Next month, the Ohio Democratic Executive Committee, composed mostly of party insiders, will meet in Columbus. There, the Executive Committee, which has members from across the state, will decide whether to endorse candidates in several 2017 mayoral races, including for Cincinnati and Cleveland. In light of the Executive Committee’s terrible track record of picking candidates, it should abstain from making any endorsements in the 2017 races, and indeed, it should abstain from making any endorsements in any contested primary races until after the Democratic base has spoken in the primary. Join me across the jump for some discussion of how the Executive Committee in Ohio is harming the party and why we should push not just the Ohio Democratic Party but parties throughout the nation to get out of the business of picking candidates in contested primaries.
The Executive Committee’s Track Record
Like all other states, the Ohio Democratic Party has a central committee and an executive committee that meets to decide party matters. Unfortunately, like many other states, the Executive Committee in Ohio also decides whether to endorse candidates in contested Democratic primaries. The effect of an Executive Committee endorsement cannot be understated. The endorsed candidate is able to use the party’s mailing privileges so his or her postage costs can be significantly reduced. The endorsed candidate is also able to put “Endorsed Democrat” on their signs and other literature. In short, an Executive Committee endorsement, particularly in heavily Democratic districts, can be significant at the ballot box.
In recent cycles, the Ohio Democratic Party has used the endorsement process to squelch any possible primary battles that may arise among Democratic candidates. And, in squelching possible primary battles, the Party has also produced another consequence: the coronation of terrible general election candidates.
Consider the examples of 2014 gubernatorial candidate, Ed Fitzgerald, and 2016 Senate candidate, Ted Strickland. In the 2014 race, 63 (of 88) Democratic county chairs endorsed Ed Fitzgerald for governor by June 2013. The Executive Committee ratified the support of the county chairs in a September 2013 vote. By coming out strongly for Fitzgerald, a potential challenge to his nomination by a Hamilton County (Cincinnati) Commissioner was stopped in its tracks, especially after the then-party chairman said that the Commissioner was certainly going to lose. As a result, Fitzgerald waltzed to the nomination, and in the general election, he was absolutely obliterated, losing 86 of 88 counties by a margin of 64-33%.
You’d think that the Executive Committee would have learned its lesson after this helping of humble pie. But, as with any other collection of entrenched political insiders, the Executive Committee doubled down in 2016, endorsing Ted Strickland for the U.S. Senate nomination in April 2015. Another candidate, Cincinnati Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld, was a more energetic campaigner and more unapologetically progressive in his views, but the Executive Committee wished to stop the councilman in his tracks and the endorsement worked, helping Stickland to a primary victory. We all should know what happened in the general election — Strickland lost 84 of 88 counties by a 58-37% margin.
Even if the endorsement process doesn’t affect the general election, it still perverts the party’s attempts at creating progressive change. The Executive Committee in Ohio has a policy that an incumbent gets the party’s endorsement automatically if the incumbent asks for it. This policy has led the party to endorse a number of Democrats who constantly undercut the party’s platform. My state representative, for instance, had the party’s endorsement in this election after voting for the Republicans’ state budget (he was the only Democrat in the legislature to do so) and after voting to condemn President Obama’s clean energy plan. While that doesn’t impact the general election in my district (it’s a heavily Democratic district), the endorsement amounts to the party giving its seal of approval to a candidate who should be expelled, not celebrated.
Insider Committees Need to Let the Rank-and-File Decide
The Ohio Democratic Party’s big misses in the 2014 gubernatorial and 2016 senatorial races are just part of the problem. As we all know, we got destroyed in the 2016 presidential race here. The Republicans hold supermajorities in both houses of the legislature and a significant margin in our congressional delegation (gerrymandering is to blame for the margins, but it doesn’t tell the whole story). In light of that track record, why should we trust the Executive Committee to do anything, let alone decide which of our primary candidates gets preferential treatment.
Nevertheless, the Executive Committee is gearing up to once again endorse candidates and take the decision out of the hands of the Party’s rank-and-file members. It’s time for that to stop, and we in the progressive movement in Ohio should take action to do so. I’m taking the time to contact as many of the Executive Committee members as I can regarding the 2017 endorsement process, and I encourage my fellow Ohio progressives to check out this list of the committee's members and do the same. If you’re in another state, it’s almost guaranteed that your Democratic Party affiliate does the same thing and it should be stopped there too.
We have serious problems as a party and a movement here in Ohio. It’s time to start renewing the party this year and that process should be led by rank-and-file members like us, not the insiders of the Executive Committee.