Ohio 2nd Blog

Today at 4pm at his Indian Hill home attorney Steve Black will officially declare his candidacy to run for Congress in the 2nd District. Mr. Black is an attorney with the Cincinnati law firm of Graydon, Head & Ritchey.

Several days ago he was kind enough to let me interview him on the positions. I found him to be very a personable and sincere person. Only by reminding myself of how carefully guarded some of his answers were did the 30 years of legal experience come through.

While he made a point of telling me that he wasn’t experienced at running for Congress, he came off to me as someone who could get up to speed quickly. While he’s not a barnstormer, his opinions are refreshingly unboilerplate. We talked openly about abortion, health care, defense spending, guns , Iraq, and global warming. The fact that he veered right into a passionate advocacy of nuclear power was interesting in light of the issues here in the district. This will probably be the last chance to hear unvarnished answers from the candidate before he gets put through the standard wash cycle of campaign staffers, so enjoy.

I listen back at the interview and kick myself over how unprepared and rambling my questions were. Hopefully you won’t find them too annoying. I do love to hear myself yammer on.

steve_black_interview_5-15-07.mp3

The thing that struck many people right off that fact is that Black’s campaign manager used to be Vic Wulsin’s. If there’s a story there and you know there’s a story there, Mary Huttlinger isn’t spilling the beans. I’m sorry but Steve’s the complete candidate package just isn’t going to cut it. I’m sure that the weeks ahead will bring out lots of juicy gossip to wile away the months as we suffer through this God forsakenly too long campaign season. (Personally, I’m not sure how many more action items, urgent appeals, and heartfelt yet empty orations I can stand. Doesn’t anyone have a job anymore? Surely being a Senator takes time, doesn’t it?)

Bottom line, at this point Black’s candidacy is more significant because of what he is than what he believes in. As a man highly connected to some of the richest political donors in the country, his entry radically shifts the Democratic primary landscape. The question is how much? Many underestimate Vic Wulsin’s substantial backing from the liberal base in the district. Vic’s core is very loyal. This is a primary. Money doesn’t have nearly the edge that it does in the general. Candidates are rallying the base. Right off the bat I’d give her a 35% to 40% head start. Anyone (except one person) who runs against her will have to shatter a significant portion of that margin in order to have a chance. However, when you talk to anyone thinking of heading her off, including Black, the last thing they want to say is that they are running “against” Vic Wulsin. I’m running FOR mom, apple pie, and the right to drive around in oversized SUVs, not against Vic. Get an internal poll 30 days before the primary that has you down 20 points and see what sort of sucker punches your war room will be coming up with. As Reese Bobby always says, if you’re not first, you’re last.

Right now this pundit would have to say that with the name recognition, strong core, momentum from 2006, and battle experience Vic Wulsin still has to be considered the odds on favorite in the 2nd.

Politics is a deceptively difficult craft. Much like poker and Jackass, it’s easy for someone to look at it and think that they can be good at it. Steve Black will have to prove to people quickly that he’s got the right stuff to play this ugliest of blood sports. He says he does… right before he tells you that he’s never really done this before.

Well… welcome to the game, Mr. Black. The Ohio 2nd is the most talked about, action packed Congressional District in the country. Thus it is the nastiest. I do hope you’ve brought a helmet.

• BSB > OH-02: Add Steve Black to the List
• Daily Kos > OH-02: Steve Black To Run
• Politics Extra > A challenger for Wulsin?

Featuring Scott Piepho of Pho’s Akron Pages, OH03 candidate Stephanie Studebaker and Congressman Tim Ryan. Check it out. What Tim Ryan has to say is right on the money. Candidates need to ESPECIALLY focus on how clearly and easily he articulates him ideas.

(now with better audio from Yellow Dog Sammy)

	BrownHacketpt1.mp3
	BrownHacketpt2.mp3

Paul Hackett formally endorsed Sherrod Brown today. It was great to finally see the two of them together. Connie Schultz and Suzi Hackett both seemed relieved that this was happening when I talked to them. They are the two people that I think have the best window on this whole drama.

The event started with an introduction from Cincinnati’s Mayor Mark Mallory. The whistling at the beginning is Paul getting everyone’s attention. All sounded in great form. I’ve missed covering candidate Paul. I’m sorry for the audio quality. Yellow Dog Sammy is supposed to have better quality audio so I’ll link to that when I can.

This is more than about Paul. This is more than about Sherrod. We need to be greater than the baser elements of our natures. That’s what civilization is all about. Today felt very good.

One group that gets a lot of credit for all this is the Clermont County Dems, who have been fighting to make this happen for months.

More pics over @ the site’s Flickr account.

More coverage:

• David Hammer @ AP > Hackett Backs Brown in Ohio Senate Race
• Muffet @ BSB > A Hot-headed Irishman Apologizes
• The FIx > Ohio Senate Race Looking Better For Dems?
• Howard Wilkinson @ The Enquirer > Sherrod Brown and Hackett make nice

UDPATE:

• PD Openers > Indian Hill Love Call
• Howard Wilkinson @ The Enquirer > Hackett embraces former rival

BTW, the Enquirer talks about the swiftboating rumors. The person that I was told from several sources was spreading the rumors left the campaign after it became known. I’ve heard that he was fired but I’m not sure. It would have been good if Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid had nipped that story in the bud as soon as Paul compained about it to them back in December.

There are a lot of bad apples who work political campaigns. Karl Rove wannabies. Just got to keep a watch out for them. They do way more harm than good.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Ohio2006 has a transcript.

UPDATE: See here

Over a month ago I had reached out to the Sherrod Brown campaign about doing a one on one interview with Sherrod Brown. Up till now they had denied any requests to be interviewed by members of the Ohio blogosphere. Still, even though I was one of Sherrod Brown’s strongest critics during the primary, Connie Schultz always made a point to thank me for being fair. This made me think that there was a slight chance that they would say yes. Surprisingly enough they did, and this Saturday they were able to fit some time in at their hotel in Columbus.

This was the 3nd time that I met Congressman Brown and his wife. The first time was back during the Senate primary when I was writing some of my hardest posts on his campaign. Even so, when we met, we exchanged kind words to each other. The day of the interview I found Sherrod Brown and Connie Schultz to be extremely nice people. While I was setting up Congressman Brown asked me about where I lived, and my family. He was particularly interested in my Grandfather who was elected a Democratic State Senator in Indiana the same year that Kennedy became President. He noticed my copy of Ron Suskind’s The One Percent Doctrine amongst my things while I was unpacking. We spent some time talking about what a tragic figure Colin Powell was.

There were no rules. The Congressman did not know the questions in advance. I stopped taping several times for technical reasons, and once at the end to take pictures. There were only two chairs in the room so he ended up making a makeshift chair out of a footrest and a pillow while myself and a staffer sat down. I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn’t have it since I was operating the equipment.

For this interview I decided to ignore all of the static that I had heard and read from other people about Sherrod Brown and the Senate primary, and just talk to him about what I wanted to talk about… issues that matter to me: How he’s going to beat Mike DeWine. What he would do to turn this country around. I didn’t get into blogging in order to debate who said what to whom in some private conversation at a Christmas party I wasn’t at. As an independent entity I like being relatively isolated from the behind the scenes sturm und drang that most political staffers and wonks obsess about. I didn’t enjoy it back in High School, and I don’t want to blog about it now.

Having now had a chance to interview at length Paul Hackett and Sherrod Brown the thing that strikes me is the intense level of self-confidence they both have. The political sports fan in me loved the clash this produced… the foul mouthed gun toting marine and the crusty old labor street fighter. It was one hell of a fight. Unfortunately, as do all really good fights, it left a lot of lasting damage.

In another time and another place they would have played well off of each other. Anti-war liberals, and pro-military (real) conservatives… these are the two groups that we need to bring together in order to truly change our country… the great bridge as I like to call it. For a time it looked like we were going to build that bridge. Maybe we still can.

In the end I came away very impressed with Congressman Brown. When I listen to him talk, I think how much I would love to have him as my Senator. I don’t care what the polls say. If we have a chance to get someone like that in our corner we’ve got to fight like hell to make it happen, regardless of the past, and no matter what the odds. Besides, I’m really itching for a rematch with Karl Rove.

Bring it on, baby

	sherrod_interview_part_1.mp3
	sherrod_interview_part_2.mp3

OH02: Hi, this is Chris Baker, editor of the Ohio 2nd Blog, and I’m sitting in the hotel room next to Sherrod Brown’s hotel room (laughter) interviewing him about the race for Senate. How ya doing Congressman?

Sherrod Brown: Good, thanks. Glad to be with you.

OH02: First off, thanks for letting me do this. It’s very cool. I appreciate that a lot.

Sherrod Brown: Thank you for the substance that you bring to this race, and thanks for your progressive outlook on the world.

(more…)

The latest Plunderbund podcast features Oh02’s favorite candidate for nothing, Paul Hackett. Renee in Ohio has been cool enough to transcribe the interview. Good stuff.

This section stands out:

When I was running last year in the 2nd congressional district in southern Ohio, I can’t tell you the number of elected officials from the state level and the national level that, as my campaign, after the primary, began to catch a little bit of traction, would call up and plead with me–*plead* with me not to make the race a referendum. Plead with me not to be critical of George Bush, and plead with me not to be critical of the war in Iraq. Because in their vast failed experience, it was a losing way to fight the race. They *begged* me to just stay silent about my criticism on Bush, and they *begged* me to just stay quiet on my criticism on the war in Iraq.

And if you go back a year ago now, you’ll see Bush’s approval rating was above 50%, and there were *no* national–*zero* national Democratic leaders that were taking on the president on the war in Iraq. Not Harry Reid, not Chuck Schumer, not Nancy Pelosi, not Jack Murtha. Not a one of them! Not a one of them except for, forgive me if I sound like I’m blowing my own horn, one loud-mouthed Marine who’d just come back from fighting in Iraq, who was quoted on the front page of the New York Times, calling President Bush a chickenhawk, and telling the American people that it’s a resounding failure what’s going on. And then some months after that, Congressman Murtha had the temerity to stand up, without, may I add, the approval or Nancy Pelosi, Rahm Emanuel and Chuck Schumer–

BTW, I believe that, Michael Wood, the guy who coined the term candidate for nothing has accepted a gig with Shamansky in the 12^th as Communications Director. During the special and senate debacle Wood was usually the first person that I’d bump into at events… the problem was that he wasn’t allowed to talk to me, so it was always a “Mr. Baker”, and that was it. His gig was similar to Charlie’s in the first seasons of West Wing.
Since Mike was often the driver, I wonder if Shamansky will rent out the big ol’ bus. The 12^th has the potential to be a fun one, so congrats on that.

Chandra for Ohio has on their site a 295MB video of speeches given by Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones and high profile attorney David Boies for Subodh Chandra. I’ve uploaded an mp3 audio file that reduces it to 8.5MB.

There are federal prison cells littered with individuals who underestimated me.

Paul was on The Ed Schultz Show again on Thursday promoting the IAVA PAC. (audio clip) The post has sparked another typical firestorm over @ D.U., right after the one over his appearance on The Daily Show.

Also, The Enquirer “blog” has Hackett dropping the “F Bomb” on Sherrod Brown. I bet his favorite thing about not running for office any more is that he can curse freely.

As an aside, Ohio 2006 Blog reports that Congressman Brown is still having a hard time answering the question. I think that his campaign underestimates how toxic this primary has been and its longterm impact on that landscape.

BTW, Paul is totally off on the best line from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. The best line is: “You see, in this world there’s two kinds of people, my friend… those with loaded guns, and those who dig. You dig.”

Well.. I’m back from vacation. Sorry for the silence. Hopefully this will make up for it:

Last Saturday Democratic candidate for Ohio Attorney General Subodh Chandra sat down with the your humble Ohio 2nd Blog editor, members of Drinking Liberally Cincinnati (they’ve posted a good overview of the event), and Warren County Democrats at the Democratic Party HQ in Loveland.

Here’s selected audio from the blogger interview and the stump speech he gave afterwards for a meet and greet event hosted in his honor. I have cut it up like this because the people at drinking liberally asked me to remove the audio of them asking questions. One thing great about Meet the Bloggers is that they’ve already dealt with all of those issues that go with providing an open method for interviewing candidates.

This interview has some pretty hard hitting stuff including candid discussion of the behind the scenes endorsement process within the ODP.

Why are you running for Attorney General?

	chandra_interview_3-11-06_01-why_run.mp3
	chandra_interview_3-11-06_02-why_run_followup.mp3

If you were AG, what would you be doing right now?

chandra_interview_3-11-06_03-what_would_you_do_now.mp3

How do you answer the charge that you don’t have the political experience to be Attorney General?

chandra_interview_3-11-06_04-experience.mp3

At this cliffhanger point he was asked why he thought the ODP didn’t endorse his candidacy. Luckily he would come back to the topic.

chandra_interview_3-11-06_05-why_ODP_not_endorse.mp3

The ODP process

chandra_interview_3-11-06_06-ODP_process.mp3

Are you following the Eliot Spitzer model for AG and how do you respond to charges that he is using his office to enforce national issues and to further his own political career?

chandra_interview_3-11-06_07-eliot_spitzer.mp3

Tell us about your family.

	chandra_interview_3-11-06_08-family.mp3
	chandra_interview_3-11-06_09-his_wife.mp3

Do pharmacists have the right to refuse to provide drugs to patients when they object on ethical groups?

	chandra_interview_3-11-06_10-drugs_ethics.mp3
	chandra_interview_3-11-06_11-drugs_ethics-follow_up.mp3

His views on parental notification and abortions.

chandra_interview_3-11-06_12-abortion.mp3

Political strategy

chandra_interview_3-11-06_13-strategy.mp3

On the Senate race

chandra_interview_3-11-06_14-on_the_senate_race.mp3

The phantom forth

chandra_interview_3-11-06_99-phantom_forth.mp3

Afterwards Chandra gave a speech at a meet and greet hosted by the Warren County Democrats.

chandra_stump_3-11-06.mp3

Wednesday the Warren County Democratic Party endorsed Subudh Chandra for Attorney General.

Renee in Ohio has published Part 3 of her transcription of my interview with Paul Hackett. Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Very Very Cool!

hackett-the-day-after-FULL.mp3

Here’s my whole interview with Paul Hackett from this morning in his Ford Truck.

hackett-the-day-after-FULL.mp3

Renee in Ohio has a transcription: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 (thanks Renee!)