for Democrats
between 2000, when Bush carried Ohio by 3.5%, and 2004:
• Kerry will not concede Ohio, as Gore did by pulling out of the
state the first week of October.
• Democrats are more motivated, for which he credited Pres. Bush.
• Kerry is better funded than any presidential candidate has ever
been.
• the party has tools it has never had before, including having
paid staffers on the ground in Ohio earlier than ever before
• the party has the benefit of the organizational appartus’
of the mayors of each of Ohio’s largest cities.
Ruvolo
closed by guaranteeing a Kerry victory in Ohio if turnout approaches
70%; it was just under 64% in 2000.
Davidson, not surprisingly, offered a different assessment. She noted,
too, another significant distinction between the 2004 presidential contest
and other previous campaigns: the fact that the chief opposition to
Pres. Bush is not coming from the Kerry campaign itself, but rather
from a rash of “527” organizations working, in theory, independent
of the Kerry campaign. In particular, she pointed out the TV ads run
by MoveOn.org and the 700 paid canvassers registering voters across
the state for groups like Americans Coming Together (ACT).
According to Davidson, the Bush effort in Ohio will include continual
visits from the President and other administration and campaign surrogates
and, strategically, will focus on grassroots efforts to drive turnout.
She admitted the reason Bush – who was ahead in the polls by seven
percent the week before the election – won Ohio by only 3.5% four
years ago was due largely to a failure to effectively turnout the vote.
Hoping to avoid a repeat, the GOP created its “72 Hour Program”
registration, contact, and turnout effort, and Davidson attributed the
GOP’s success in the 2002 mid-term congressional elections in part
to this program.
As part of this effort, the Bush campaign has made an unprecedented
attempt to sign up volunteers. The goal is on volunteer for every 50
voters, which translates into a goal of 51,000 volunteers in Ohio. Currently,
according to Davidson, the campaign has 49,000. Of these volunteers,
small business men and women comprise the second largest group.
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