Union law draws contenders into Ohio primaries

ANN SANNER

Asso­ci­ated Press

COLUMBUS — The suc­cess­ful cam­paign to repeal Ohio’s col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing law last fall has drawn teach­ers and other pub­lic work­ers into Demo­c­ra­tic pri­mary races across the state as the party tries to regain seats in the Republican-dominated Leg­is­la­ture that passed the measure.

At least one GOP can­di­date also is using his oppo­si­tion to the union-limiting bill to dis­tin­guish him­self in a three-way con­test that includes an incum­bent state rep­re­sen­ta­tive who voted for the legislation.

The mea­sure would have affected more than 350,000 teach­ers, police, fire­fight­ers and other gov­ern­ment employ­ees. After an almost $41 mil­lion cam­paign, 62 per­cent of vot­ers rejected it in November.

The state’s March 6 pri­mary fea­tures 14 Demo­c­ra­tic and 18 Repub­li­can matchups for the Ohio House. The GOP has three races for the Ohio Sen­ate, while Democ­rats have no pri­mary contests.

The col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing over­haul is giv­ing Repub­li­can Eric Spicer of Beaver­creek a chance to present him­self as a “non­politi­cian” look­ing to avoid par­ti­san fights.

Spicer is a com­man­der with the Greene County Sheriff’s Depart­ment who has been in law enforce­ment for 22 years. Had he been in the House, he said, he would have voted against the leg­is­la­tion because it elim­i­nated bind­ing arbitration.

While his oppo­si­tion to the bill wasn’t his main moti­va­tion for get­ting into the race, Spicer said, “It’s def­i­nitely an exam­ple of why good peo­ple need to step forward.”

“Let’s get the peo­ple who are dri­ven by career pol­i­tics and by money and try­ing to profit as much as they can, out of it, and get peo­ple up there who actu­ally know these issues from the inside out,” he said.

Spicer is chal­leng­ing Greene County Com­mis­sioner Rick Perales, and incum­bent state Rep. Jar­rod Mar­tin in the south­west Ohio district.

Mar­tin is one of six incum­bent Repub­li­can rep­re­sen­ta­tives fac­ing pri­mary oppo­nents, but he is the only seat holder with­out the sup­port of the House GOP caucus.

Mar­tin was arrested in July in Jack­son County on a drunken-driving charge that was dis­missed. Mar­tin pleaded guilty to a traf­fic vio­la­tion for fail­ing to keep a trailer he was haul­ing in a marked lane and was fined $150 plus court costs.

House Speaker William Batchelder has told Mar­tin it would be in the best inter­est of his fam­ily and the House Repub­li­can cau­cus if he would step down.

Demo­c­ra­tic can­di­date Donna O’Connor stood on the steps of the Ohio Capi­tol with other demon­stra­tors last spring to oppose col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing restrictions.

The Dublin teacher said she soon real­ized she wanted to rep­re­sent the voices of her fel­low pub­lic work­ers inside the State­house. She’s seek­ing a House seat in the Colum­bus sub­urbs for the first time.

“We need edu­ca­tors,” she said. “We need peo­ple inside the State­house mak­ing sound deci­sions as far as pub­lic edu­ca­tion and work­ers’ rights and women’s rights.”

O’Connor’s three-way race includes busi­ness­man David Robin­son, who nar­rowly lost a leg­isla­tive bid in 2010, and David Donofrio, a for­mer Ohio Leg­isla­tive Ser­vice Com­mis­sion fel­low and deputy clerk of courts in Franklin County.

The win­ner would face state Rep. Mike Duf­fey, a Repub­li­can from Wor­thing­ton who voted for the col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing bill.

Besides Robin­son, other famil­iar faces in next month’s pri­mary include one Demo­c­ra­tic state leg­is­la­tor who is look­ing to make a return.

For­mer state Rep. Terry Tran­ter left the Ohio House 20 years ago. He is chal­leng­ing incum­bent Rep. Denise Driehaus in a newly redrawn Cincinnati-area dis­trict to which she moved in order to keep her seat.

The state redraws dis­trict bound­aries every 10 years to reflect pop­u­la­tion shifts iden­ti­fied in the U.S. Census.

Driehaus also faces Madis­onville Demo­c­rat Luke Brock­meier, who is mak­ing his first run for pub­lic office.

Brock­meier has the back­ing of Courage PAC, the polit­i­cal action com­mit­tee headed by for­mer Ohio Sec­re­tary of State Jen­nifer Brun­ner, a Demo­c­rat. The endorse­ment made note of the fact Brock­meier is the only abortion-rights pro­po­nent in the pri­mary. Tran­ter, mean­while, gar­nered the Ohio Right to Life endorse­ment in the contest.

Driehaus is one of six incum­bent House Democ­rats who face pri­mary chal­lengers, includ­ing Minor­ity Leader Armond Bud­ish of Beachwood.

Cincin­nati Tea Party founder Mike Wil­son is hop­ing to again chal­lenge Demo­c­ra­tic incum­bent Rep. Con­nie Pil­lich. Their match-up in 2010 trig­gered auto­matic recounts. Pil­lich, a Cincin­nati lawyer, edged out Wil­son by just over 600 votes.

Wil­son first must beat Repub­li­can Lon­nie Bowl­ing Jr. in the Hamil­ton County primary.

So far, the GOP out­paced their Demo­c­ra­tic rivals in cam­paign cash at the start of the 2012 elec­tion cycle.

In their most recent cam­paign fil­ings, leg­isla­tive Repub­li­cans reported rais­ing nearly $4.2 mil­lion. That’s 17 times the cash of their Demo­c­ra­tic rivals.

House Repub­li­cans raised $2.7 mil­lion and have $4.1 mil­lion on hand to spend. Sen­ate Repub­li­cans raised $1.5 mil­lion and have $3.5 mil­lion on hand.

House Democ­rats raised a frac­tion of that. They reported col­lect­ing about $417,000 in dona­tions, with $411,000 on hand. Sen­ate Democ­rats raised even less — about $35,000 — and have less than $39,000 in the bank.

Posted by AP News on Feb 20 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.