Ohio's out-of-power Democrats need to emulate '80s GOP in the grass-roots grunt work that can turn the political tide: Thomas Suddes
Republicans even in the minority were a thorn in the side of Democrat Richard Celeste when he was governor of Ohio from 1983-91, Thomas Suddes writes.
Thomas Suddes, cleveland.com
Even if cats could vote, Ohio Democrats probably couldn't elect a Statehouse dogcatcher. But that's today. Tomorrow might be different.
Now, for instance, Ohio Republicans are riding high. Time was, in the 1980s, the GOP was left for dead. But Republicans remembered something Democrats seem to have forgotten: When a party finds itself in the minority on Capitol Square, what shouldn't ebb is the minority's quest to oppose the majority – to act as a check and balance, to slam brakes on power.
For example, state Senate Republicans, led by the late Paul E. Gillmor of Old Fort, kept Democratic Gov. Richard F. Celeste's administration on its toes. True, GOP senators had to run in districts that Democrats had drawn. But the Senate GOP caucus seemed to follow Woody Hayes's football strategy: Three yards and a cloud of dust. That is, persistence, not spectacle, helped win state Senate seats.
So, district by district, in November 1976, then November 1978, finally in November 1980, Senate Republicans, with the late Ashland conservative Thomas A. Van Meter among those in the vanguard, rebuilt a majority. (Among candidates they elected: A young Ohio State grad named John Kasich). The GOP briefly lost its Senate majority in 1982, but regained it in 1984, and has run the Senate ever since.
The 33-seat Senate has 23 Republicans, 10 Democrats. Seventeen seats are on November's ballot. Two Republicans are unopposed (Findlay's Cliff Hite and Bob Peterson of Sabina); so is one Democrat, the Youngstown-area's Joseph Schiavoni.
The Ohio Manufacturers' Association's invaluable "2014 Election Guide" reports that Mitt Romney drew 62 percent of the vote in Hite's district and 57 percent in Peterson's, while Barack Obama drew 57 percent of the vote in Schiavoni's. Maybe those stats, and Senate districts of roughly 350,000 residents, explain that trio's lack of opponents.
Ohio's 99-seat House has 60 Republicans, 39 Democrats. All 99 seats are on this year's ballot. Democrats are unopposed in five House districts (roughly 117,000 residents each) where Barack Obama drew an average of 81 percent of the vote, so Republican challengers there would stand virtually no chance. Meanwhile, though, House Republicans are unopposed in 14 districts they now hold – almost a fourth of their 60-seat caucus. Mitt Romney drew an average 58 percent of the vote in those districts. While it's unlikely a Democrat would pry one of those House seats loose, they might, if focused, have harried and vexed the House GOP caucus.
Among unopposed Republicans is Rep. Cliff Rosenberger of southwest Ohio's Wilmington area, who may become House speaker in January. Yet even 20-year Democratic Speaker Vernal G. Riffe of the Portsmouth area generally faced a GOP challenger, however doomed.
Ohio Democrats are spirited when they want to be. They made a vigorous pitch last week, hoping to woo the 2016 Democratic National Convention to Columbus. And you can be sure Democrats' state organization, which is to pithy comments what a Pez dispenser is to candy, monitors every move made by Kasich, who's now governor.
But rank-and-file grunt work – and that's what electing state legislators is – seems to offer too little glamor (compared to, say, a Hillary Clinton appearance) to draw workers. But as Riffe himself observed, running opponents even in politically hopeless General Assembly districts at least had a chance of distracting the other party's campaign managers.
Riffe likely didn't know the daily toast offered by Florida political boss Ed Ball: "Confusion to the enemy." But Riffe did know that running challengers in as many Ohio House districts as possible could accomplish just that.
Thomas Suddes, a member of the editorial board, writes from Athens.
To reach Thomas Suddes: tsuddes@gmail.com, 216-999-4689