The 2010 race in Ohio's 2nd district has been set as a match between incumbent Republican Jean Schmidt and Democrat David Krikorian, with the latter holding advantage. Schmidt has known that, which is why she pursued spurious anti-Free Speech charges against Krikorian before the Ohio Elections Commission, hoping to knock him out of contention.
Anyone who saw the televised 2008 debate has known that, because unfunded outsider Krikorian--then running as an Independent, a populist when populism wasn't cool--vastly outperformed both Schmidt and the Democratic nominee. Democrats were left wishing that Krikorian had been our man, and we now have our wish. Krikorian pulled 18% of the ultimate vote, the most of any Independent congressional candidate in the nation that year.
But this hasn't set well with "the Establishment," which views Krikorian as a loose cannon and a potential threat.
And so, some carnival-barkers of the Ohio Political Class are trying to bruise Krikorian if not knock him out of the ring. Unlike Krikorian, who was a lifelong Democrat before 2008, the stunt man anointed to challenge him has never before voted in a Democratic primary, and has never been registered as a Democrat.
He's a 28-year-old Tamil-American oil salesman (Oil of Olay) and failed reality-TV show contestant with a penchant for wearing thousand-dollar Italian suits, who moved to Ohio from the coast (it doesn't matter which) just to run in this election. His name is Surya Yalamanchili, and he calls himself "Chili" in a stretch for folksy appeal. I kid you not.
In order to sell this carny act to the rubes -- those would be the whitebread cornhusker south Ohio Democratic voters -- a whole mythology has been created, and I will deconstruct it here. That mythology consists of a stock set of fabrications and falsehoods spread by machine-operatives in the traditional and non-traditional media, referred to collectively in the local vernacular as "liars."
In fact, Yalamanchili's most recent employment -- the allegedly cushy job from which he somehow was separated on the coast -- was as an "executive" in the field of antisocial networking.
To be clear, in south Ohio, social networking involves going to churches, schools, and actual neighborhoods. Antisocial networking is the thing you do when alone on a keyboard, with invented personas and without the need to show your face or look a person in the eye.
I hear that in Maryland, a corporation has filed to run for a congressional seat, in accord with the Supreme Court ruling that a corporation has the rights of a person. Sorry, Maryland, but that's less cutting-edge than what we have here in Ohio -- Surya Yalamanchili, the first avatar candidate.
Virtual lie #1 about Yalamanchili comes from him, claiming in the words of his own first-person "newsletters" to virtual supporters that:
"the Democratic Party has fully lined up behind our campaign"
Truth: Yalamanchili has received NO party endorsements, and no contributions from official party organizations. He also has filed no financial report with the FEC, implying that he did not reach the legal threshold for reporting in 2009. (First quarter 2010 reports are due shortly.)
Mr. Chili also states that he has received:
"ALL of the major endorsements"
from top Democrats in the district.
Truth: It's David Krikorian who has the key endorsement of the Laborers Union (the only primary endorsement from a union that's been issued in the race), as well as former Cincinnati vice mayor David Crowley, incumbent mayor Jane Murray of the second-largest city in the dirict, Portsmouth, and nearly two hundred community leaders who sit on Krikorian support committees in the four largest counties in the district, with more announcements to come.
Meanwhile, Yalamanchili has received endorsements from precisely five individuals. Three of those individuals live OUTSIDE the district. One, Charlie Luken, is billed as "a former congressman," which is technically true. Charlie represented a different district, OH-01 for only one term in the early 1990s, before he voluntarily quit the seat. Charlie now works as a lobbyist for the gambling industry in Columbus, far from OH-02.
Charlie inherited his congressional seat from his father, Tom Luken, now approaching ninety, who also lives outside OH-02. He did represent OH-02 in Congress, but that was a geographically different district. Tom was apparently recruited by his son as another of Yalamnchili's endorsers. Tom Luken, however, maintains a close and cordial relationship with Krikorian.
There is, indeed, a Luken who actually lives in OH-02. That would be Beth Luken, Tom's daughter, who supports Krikorian and serves on one of his county committees.
Cincinnati mayor Mark Mallory, who lives in OH-01, is the third Yalamanchili-backer. Mallory and Yalamanchili were friends prior to any talk of a congressional run, and both have traveled within the same social circle of Cincinnati young professionals. Mallory has been billed as some kind of a upstart, but the Mallory family is as machine as they come. Mallory's father was Democratic majority leader of the Ohio House, and FOUR of Mallory's brothers have served in elected or appointed public positions. In any case, Mark Mallory has been known to pitch quite wide of the mark. And if you don't catch the reference, see here: http://www.youtube.com/...
That leaves only two big Yalamanchili endorsers who would actually become constituents of a newly elected congressman in OH-02, and those two are neighbors in the super-rich community of Indian Hill. Non-coincidentally, they are the two past Democratic nominees who challenged Jean Schmidt and lost, Paul Hackett and Vic Wulsin. The Wulsin endorsement is so central to Yalamanchili's campaign, that Mr. Chili has put it on his YARD SIGNS. Right in the middle of those signs, it says:
"Endorsed by Vic Wulsin"
Wow, what a coup! Some Democrats are taking Yalamanchili seriously on the basis of the Wulsin endorsement alone. The idea is circulating that Vic really thinks this kid can beat Jean Schmidt, and that no other Democrat can.
But this idea is just part and parcel of the Yalamanchili carny act, because the truth is this: Vic Wulsin has endorsed or stated her intention to endorse EVERY DEMOCRAT IN THE 2010 RACE! And the news is this: Wulsin, who seems to be a bit pissed-off that her name was used on Yalamnchili yard signs, is thinking about extending her endorsement to include David Krikorian and the third Democrat running, Jim Parker. In other words, Wulsin's endorsement was intended as non-exclusive, and ALL THREE Democratic candidates might be able to put "Endorsed by Vic Wulsin" on their yard signs, if they all were as crass and carnival-like as Yalamanchili.
I suspected as much from an early date, because I was present at a town meeting in 2008, where Vic Wulsin told Jim Parker in public that if she lost that year's election, she would endorse Parker in 2010. I know Jim, and I know he took Vic's promise seriously as one factor in his decision to run as a Democrat this year.
I also knew that Wulsin held a series of meetings with Dave Krikorian in May and June of 2009, at which Vic had expressed her intent to endorse David, and plans were made for a joint fundraiser. These arrangements are confirmed by a series of e-mails exchanged between David, Vic, and a mutual friend of theirs, copies of which have been forwarded to me. In those e-mails, Vic broached the question of whether an endorsement could be "non-exclusive."
Vic also implied that she was considering endorsing Krikorian in a private e-mail to me (we do know each other and are alumni of the same department at the same college) sent around the 2009 holidays.
And finally, Vic, who is a medical doctor and not a politician, had run aground on the concept of non-exclusive endorsements once before, in 2006, when she sought the primary endorsement of the Hamilton County Democratic Party. The party split between Vic and Thor Jacobs, deciding to issue no endorsement. Mistakenly, Vic's campaign announced that the party had endorsed both of them, bringing denials from both Jacobs and the party. (Jacobs is a major supporter of Krikorian in 2010.)
Vic likes the concept of non-exclusive primary endorsements, but the party machine, which uses endorsements as weapons, does not.
So when Yalamanchili suggested he had received the exclusive endorsement of Vic Wulsin, it stank. Plus, when I wrote, a number of times, that Vic had ALSO stated her intention of endorsing Krikorian and Parker, the blagger (blogger + blatherer) Brian Hester accused me of lying and said he had Wulsin's denial of this "on the record."
To clear things up, I wrote to Vic, just back from three weeks in Haiti,on Aprl 5, to ask if she had ever denied her intent to endorse both Parker and Krikorian (and also Todd Book, who has since withdrawn from the race). Vic does not acknowledge ever speaking to Brian Hester (I don't blame her), but here is her reply in full, on the same day, April 5:
I have publicly endorsed Chili for this year's primary. I have not decided if I will endorse more than one candidate for the primary. I will determine my level of involvement in the general election after May 4.
Thanks for asking!
Vic
PS I have seriously considered endorsing Jim Parker, Todd Book, and David Krikorian.
So there it is: Vic Wulsin has seriously considered endorsing (and stated her intent to endorse) ALL Democratic candidates in the race to unseat Jean Schmidt. Her Yalamanchili endorsement does not mention or relate to other Democrats, and was not intended as exclusive. And Vic may yet extend her endorsement to the others still in the race.
Nobody should vote for Yalamanchili in the primary on the basis of Wulsin's endorsement. Make your own decision about who best can unseat incumbent Schmidt.
When Brian Hester said that I lied about Wulsin's former pledges to endorse Parker and Krikorian, Hester lied.
Yalamanchili: The Avatar Candidate
So just who is this Chili guy, who claims to fly in from the coast and spontaneously become THE candidate around which, according to his newsletter, ALL "Democrats Unite."
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To deconstruct the Yalamanchili screen persona, to find the flesh-and-blood hacker behind the oversold avatar, some real-world context is necessary -- the history and geography of OH-02. But the bottom line is this: Yalamanchili says he he left some successful virtual job on the coast to enter a field already crowded with tested locals (Schmidt has three GOP primary opponents) in a congressional district that voted 59-40 for John McCain.
Let's be frank: Surya Yalamanchili knows better, he can crunch numbers. He didn't come back to Cincinnati in order to win this congressional seat.
If something is very unlikely to occur, Americans say it will happen "when pigs fly." More pessimistic generally, or perhaps more optimistic about pigs, Russians say it will happen "when lobsters whistle on the hill." Surya Yalamanchili will beat David Krikorian in the primary and then Jean Schmidt in the general election when pigs fly over whistling lobsters on the hill.
Ohio's Second District
Yesterday I visited an actual neighborhood where "free WI-FI" consists of hollering from porch to porch, a block in Scioto County straight from the journals of James Agee. Barefoot children ran amidst piles of rusted metal and broken glass, while their bare-chested fathers salvaged parts from broken-down vehicles on dirt-lots that pass for lawns.
Ohio's second district includes the American extremes of poverty and wealth. The Western School District in Pike County (my county) routinely ranks as one of the two poorest in the state, and among the poorest in all of Appalachia. At the other end of the district, the western end, the end where incumbent Jean Schmidt lives, is the wealthiest community in Ohio, the town of Indian Hill, perched over the factories and ghettoes of Cincinnati like a carrion-eater on its roost.
Republican and Democratic vultures alike come to Indian Hill on pilgrimmage to raise funds. After her selection by McCain, Sarah Palin was flown in to run the high-fallutin' fundraising gauntlet on Indian Hill, and this was a crucial part of Sarah's higher education. (I diaried that event.)
And in this microcosm of old-style class struggle and acquiesence on the fringe of Appalachia, Democrats have consistently run aground by running nominees who appeal to the Indian Hill fundraisers, but not to the base Democrats on the flats of Cincinnati or in the back-hollows of the Appalachian counties.
In brief, that is why both Paul Hackett and Vic Wulsin lost. I know that Paul THINKS he can slum down to drink and smoke with the locals in the hollows, but what Paul doesn't realize is that many of his drinking buddies ended up voting for Schmidt, who, we must admit, does have a certain earthy appeal.
And while I'm quite fond of Vic Wulsin personally, I did have to advise Vic to remove her abundant gold jewelry before attending a Pike County event.
At an auction house, I overheard one Pike County woman say during the 2008 campaign:
"How can they make our laws when they don't know how we live?"
And that's it in a nutshell. That's why Democrats consistently lose, not only elections but base support in OH-02, by following the money and forgetting the actual flesh-and-blood people of this district, who do hold a tremendous reservoir of class resentment, and rightfully so.
THAT'S why Dave Krikorian will beat Jean Schmidt. David can speak to a tobacco farmer or a ginseng hunter or an unemployed steelworker without condescending. He's genuinely interested in how people live and what they think.
Surya Yalamanchili, on the other hand, showed up at an Adams County food bank operation wearing one of his trademark Italian suits. It certainly won him a place in local legend, but it didn't win him any votes.
Yalamanchili's First Avatar: The Independent
Yalamanchili first entered the 2010 race as an Independent, openly plagiarizing the 2008 Krikorian campaign in superficial style (without Krikorian's depth of connection to voters). Surya railed against the depredations of both major parties; targeted fiscal conservatives, swing voters and young professionals as his target audience; and took no position on any political issue, his only stated preference being a style of Cincinnati 5-way chili. As I recall, it was with cheese on the top, or cheese on the bottom, or cheese on the top and the bottom both.
In any case, the whole thing was very cheesy, and I published a diary about Yalamanchili's gimmick entry, which you can read here:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
That Yalamanchili had returned to Cincinnati from some dot.com venture on the coast was a giveaway that the whole congressional campaign thing was indeed a put-up job, a stunt, half of a two-prong strategy by the anti-Krikorian crowd. The other prong was an announced run for the Democratic nomination by a hack state representative from Ted Strickland's home district in Portsmouth, the same representative who had taken credit for inventing the Cook-the-Books scam for counting future income from non-approved slot machines as current state revenue.
Mr. Cook-the-Books (his name is Todd Book) represents only about 7% of the voters in OH-02, and the rest had no idea who he is, which was probably to his benefit. Nonetheless, the entire Democratic Party "establishment" rallied to Mr. Book over the summer, securing support from both the ODP and DCCC. Some heavy-duty disinformation was promulgated, causing the Cook Report to laud and misidentify Book as a state senator.
Book's ability to demolish Krikorian in the primary was ballyhooed in the Ohio blagoshphere (mostly the same Brian Hester), despite the fact that Book had no district-wide name recognition, no actual base, no good reputation, no fundraising ability, and no plausible way to beat Jean Schmidt.
The strategy was clear to all who understand the usual shilly-shallying of OH-02 campaigns. Book would damage Krikorian in the primary by withholding the machine's support. Yalamanchili could then finish Krikorian off in the general, by drawing off a critical segment of Independents and fed-up Republicans. That would guarantee Schmidt another reelection, which is exactly what certain elements of the local Democratic machine wanted to accomplish. (Despite her odiousness, Schmidt serves on the Transportation and Agriculture Committees, giving her sway over key development projects that have local bipartisan machine support.)
That was a clever Machiavellian plan, until....
Beginning in September, 2009, I was contacted via e-mail by an individual identified only as "Scioto Whistleblower." SW, whose identity I came to know but cannot reveal, told a lurid tale regarding the employment of a non-union Georgia construction company to build a retaining wall at the Clay School site in Scioto County. Todd Book had taken credit in the papers for obtaining the state funding for the project -- a kickoff announcement for his congressional campaign. The problem was that the Georgia firm is owned by Book's father, and another retaining wall built by the same firm in Georgia collapsed in the fall of 2009 due to alleged substandard construction.
By October, most of the facts of the sordid matter were confirmed, and the Tri-state Building and Construction Trades Council withdrew its Book endorsement. (The Laborer's Union, chief Ohio union in the council, has since switched its endorsement to Krikorian.) Documents obtained from the Ohio School Facilities Commission added confirmation to the allegations originally made by Scioto Whistlblower, and also revealed an attempt to hide the name of Book's father's firm from the paperwork filed with the state.
Under pressure from the Governor, who had strongly endorsed Book but had his own reelection to worry about, Book withdrew from the congressional race just before Thanksgiving, leaving David Krikorian as the lone candidate in the Democratic field.
Well that certainly dealt a blow to the two-prong anti-Krikorian strategy. So the Anti-Krikorian Party (kind of like the old Anti-Federalists or the Anti-Masonic Party) had to reconfigure late in the game. Since Jim Parker, the other non-Republican candidate, is a friend of David's, and also has limited his campaign, on principle, to raise no more than $5,000 total, Parker was not a viable option.
So the best they could do was to convince Yalamanchili to switch from Independent to Democrat, never mind that it would involve a total renunciation of every bad thing that Mr. Chili had said about the Democratic Party during the fall of 2009. The switch was as easy for Yalamanchili as filling out a second fake profile on an antisocial networking site.
Yalamanchili's Second Avatar: The REAL Democrat
You want to know the funny thing? The funny thing (I'm being facetious, it's not so funny) is that while the Anti-K Party had double four-letter super-WASP Todd Book as its man, a whole lot of anonymous comments appeared on blogs, including my diaries, expressing the "realistic" concern that OH-02 voters, as provincial as they are alleged to be, would never vote for someone with an "ethnic" name like Krikorian. Nor, it was claimed, would Democratic primary voters ever vote for a man who had once run as an Independent. David isn't a "REAL Democrat," it was repeatedly said. (I claim divs on the book title: REAL Democrats Don't Poke Fun at Ethnic Names.)
Now, never mind that AppalachIANS might not have an actual problem voting for someone whose name ends in "ian." My point is that after the Todd Book microbase switched to Yalamanchili, we never saw another anonymous post about the reluctance of Ohioans to vote for someone with an ethnic name. Where did all of that "realistic" concern go?
Moreover, Krikorian had the decency to switch from Independent to Democrat in different election cycles -- and had previously been a Democrat, prior to 2008. Yet all the concern about unreal Democrats suddenly evaporated when Yalamanchili, who has never in his life been a Democrat, made an affiliation switch WITHIN THE SAME CAMPAIGN.
Where is the blagosphere outcry about Yalamanchili as not a REAL Democrat who cannot possibly defeat the mainstream American Schmidt? Mr. Hester? Mr. Potts? Have you guys forgotten the arguments you were making only months ago?
Yalamanchili as a Democrat has been rather hilarious. His website had a "nuclear energy" link that only asked a four-word question, then gave a link to a Google Search page. One newsletter claimed that he had "gone on record" with his views on health care reform in "the Congressional Quarterly," implying that he had authored some article, when the link reviealed that he had only been asked a question by the magazine CQ Politics.
Another newsletter issued after final HCR bill passage claimed that:
"I'm proud to have been the only candidate to have been in favor of health care reform since November."
A flat-out lie since Jim Parker, a health-care administrator, has based two campaigns on health care reform, beginning in 2006. Krikorian also supported health care reform throughout the 2008 campaign, though he reserved judgment on the specific bill until it was in near-final form, and did endorse passage of the bill before the final House vote.
Yalamanchili claimed that he bested his rivals at "the Cincinnati Enquirer's endorsement meeting," when, in fact, it was explained to the candidates that the Enquirer would issue no primary endorsements this year. Mr. Chili went on to imply that the resulting Enquirer coverage favored him and was tantamount to an endorsement, when in fact the Enquirer gave Krikorian top billing and more print, with no hint of any endorsement.
Is this the guy that you machine-hacks and self-proclaimed progressive blaggers really want to go with? Do you have any concept of what mincement this Chili will become if subjected to the Schmidt legal attack battalions? Or is that the point?
While I'm at it, allow me to debunk the other fables of the Yalamanchili Anti-Krikorian mythology:
Fable 1: Krikorian came from no place as a conservative Republican shill
Fact: Krikorian was a lifelong Democrat and never was a Republican. In the 2006 campaign, he supported Vic Wulsin, co-hosted a fundraiser for Wulsin, and attended the Wulsin election-night party (which I also attended, but I didn't know David at the time).
Fable 2: Krikorian ran in 2008 in order to deny Wulsin a chance at victory
Fact: After Wulsin's 2006 defeat, many Wulsin supporters reached the independent conclusion that she had no chance in a two-woman rematch. That was a correct analysis. For that reason, David entered as an Independent, with a stress on his fiscal conservativatism, in order to split the conservative vote. David intentionally campaigned only in Schmidt strongholds, so as not to split off Democratic votes. In other words, he wanted to beat Schmidt by splitting her vote, and would have been happy if either he or Wulsin won. This year, he unites Democrats and Independents, the only way to win in OH-02.
Fable 3: Krikorian cost Wulsin the 2008 election
Fact: The numbers clearly show that Wulsin could not possibly have won without Krikorian in the race. The truth is that Krikorian hurt Schmidt more than he hurt Wulsin. One indicator is that McCain beat Obama in OH-02 by 59-40. Schmidt won with a plurality of 44%. In other words, of Krikorian's 18%, the vast majority also voted for McCain. It is highly unlikely that those voters would have voted for Wulsin if Krikorian had not been in the race. The other relevant statistic is that Wulsin's percentage in Scioto and Pike counties dropped between 2006 and 2008 more than the total percentage that Krikorian gained in those counties. That demonstrates that Wulsin had campaign problems (which I have analyzed in diaries) unrelated to Krikorian.
Fable 4: Krikorian is a closet teabagger, evident from the fact that he talks to Republicans and has attended three Tea Party events.
Fact: Talking to people of all persuasions and in all political parties is one of Dave Krikorian's great strenghts. He is a non-ideological candidate, the only kind of nominee who can beat a Republican in OH-02. No candidate can shun the Tea Party in OH-02, because this is the national Tea Party home base. Krikorian did attend three Tea Party events between 2008 and 2010. The first two were also attended by the Hamilton County Democratic Party chairman Tim Burke. The third was a candidates forum attended by ALL of the Democratic candidates, including Jim Parker and Surya Yalamanchili. To their credit, all three Democrats defended the Health Care Reform bill at that Tea Party forum. It's on tape.
Fable 5: Krikorian has been "obsessed" with the Armenian genocide issue
Fact: Krikorian issued one letter on the subject during the 2008 campaign, since both of his parents are survivors of the genocide, and since Jean Schmidt is co-chair of the Turkish-American Congressional Caucus. It was Schmidt who pressed the matter with a legal complaint to the Ohio Elections Commission. The legal dispute raises important national Free Speech issues, and a federal court ruling in the case is expected shortly. Because of Schmidt's attempt to suppress Free Speech, Krikorian has become a nationally known figure for First Amendment rights.
Fable 6: Krikorian is a despised Conservadem
Fact: Quite the opposite. Though Krikorian is a fiscal conservative (and aren't we all?), he is libertarian on social issues, with an avowedly anti-corporatist streak. In other words, Krikorian is a classic populist, quite apart from the heavily corporatist Conservadems.
Fable 7: Krikorian hangs out with friends who are pronuclear/antinuclear, COAST/anti-COAST, machine/anti-machine, pro-development/environmentalist
Fact: Dave is a popular guy, he has lots of friends. He doesn't judge friends by their ideology; he relishes diversity and enjoys the free flow of ideas. He brings people together; he's a unifier, exactly what OH-02 needs after 5 years of Schmidt. Dave recognizes that adversaries can become allies. Just today, the reputedly right-wing COAST endorsed two of Jean Schmidt's primary opponents for the congressional seat.
So, if you live in OH-02, you can vote for an avatar candidate, engineered to be the anti-Krikorian, or you can vote for the real Krikorian, and be guaranteed to dump Jean Schmidt in November
Ohio's primary is May 4. Early voting has already started.
To find out more and donate to the Krikorian campaign, go to: http://www.ilikedave.org/
Disclosure: I am not now nor have I ever been staff of the Krikorian campaign. I have given unpaid advice to the campaign on some issues. The opinions expressed here are my own and do not rpresent those of any campaign.
Correction: I originally wrote that Charlie Luken had represented OH-02 in Congress, when in fact he represnted OH-01. That has been corrected in the text.