Ohio Democratic chairman beats back challenge

JULIE CARR SMYTH

Asso­ci­ated Press

COLUMBUS — The chair­man of the Ohio Demo­c­ra­tic Party on Wednes­day hand­ily beat back a chal­lenge to unseat him in a party squab­ble with impli­ca­tions for this fall’s pres­i­den­tial elec­tion in a crit­i­cal swing state.

A major­ity of a 66-member cen­tral com­mit­tee voted for cur­rent chair­man Chris Red­fern over chal­lenger Tony Gia­r­dini, the party chair in Lorain County, in a con­test that was also tinted with shades of the 2014 race for Ohio governor.

Besides con­trol­ling the esti­mated $60 mil­lion likely to flow through the party this year, Red­fern will now lead Democ­rats’ effort to win back the gov­er­nor­ship from Repub­li­can John Kasich in two years.

In a state­ment, Red­fern said he was “hon­ored” that com­mit­tee mem­bers “put their faith in my con­tin­u­ing abil­ity to effec­tively fight for our Demo­c­ra­tic val­ues.” He said the state’s Democ­rats can now rally around the “uni­fy­ing goal” of re-electing Pres­i­dent Barack Obama and Ohio’s top Demo­c­ra­tic officials.

The Ohio Repub­li­can Party will set­tle an even more pointed and pub­lic feud of its own Fri­day, when its cen­tral com­mit­tee chooses a replace­ment to a party chair who resigned under pres­sure from Kasich and his allies.

Red­fern, a for­mer state law­maker from Port Clin­ton, was hand-picked in 2005 to lead the Ohio Demo­c­ra­tic Party by soon-to-be Gov. Ted Strick­land. Strick­land lost a re-election bid in 2010 but has not ruled out run­ning again in 2014. Red­fern was backed by U.S. Sen. Sher­rod Brown, the state’s high­est rank­ing Demo­c­ra­tic elected offi­cial, and House Demo­c­ra­tic Leader Armond Budish.

Giardini’s can­di­dacy, mean­while, was orches­trated by polit­i­cal strate­gist and fundraiser Melissa Barn­hart, an ally of for­mer Ohio Attor­ney Gen­eral Richard Cordray.

Cor­dray — who, like Strick­land, lost a re-election bid in 2010 — is serv­ing as Pres­i­dent Obama’s con­sumer pro­tec­tion direc­tor. But he has not ruled out a run for gov­er­nor in 2014. Barn­hart has worked for Cordray’s cam­paigns since 1998, includ­ing his races for state trea­surer and attor­ney general.

A mes­sage left with Cor­dray seek­ing com­ment was not imme­di­ately returned.

For­mer Ohio Sec­re­tary of State Jen­nifer Brun­ner, who was sup­port­ing Gia­r­dini in the fight, said she had no evi­dence Cordray’s polit­i­cal aspi­ra­tions played any role in the con­test. She said Barn­hart has other clients besides Cor­dray — she’s also done work for Colum­bus Mayor Michael Cole­man, for example.

Brun­ner said her main rea­son for sup­port­ing Gia­r­dini was that she believes Redfern’s cam­paign to retake a seat in the Ohio House this fall will divide his atten­tion at a crit­i­cal time.

It’s a seat Red­fern pre­vi­ously held. He said he was approached by Bud­ish to run again because of a “tim­ing issue.” Incum­bent state Rep. Den­nis Murray’s law part­ner died and Mur­ray needed to devote more time to his practice.

“They were afraid we (Democ­rats) would lose the seat, and I run very well there. It’s my home,” Red­fern said. “I lit­er­ally gath­ered the sig­na­tures the night before the fil­ing deadline.”

Red­fern said he con­sulted with Brown and oth­ers before mak­ing the deci­sion and no one raised con­cerns about him run­ning. He was a sit­ting law­maker when he first ran for chair­man in 2005 and served simul­ta­ne­ously in both jobs for about three years.

At least one of the labor unions that lined up behind Gia­r­dini pointed to another rea­son for want­ing to replace Red­fern: the Democ­rats’ sweep­ing losses in 2010.

Kenny Hol­land, sec­re­tary trea­surer of the Labor­ers’ Dis­trict Coun­cil of Ohio, wrote in a let­ter of sup­port for Gia­r­dini that the Democ­rats’ “dev­as­tat­ing” 2010 defeat has shaken his con­fi­dence in the chair­man. The party headed into that elec­tion with con­trol of all but one statewide office, and wound up los­ing every seat in a Repub­li­can sweep.

Red­fern back­ers pointed to labor’s sub­se­quent resound­ing vic­tory in 2011 turn­ing back Kasich’s col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing law, Sen­ate Bill 5.

Brun­ner said some cen­tral com­mit­tee mem­bers were under pres­sure — real or per­ceived — to sup­port Redfern.

Posted by AP News on Apr 12 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.