Thu 10 May 2007
The Enquirer is reporting that former Hamilton County commissioner Phil Heimlich is officially taking Jean Schmidt on in the 2nd district Republican primary. Heimlich lost his bid for reelection to David Pepper in 06. He’s claiming that he’s already raised $120,000 for the bid, compared to Schmidt’s $17,000 in the bank.
VikingSpirit thinks that he can take Schmidt if they go head to head. I’m not so sure. While I agree that the only way that he has a chance is if Schmidt’s opponents don’t split their votes, I still think she’s a tough nut to crack.
What issue is he going to run on? These days the only things Republican candidates seem to be able to talk about is how much they love Ronald Reagan. There’s no way he can outflank her on the right, and restoring dignity to the office hasn’t exactly been a winner over the last two races she’s won.
ADDED: My bet is Heimlich will be the only major primary challenger to the Congresswoman. He’s got enough clout to lock up the anybody but Schmidt monied supporters.
UPDATE Active threads on BSB and the Enquirer Politics Extra “blog”.
I ask this purely out of curiosity. In the 2006 race, Wulsin was unfairly criticized for her “association” with Dr. Henry Heimlich, the maneuverer, regarding human experiments in Africa. In fact, Wulsin only reviewed Heimlich’s work and was severely critical of it.
Would anyone happen to know if Phil and Henry Heimlich are related? In any case, I think the Heimlich guilt-by-association game might lose some punch this time around.
He’s the son. I’m not sure how well they get along. ( BTW, the maneuver was from Red Cross first aid and the father made it his,) Heimlich may have money, but he lost in Hamilton Co. He really has no fired up base who will do all the volunteer scut work like Schmidt’s right to life gang. He’s not very warm and endearing (likeable) in person – doesn’t have that charisma thing that a candidate needs to campaign. The national republican committees are not fundraising like they used to with out Delay’s stranglehold on the lobbyists. All the Democratic committees are outraising them I’m sure the Indian Hill gang will do a good job for him but will that be enough (he couldn[t keep his commissioner’s seat)? He won’t play well in the eastern counties. He didn’t play well in Hamilton Co.
Holy moly, you could almost make a gut-wrenching novel out of this story, so to speak.
Heimlich will damage Schmidt badly in the primary, that’s the important thing.
Purple – I have lots of stories. I need to find Heimlich’s quote that Pepper used (like a macaca moment) during the campaign. Hilarious but very typically republican. I wish I could remember it. Pepper was great in a forum against Heimlich. Pepper came across as a likeable nice guy. Heimlich came across as arrogant, nasty, mean. He just doesn’t have charisma or connect well.
Get a ring side seat for the circus that’s going to be the republican primary. It should be one of the greatest shows on earth. What fun.
Ok now the real question — Were Schmidt’s proxy attacks on Vic’s Heimlich connections responsible for inciting Phil to enter the race? All that Heimlich-bashing in 2006, which was traced to Schmidt directly (Editor — hint, hint) could not have gone down very well with Henry’s son. It seems to me that Heimlich could no longer stand behind Schmidt without getting the urge to choke her himself, so to speak.
DG — do you have my e-mail address? If not, contact me through the editor.
Will do. Editor, may I have Purple’s email address? You know how to contact the goddess.
DG, are you thinking about the quote from Chris Finney at David Pepper’s press conference?
VSB: I heard it from Pepper directly at a candidate event. It had something to do with crime, social services, prevention. Heimlich said something like he wasn’t a big picture guy. Basically, it was he didn’t care what the cause was. The typical get tough on crime republican stuff. It kind of related to having to expand the county jail.
The more Rs that enter the race the better it is for Schmidt. They’ll split the vote and she’ll once again win by default — I can’t handle that anymore.
You are exactly right. I’ll take your comment one step further… If the wrong D wins the primary, the elcetion in the Ohio 2nd won’t be won by the R’s in November. It will be lost by the D’s in May.
If we truly want to win the 2nd District, we need a candidate who fits the entire district, not just one county.