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BATTLE
ROYALE SHAPING UP IN SENATE DISTRICT 18
Over the course of the summer and early fall, we profiled several of
the battles brewing for the Senate seats that will be open next year
because of term limits.
Initially, there were seven such seats, but Sen. Leigh Herington’s
(D-Kent) August resignation and the subsequent appointment of Kim Zurz
(D-Green) to replace him reduces that number to six.
So far, we’ve looked at four of these six districts. More than
once we wrote about Senate district 4, where Rep. Gary Cates (R-West
Chester) will be seeking to succeed Sen. Scott Nein (R-Middletown).
We wrote about Senate district 14, where Reps. Tom Niehaus (R-New Richmond)
and Jean Schmidt (R-Loveland) are squaring off in what promises to be
a bitter GOP primary battle to replace Sen. Doug White (R-Manchester).
We previewed the Democratic primary in Senate district 30, where Rep.
Charlie Wilson (D-St. Clairsville) and former Rep. Jerry Krupinski (D-Steubenville)
will square off in an effort to follow Sen. Greg DiDonato (D-New Philadelphia).
And we wrote about the decision by Rep. Patti Clancy (R-Cincinnati)
to run in Senate district 8, where she should have little trouble succeeding
Sen. Lou Blessing (R-Cincinnati).
But the contest shaping up on the Republican side for the right to carry
the party’s banner in Senate district 18 may be the most interesting
of all. Sen. Bob Gardner (R-Madison) is term-limited, and it has been
known for better than a year that Rep. Jamie Callender (R-Willowick)
was interested in replacing him. And, for a long time, it looked like
Callender would perhaps have the field – at least the GOP field
– to himself. Not so.
Rumors first started popping up over the summer that Rep. Tim Grendell
(R-Chesterland), who had announced in April that he would forgo running
for a third term in the House and instead run for a vacant Geauga County
Common Pleas judgeship, was taking a look at running for the Senate.
Then, term-limited Rep. Ron Young (R-Painesville), who had been planning
a run for Lake County Treasurer, announced late last month that he had
changed his mind and would also seek the Senate seat.
Now, Grendell has moved passed the exploratory stage and declared that
he plans to formally announce his Senate candidacy on Dec. 12, setting
the stage for a battle royale between three incumbent members of the
Ohio House – and perhaps others. Colleen O’Toole, a plaintiff’s
attorney with a solo practice in Cleveland, is also said to be considering
a run.
Some observers believe that at least one of the three House members
will ultimately not file to run, though it is unclear as to which one
is most likely to drop out. If it in fact ends up being a three-way
(or more) primary, handicapping it will be difficult.
The district includes all of Geauga and Lake Counties and approximately
23,000 people in eastern Cuyahoga County. Both Callender and Young are
serving the fourth and final terms in the House, and each represents
half of Lake County, while Grendell is in his second term and represents
Geauga County and the Cuyahoga County portion.
Young currently represents the 63rd House district, which is the eastern
half of Lake, including Mentor and Painesville. It is slightly more
Republican than the 62nd district, which is represented by Callender.
The 62nd includes Eastlake, Wickliffe, and Willoughby and the rest of
western Lake. It is not clear that either would have much familiarity
to Geauga County voters.
Though he is serving just his second term, Grendell succeeded his wife,
Diane, who served eight years in the House. In 2000, she ran for and
won a seat on the 11th District Court of Appeals. The 11th district
includes Lake County, so the Grendell surname is not entirely unknown
in that county. In addition, in the 2000 and 2002 GOP primaries for
the Ohio House, there were more than 60% more votes cast in Geauga County
than in the half of Lake represented by Callender, and more than 50%
more cast than in the half of Lake represented by Young.
Grendell has also been the most prolific fundraiser of the three, having
raised over $111,000 in 2002, as compared to about $79,000 by Young
and just over $41,000 by Callender.
So, while obviously not every voter will vote for their current representative
in a Senate primary, Grendell’s Geauga County base, the potential
name recognition he may have in Lake County because his wife has run
there, along with his comparative fundraising success, may make Grendell
an initial slight favorite.
Like the 14th district GOP primary we previewed in the August 14 issue
of The Political Edge, the primary outcome in the 18th could also turn
in large measure on the votes of each candidate on this year’s
biennial budget. Callender is the only one of the three who voted “yes,”
and his vote will no doubt be characterized by the others as a vote
to raise taxes. Such an issue could be a liability in a GOP primary.
From a General Election standpoint, the 18th is a lean GOP district
because, while Lake County is pretty evenly divided politically between
the two parties, Geauga is decidedly Republican. It is uncertain at
this point who the Democrats will run, but the 18th will still be near
the top of the list of 2004’s most competitive Ohio Senate races.
TAX REPEAL EFFORT ON TARGET
During a presentation this week at a meeting of the Ohio Chamber of
Commerce Board of Directors, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell (R) indicated
the effort he is leading to repeal the one-cent sales tax increase –
enacted earlier this year as part of the state’s biennial budget
– is on track to obtain the necessary signatures by the December
20th deadline.
Officially, Citizens for Tax Repeal is spearheading the initiated statute
drive, but Blackwell formed the group. If Citizens for Tax Repeal is
successful in collecting the necessary 96,870 signatures by the deadline,
then the General Assembly will have four months in which to act. Blackwell
promised that, if the General Assembly doesn’t repeal the tax in
the allotted time, he would lead another signature drive to place an
outright repeal for the voters to decide on the November 2004 ballot.
It his opinion that the General Assembly will not act, though others
think they will. Many GOP lawmakers are fearful already of next fall’s
political environment, especially given the fact that most of them will
have to defend their decision to vote to raise the state sales tax from
five percent to six percent. They’re concerned that additional
attention to the tax issue – a certainty if repeal is before the
voters – could lead to major losses at the polls.
CLOCK TICKING TOWARD FILING DEADLINE
Just three weeks from now – January 2, 2004 – is the deadline
for filings of declarations of candidacy for partisan candidates. That
means that anyone who wants to be to run for office next year as a Democrat
or Republican must submit the requisite number of signed petitions to
their Boards of elections by this date.
Ohio Revised Code Sec. 3513.05 stipulates that candidates for the Ohio
Supreme Court must file petitions “signed by at least one thousand
qualified electors who are members of the same political party as the
candidate.” They must also pay a $100 filing fee. Candidates for
the Ohio General Assembly must submit at least 50 signatures, but are
not allowed to submit more than 150, and must also pay a $50 filing
fee.
The filing deadline represents the first key marker of the ’04
election year. It removes the mystery of “who’s running?”
and gives the first certain picture as to what the year’s political
contests will look like.
While the Ohio Chamber’s political staff follows closely on an
ongoing basis developments involving candidates and potential candidates
for the Ohio Supreme Court and General Assembly, there are always surprises.
Political parties often try to capitalize on the filing deadline to
create strategic advantages for their party or candidates. They’ll
sometimes keep a lid on who their candidate for a particular office
is for as long as possible by not even requesting petitions until the
last day, in order to keep the other party guessing. They’ll occasionally
have a candidate who has no real intention of running take out petitions
in order to give the other party pause and perhaps frighten away its
potential candidates.
All of these games will be over, however, on Jan. 2, and, in the first
2004 issue of The Political Edge, we’ll begin taking a closer look
at all of the candidates who file and begin previewing the contested
March 2 primaries.
DEPIERO’S REPLACEMENT NAMED;
MAY FACE PRIMARY CHALLENGE
In last month’s special “Election Recap” issue of The
Political Edge, we reported that Rep. Dean DePiero (D-Parma) was elected
mayor of Parma, Ohio’s seventh largest city, with 60 percent of
the vote. Earlier this month, he resigned in order to take over as mayor.
His colleagues in the House Democratic caucus selected Parma Councilman
Tim DeGeeter to fill the remainder of DePiero’s House term.
This is the second time DeGeeter followed DePiero in office, as he previously
was appointed to fill the vacancy on Parma Council created when DePiero
left after being elected to the House in 1998. In addition to serving
on council, DeGeeter is an attorney who is a part-time prosecutor for
the City of Berea and a part-time assistant law director for the City
of Avon Lake, in Lorain County.
DeGeeter was elected without opposition to a full term on Parma Council
in 1999 and has subsequently been re-elected twice, including just last
month.
Though he will run as an incumbent, it appears DeGeeter may have primary
opposition form former Rep. Ron “Mickey” Mottl, Jr. Mottl,
who applied for the vacancy, served one term in the House but was never
elected. His father, long-time lawmaker Ron Mottl, Sr., was re-elected
to the House in 1996, but resigned shortly after being sworn in in 1997.
His son was tabbed to replace him. DePiero then ousted Mottl in the
1998 Democratic primary.
COLUMBUS PUBLICATION HAS STATEHOUSE TONGUES WAGGING
The talk around the Statehouse earlier this month was the latest issue
of Columbus Monthly, which hit newsstands shortly after Thanksgiving.
Of particular interest was the magazine’s cover story, entitled
“Rating the Legislators.”
Columbus Monthly asked lawmakers, legislative staffers, executive branch
officials, lobbyists, and members of the media to rate the members of
the Ohio General Assembly. The less-than-scientific results – there
were only 60 respondents – were then compiled and lists of the
best or worst three legislators in 13 different categories were presented.
Speaker of the House Larry Householder (R-Glenford) took the overall
honor as “The Best Legislator” as well as topping both the
“most hardworking” and “savviest” categories. The
magazine concludes, “He’s already written the book on legislating
in the term-limits era.”
The “most knowledgeable” went to Sen. Eric Fingerhut (D-Cleveland),
who’s hoping to topple incumbent U.S. Sen. George Voinovich (R)
next November. Sen. Bob Hagan (D-Youngstown) captured “most likable,”
while Rep. Merle Kearns (R-Springfield) is “most compassionate.”
Sen. Steve Stivers (R-Columbus), an appointed incumbent who shepherded
S.B. 80, the comprehensive civil justice reform bill, through
the Senate earlier this year, was voted “rookie of the year.”
Seven of the lists were for characteristics that are not so favorable,
including “least likable,” “least knowledgeable,”
and “most irrelevant.” Three legislators – Reps. Tom
Brinkman (R-Cincinnati), Mary Cirelli (D-Canton), and Tim Grendell (R-Chesterland)
– appeared on at least three of these seven lists.
Given its target audience, Columbus Monthly also devoted special attention
to the Franklin County delegation. Rep. Larry Flowers (R-Canal Winchester)
was rated “most effective” amongst the county’s 12 lawmakers.
FAREWELL TO 2003
This will be the last issue of The Political Edge for 2003. In our ongoing
effort to create a pro-business environment in Ohio and support the
Political and Candidate Education (P.a.C.E.) program mission to “foster
more effective political participation for Ohio businesses,” we
have strived to keep it on a regular publication schedule this year.
We hope you have enjoyed reading it and find it to be useful and informative.
We’ll be back with a new issue shortly after the New Year begins.
In the meantime, we wish you Happy Holidays!
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