News and Notes: Ohio Congressional Races UPDATED

Bulletins from the battlegrounds:

OH-01: Chabot Staffer Used Official E-Mail to Help Oberweis Campaign - The Hill reports that Chabot staffer Matthew Lillibridge used his official government email account to forward an e-mail requesting phonebanking assistance for IL-14 candidate Jim Oberweis (R), apparently in violation of House rules against using House resources for campaign purposes. “It raises questions as to what other activities are taking place in Congressman Steve Chabot’s office on the taxpayer’s dime,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) said. It also raises questions about the priorities in Chabot's office. "Steve Chabot was elected to represent the interests of his Ohio constituents, not the Bush administration, the National Republican Congressional Committee or dairy magnates from Illinois," wrote Ohio Democratic Party Communications Director Alex Goepfert in an email today. "It might be a good idea if Steve Chabot's office spent a little less time meddling in Illinois congressional races and a little more time focusing on the issues that Ohioans care about." Chabot spokesman George Cecala apologized for the incident on Friday.

Meanwhile, opponent Steve Driehaus (D-Price Hill) is irritated that Sen. Gary Cates (R-West Chester) has introduced a plan to change redistricting (now that the GOP is in danger of losing control of the system) that mirrors a Driehaus proposal which fell on deaf ears in 2005. "You can't have a redistricting plan that is just supported by one party. It's not going to fly," Driehaus said. "Republicans had a chance to address redistricting (and) failed to do so because they were in power. Now that they are beginning to see some of that power fade in the state of Ohio, they are again engaging in political gamesmanship when it comes to redistricting."

OH-02: Black Says He Underestimated Number of Voters - In a story in the Kentucky-based Community Press, unsuccessful primary candidate Steve Black (D-Indian Hill) blamed his loss in part on his campaign anticipating about 35,000 voters. After Super Tuesday, the estimate was raised to 86,000. (Actual voting in the congressional primary was 94,946.) "That presented a virtually insurmountable challenge for a first-time candidate," Black told the newspaper. He also said that he may run again, "under the right set of circumstances."

Primary winner Victoria Wulsin (D-Indian Hill) will march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Cincinnati from 1:00 to 2:30 this Saturday, and on March 20th there will be a fund-raiser for Wulsin with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer at 11:00 am at a private home. Contact the campaign at 513-233-4180 or victory@wulsinforcongress.com for details.

OH-03: Mitakides At Morton Fundraiser Tomorrow - Jane Mitakides (D) will attend a spaghetti dinner fund-raiser for 35th District state representative candidate Charles Morgan (D) tomorrow night (working on getting location for that), and the Montgomery County Democratic Party "Frolic for Funds" next Tuesday, March 18th at the Dayton Convention Center, 220 E. 5th Street.

David Esrati (D-Dayton), who finished third with 12% of the vote, is mum on whether he'll run next time, but he's very interested in improving the information about candidates in future races. He notes that twice as many voters left the congressional primary race blank as voted for him, which bothers him more than losing.

OH-06: Wilson Has The Power - David Potts notes that Rep. Charlie Wilson (D-St. Clairsville) has jumped from 290th to 179th in the ranking of most powerful members of Congress at Congress.org, which Wilson attributes to his spot on the Financial Services Committee. House Speaker John Boehner (R-West Chester) is the top House member from Ohio in 6th place, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Toledo) is the top Ohio Democratic House member at 58th. Wilson is far ahead of fellow Ohio first-termers Zack Space (D-Dover) at 241st and Betty Sutton (D-Copley Twp) at 266th.

Although he didn't send out a press release about it, Wilson was ranked right about in the middle of the liberal-to-conservative scale by the National Journal (his composite score of 55.2% means he is more liberal that that proportion of his colleagues), which helps him deflect criticism that he is too liberal for his rural district.

OH-07: Weak DDN Endorsement of Austria Helps Neuhardt - The Dayton Daily News issued one of the most double-edged endorsements ever when they gave the nod to State Sen. Steve Austria (R-Beavercreek) in the GOP primary, writing that retiring Rep. Dave Hobson (R-Springfield) "did not serve his district well" in selecting Austria as his successor. Sharen Neuhardt (D-Yellow Springs) plans to make use of it in her campaign, as reflected in this statement on her campaign site:

"In November Ohio voters will have a clear choice for Congress. Washington is not working for Ohio families. It's time for a change and to end the partisan bickering. Steve Austria is a career politician who newspapers have said ‘is not a good choice' and has ‘no compelling record.' I am someone who has real life experience and someone who will never give up fighting for change and to get our economy moving again."

Meanwhile, runner-up Bill Conner (D-Beavercreek), who fell short in his bid to run a second time, says on his website that will not run again, although he intends to keep his site going to "get national exposure" for his ideas.

OH-10: Kucinich Voting Record Only 158th Most Liberal - In a surprising score noted by Stephen Koff on Openers on Friday, the National Journal gave Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Cleveland) a composite liberal voting score of only 66.3%, well back of fellow Clevelander Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones at 79%, who was the most liberal Ohio member of the House but ranks only 93rd most liberal in the chamber.

That won't help opponent Jim Trakas (R-Independence) in his effort to paint Kucinich as an out-of-touch lefty, but still Trakas is breathing a sigh of relief that City Council member Joe Cimperman (D-Cleveland) didn't win the Democratic primary. Trakas said of Cimperman to an interviewer for the National Review on the day of the primary, “If that guy wins, it’s all over.” Also in that interview, Trakas said he doesn't have to raise $2 million to win because Kucinich has "100-percent name recognition and most of it’s negative" and that he plans to run as a "progressive conservative," whatever that is. He also says he thinks the GOP will regain the House and the Senate. Ri-i-ight.

In an email message today, unsuccessful primary candidate Rosemary Palmer (D-Cleveland) was unforthcoming about whether she might run again but said that she will "stay involved while I consider what I want to do when I grow up," and that she will "continue blogging my thoughts and observations" at a new web site.

Jill reports that disappointed Republican candidate Jason Werner has announced the "collapse" of the GOP and has bolted to the Constitution Party.

OH-12: Robinson Denies Criticism Attributed to Goodwin - Russ Goodwin pledges on his campaign site to support primary winner David Robinson (D), but as Bonobo discusses in detail on Blue Bexley a post-primary article in the Gay People's Chronicle quotes Goodwin as saying he was outspent 4 to 1 by Robinson and that one of his two opponents engaged in a "quiet gay-baiting campaign behind the scenes." (His other opponent was Aaron Dagres.) Bonobo determined that Robinson outspent Goodwin by no more than 2 to 1, and Robinson flatly denies that he engaged in gay-baiting tactics, which he calls "personally repugnant."

I spoke to Robinson today, who predicted that the mainstream media will not focus on OH-12 but that he will use alternative media strategies to make an interesting race out of it. He is currently formalizing his campaign structure, which will include an "IT/web/cyber blog" guy, whose efforts "will be a central part of the campaign." He won't try to go dollar-for-dollar with Tiberi on TV ads, but he will combine internet outreach with a big grassroots volunteer effort to get his message out. On the latter front, Robinson says he is getting a flood of inquiries and offers and will hold an organizational meeting in about 2 to 3 weeks.

Robinson pointed out that he did very well in Delaware County where there were a lot of people voting a Democratic ballot for the first time. He feels he is the kind of candidate who can appeal to independents and disaffected Republicans in the northern suburbs of Columbus, and a major part of his focus will be persuading those first-time D voters to do so again.

OH-14: St. Pat's Brunch for O'Neill on Sunday - Mayors Bill Cervenik and Thomas Ruffner and county commissioners Dan Troy and Jimmy Dimora will join other elected officials in hosting a St. Patrick's Day Brunch to celebrate the primary victory by Bill O'Neill (D-South Russell) and kick off his general election campaign, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 16th at James Catering, 29717 Euclid Avenue in Wickliffe. The cost is $25.00 for a corned beef lunch (beer and pop included). RSVP by emailing patrick-at-oneill08-dot-com.

OH-18: Ohio Approves $250,000 Grant Sought by Space for ABC Manufacturing - Rep. Zack Space (D-Dover) announced today that the Ohio Controlling Board has approved a $250,000 grant to help ABC Manufacturing bring 200 well-paid. permanent jobs to economically depressed Morgan County, an initiative that Space has been spear-heading. “More than half of the population of Morgan County leaves every day to go to work,” Space said. “These 200 jobs will help keep those workers closer to home. [This] is great news for ABC, the residents of Morgan County, and the local elected officials who have worked so hard to make this manufacturing facility a reality."