Former Gov. Ted Strickland's decision to challenge Sen. Rob Portman, Republican "commonsense conservative," as he sees it, has drawn mostly yawns from Ohio's media stallions who argue it is a dramatic sign of the Democratic Party's pathetic lack of youth and energy. (Strickland is 73).
I would agree that the party needs a younger profile. But for the articles and editorial pages to fret over the Democrats' creaking bones is a rare sign of Ohio's Republican-leaning newspapers to fret over the general welfare of the "other party".
Young or old, it usually doesn't make that much difference who shows up on the state ballot as a Democrat. Don't take my word for it. If age is a factor, here are some engaging figures from the 2014 vote:
Of the five state offices on the ballot, only one posted a Republican younger than his opponent , Treasurer Josh Mandel, 37, big deal(!), who was younger than his opponent Connie Pillich, a lively and competent 54.
In the other four, Republicans were the greybeards - none more pronounced than the attorney general contest that pitted Republican incumbent Mike DeWine, at 68 against Democrat David Pepper, 43!
As long as these many years that I've followed DeWine's career, I've never figured out how he maintains his Rasputin-like grip on editorial writers leading them to such contradictory endorsements. The Plain Dealer produced not a single negative word about Pepper, a Cincinnati lawyer who had ably served as a county commissioner and city councilman. The PD however, did go on distressfully about the lengthy downside of DeWine's tenure as the state's top lawyer, from questionable awards of state contracts to other matters that led him "astray'' by "insulting Ohio's voters for refusing" to debate Pepper.
So what will it be? Sayeth the lords of the Cleveland newspaper world:
"DeWine is a work in progress. But his flaws and blind spots are more than outweighed by his energetic and effective advocacy on behalf of all Ohioans on a range of issue" thus earning him a approval for a second term.
A work in progress at 68? Better hurry.
The PD lined up six of its opinion writers to record the event. Elizabeth Sullivan, the opinion director of the Northeast Ohio Media Group, expressed her sorrow over the old folks party thusly: Strickland's return is "another sorry statement about the dearth of viable Democratic candidates for a statewide run..."
Then, my old paper, the Beacon Journal, concluded that although DeWine "has stumbled at times" the record also showed that he ''has been a much better attorney general than Pepper allows" and deserves a second term.
Jarring, too, is DeWine's active agenda that has been at odds with the paper's position on several major issues dominating everyone's lives, from the Affordable Care Act to abortion rights and same-sex marriage.
With the yawners, I guess, it depends what party is creakily on the ballot.
So for the Dems, would it improve their chances if they sent in a teenage candidate for an endorsement interview? You might grow old waiting for a reply.
Showing posts with label David Pepper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Pepper. Show all posts
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Re DeWine: Shall we not pass the collection plate?
Re-posted from Plunderbund
When I am trying to absorb a monotonal speech by Ohio Atty. Gen. Mike DeWine why do I feel I should be sitting in a pew? As I've noted in the past, DeWine comes across as bottled goodness. He's the people's lawyer, the righteous guy to defend the law, the go-to family man to protect all that is wholesome in American life. Still, Biblical scholars will tell you that there is nothing specific in the Book about modern pay-to-play.
There is nothing in his words to lead you to believe that this 67-year-old social conservative is the same wheeler-dealer who handed out a lucrative contract for debt collection to a close friend and contributor of the Summit County Republican Party chairman who once worked for him. The contrast in his public profile is stunning.
So there he was at the podium as a Akron Press Club/Bliss speaker explaining why he is sworn to uphold the sanctity of traditional marriage, his refusal to debate his opponent, Democrat David Pepper, and his objection to Federal court rulings that declared Ohio's newly minted voter restrictions unconstitutional.
About the debt collection contract: He's asking prospective clients to sign a written form. Problem solved.
About the voting system placed in abeyance by the U.S. Supreme Court: He doesn't think the law is unconstitutional. Problem solved.
About same-sex marriage: Ohio law bans it, regardless of the court decisions, and he dutifuilly must support it. That says nothng about the taxpayers' money his office has spent skipping around the country filing amicus briefs to uphold of such bans in their states. Look, his opposition to gay marriage is in his genes, not the law.
About his refusal to debate: "My opponent is not qualified to be attorney general." The cheapest of shots. Pepper is a Yale law school graduate with a string of student honors - Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude, managing editor of Yale Daily News, etc. etc. etc. (Should I also mention that when DeWine was in the Senate he could not practice law for 10 year because his license was inactive?)
More on the non-debates: DeWine argued that he's already crossed paths in an unofficial "debate" with Pepper in a room interacting with Gannett Ohio editors. In contrast, Sen. Sherrod Brown, then a congressman, debated then Sen.DeWine four times and creamed him by winning a 56 pct. majority vote as a liberal Democrat.
As a personal note, if I may: I once interviewed DeWine for a half-hour TV program. It was painful. People who watched it said he froze on me. And I didn't even try to debate him!
When I am trying to absorb a monotonal speech by Ohio Atty. Gen. Mike DeWine why do I feel I should be sitting in a pew? As I've noted in the past, DeWine comes across as bottled goodness. He's the people's lawyer, the righteous guy to defend the law, the go-to family man to protect all that is wholesome in American life. Still, Biblical scholars will tell you that there is nothing specific in the Book about modern pay-to-play.
There is nothing in his words to lead you to believe that this 67-year-old social conservative is the same wheeler-dealer who handed out a lucrative contract for debt collection to a close friend and contributor of the Summit County Republican Party chairman who once worked for him. The contrast in his public profile is stunning.
So there he was at the podium as a Akron Press Club/Bliss speaker explaining why he is sworn to uphold the sanctity of traditional marriage, his refusal to debate his opponent, Democrat David Pepper, and his objection to Federal court rulings that declared Ohio's newly minted voter restrictions unconstitutional.
About the debt collection contract: He's asking prospective clients to sign a written form. Problem solved.
About the voting system placed in abeyance by the U.S. Supreme Court: He doesn't think the law is unconstitutional. Problem solved.
About same-sex marriage: Ohio law bans it, regardless of the court decisions, and he dutifuilly must support it. That says nothng about the taxpayers' money his office has spent skipping around the country filing amicus briefs to uphold of such bans in their states. Look, his opposition to gay marriage is in his genes, not the law.
About his refusal to debate: "My opponent is not qualified to be attorney general." The cheapest of shots. Pepper is a Yale law school graduate with a string of student honors - Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude, managing editor of Yale Daily News, etc. etc. etc. (Should I also mention that when DeWine was in the Senate he could not practice law for 10 year because his license was inactive?)
More on the non-debates: DeWine argued that he's already crossed paths in an unofficial "debate" with Pepper in a room interacting with Gannett Ohio editors. In contrast, Sen. Sherrod Brown, then a congressman, debated then Sen.DeWine four times and creamed him by winning a 56 pct. majority vote as a liberal Democrat.
As a personal note, if I may: I once interviewed DeWine for a half-hour TV program. It was painful. People who watched it said he froze on me. And I didn't even try to debate him!
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Debates: Mike DeWine,the people's lawyer who isn't there
Re-posted from Plunderbund
Ever since Atty. Gen. Mike DeWine put on his reelection campaign game face, he's been drifting across the masses like a UFO with the best wishes of a forgiving press and a looming Republican year at the polls.
Now you see him, now you don't. He prefers to cast his attention to his other interests that gives him a Deep South spiritual coating as a social conservative - nay, as a blessed Medievalist opposed to abortion, same-sex marriage, raising the minimum wage, defending Hobby Lobby, opposing gun control and above all, the Affordable Care Act. On that point, he has long made his rounds outside the state to wherever he could pitch in to help defeat ObamaCare.
Of late, he has taken up the cause of restricting Ohio's new voter system, the one that a right-wing Supreme Court just delayed after two lower federal courts had ruled it unconstitutional. The Supremes would have overruled tfhe lower courts 5-4 anyway if DeWine had gone fishing. Or spent a little more time facing his opponent, David Pepper, a Cincinnati Democrat, in at least a debate or two.
Pepper put the debate issue in the right context when he spoke at the Akron Press Club this week. As a lawyer himself, Pepper gamely questioned DeWine's rejection of any debate, including the invitation from the Cleveland City Club. Some newspapers gently questioned the UFO's decision, too, but for too many voters, debates are best left to molecular physicists.
Pepper, however, squarely defined DeWine's posture as unbecoming of a guy who must serve as the people's lawyer and be never fearful of airing differences with opponents in courts or anywhere else. "If you're afraid to debate as the attorney general," Pepper declared, "something must be wrong."
Indeed, it is. And that should include the many reports of how DeWine has converted his office into a pay-to-play cash cow, hauling in campaign cash from those who stand to sweeten their own pots in return. In one recent exposed case, DeWine replaced a company that had ably served several different governors in debt collections, giving the lucrative contract to a pal of Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff, despite the recipient's admission that he had little experience in that line of work. (Over the years, Alex has smelled money like a shark attracted to blood. He was once on DeWine's payroll as the AG's liaison in northern Ohio. )
Still there is strong feeling that Mike DeWine towers so high in ballot strength that he is unbeatable. That hasn't always been true. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a liberal Democrat, no less, thumped DeWine out of the. U.S. Senate in 2006 with room to spare. (56 pct. landslide.) On that occasion DeWine had no more than an approval rating in the 30s, putting him just above Rick Santorum as the most unpopular senator on Capitol Hill.
But DeWine has the ability to hover in politics. In 2012 he was a Santorum supporter in the presidential. He then startled the experts with a mid-campaign switch to Mitt Romney when it became increasingly clear that Ol' Rick wouldn't win the Ohio Republican primary. Call his retreat from Santorum as a "course correction".
Four more years for this mercurial UFO? You decide.
P.S. Pepper did speak to the Cleveland City Club luncheon this week, sans DeWine.
Ever since Atty. Gen. Mike DeWine put on his reelection campaign game face, he's been drifting across the masses like a UFO with the best wishes of a forgiving press and a looming Republican year at the polls.
Now you see him, now you don't. He prefers to cast his attention to his other interests that gives him a Deep South spiritual coating as a social conservative - nay, as a blessed Medievalist opposed to abortion, same-sex marriage, raising the minimum wage, defending Hobby Lobby, opposing gun control and above all, the Affordable Care Act. On that point, he has long made his rounds outside the state to wherever he could pitch in to help defeat ObamaCare.
Of late, he has taken up the cause of restricting Ohio's new voter system, the one that a right-wing Supreme Court just delayed after two lower federal courts had ruled it unconstitutional. The Supremes would have overruled tfhe lower courts 5-4 anyway if DeWine had gone fishing. Or spent a little more time facing his opponent, David Pepper, a Cincinnati Democrat, in at least a debate or two.
Pepper put the debate issue in the right context when he spoke at the Akron Press Club this week. As a lawyer himself, Pepper gamely questioned DeWine's rejection of any debate, including the invitation from the Cleveland City Club. Some newspapers gently questioned the UFO's decision, too, but for too many voters, debates are best left to molecular physicists.
Pepper, however, squarely defined DeWine's posture as unbecoming of a guy who must serve as the people's lawyer and be never fearful of airing differences with opponents in courts or anywhere else. "If you're afraid to debate as the attorney general," Pepper declared, "something must be wrong."
Indeed, it is. And that should include the many reports of how DeWine has converted his office into a pay-to-play cash cow, hauling in campaign cash from those who stand to sweeten their own pots in return. In one recent exposed case, DeWine replaced a company that had ably served several different governors in debt collections, giving the lucrative contract to a pal of Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff, despite the recipient's admission that he had little experience in that line of work. (Over the years, Alex has smelled money like a shark attracted to blood. He was once on DeWine's payroll as the AG's liaison in northern Ohio. )
Still there is strong feeling that Mike DeWine towers so high in ballot strength that he is unbeatable. That hasn't always been true. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a liberal Democrat, no less, thumped DeWine out of the. U.S. Senate in 2006 with room to spare. (56 pct. landslide.) On that occasion DeWine had no more than an approval rating in the 30s, putting him just above Rick Santorum as the most unpopular senator on Capitol Hill.
But DeWine has the ability to hover in politics. In 2012 he was a Santorum supporter in the presidential. He then startled the experts with a mid-campaign switch to Mitt Romney when it became increasingly clear that Ol' Rick wouldn't win the Ohio Republican primary. Call his retreat from Santorum as a "course correction".
Four more years for this mercurial UFO? You decide.
P.S. Pepper did speak to the Cleveland City Club luncheon this week, sans DeWine.
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