A few days ago I did a diary entitled “Want to Support an Ohio “Outsider?” That diary was based on information from Part 3 of Ohio 2nd’s interview with Paul Hackett. In that interview, Hackett mentioned that there were other candidates who were not getting party support because they are “outsiders”. In particular, he mentioned Subodh Chandra, who is running for Attorney General. Since posting that diary, I have learned that the Ohio Dem party has a screening committee making recommendations for ODP endorsements. For more information on this issue, check out the posts in the past week or so at Buckeye Senate blog. I know I’m just one of those “crazy Deaniacs”, but I have this silly notion that the party should not be endorsing candidates in a contested primary. Jill agrees.
Anyway, although the screening committee has made its recommendations, the decision to endorse has not yet been made. Via BuckeyeSenate, this article from the Toledo Blade notes:
The party’s executive committee will meet on Wednesday to decide whether to go along with the committee’s recommendations or whether to endorse any candidates at all. A vote of 60 percent of executive committee members is needed for an endorsement.
The party’s official endorsement could provide an advantage for a candidate going into the primary election, particularly when it comes to fund-raising.
But unendorsed Democratic challengers have embarrassed the party’s leadership by overcoming that advantage in the past.
I’m all for embarrassing the party’s leadership if it becomes necessary, but I figured since the official decision has not yet been made, those of us who oppose these endorsements should make our voices heard. I asked in this thread at BuckeyeSenate who we should write to if ordinary Ohioans wanted to encourage the committee not to endorse in contested primaries and was given this response:
is the link to exec committee it has emails in it. excel spreadsheet.
You need to download Excel Viewer, if you don’t already have something like that, to open the spreadsheet. (You can also access the ODP Executive Committee List via the Ohio Democratic Party web site.)
You know, the more I find out about the inner workings of these things (party politics), the more I wish I’d “taken the blue pill”. But it’s too late now. And I absolutely believe that we need to shine a light on the process.