Dear George,
Like many voters I’ve watched a majority of the presidential
primary debates in recent months. The Republican events are the most
appealing because of their fireworks and reality-show flavor. I skipped
the first two Democratic debates because of lack of suspense, but that’s
definitely changed. The latest Ohio polls show a tie in the state between
Clinton and Sanders, while Donald Trump is leading Governor Kasich by five
points.
The Ohio primary is on March 15th, too far away to generate much
attention. Aside from the presidential race, I haven’t even been aware
of who else was running. However, when I walked out of our front door the
other day, I noticed that there were two political signs in our yard promoting
the candidacy of Fred K. in the U.S. congressional primacy. Not having
any idea who Fred K. was or what party he belonged to, I called Katja on my
iPhone to see if she’d given permission for someone to put signs in our
yard. She’d never heard of Fred K. either and was mildly outraged.
“Take them down,” she said. “They have no right to leave signs on our
lawn without our permission.” I said I probably would, but I thought I’d
check first to see whether we want to support Fred K.
When I looked him up on the Internet, it turns out we had
actually voted for Fred K. two years ago. So much for my political
attention span. Fred had run on the Democratic ticket for the Ohio
District 1 congressional seat held by Republican incumbent Steve Chabot.
Recently reconfigured, District 1 now includes Cincinnati’s west side, various
suburbs, and nearby Warren County. It wasn’t much of a contest.
Cabot had $860,000 in campaign funds available; Fred K., $16,000. Chabot
won a one-sided race, 63% to 37%. Chabot is a local fixture. He was
recently identified by a nonpartisan group as the most conservative member of
the U.S. House. In response to this accolade, he tweeted, “There aren’t
many to my right.” Aside from 2008 when Obama led to a Democratic sweep,
Chabot has been a House member representing Cincinnati area residents since
1995. According to Balletopedia, he’s anti-abortion, anti-affirmative
action, anti-Obamacare, anti-gay marriage, anti-clean energy, and anti-higher
taxes on the wealthy. On the other hand, he favors charter and religious
schools, absolute gun rights, and keeping God present in the public
sphere.
Fred K. is hardly a Bernie Sanders liberal. He ran in the
congressional primary four years ago on the Republican ticket, but switched
parties when he judged that the Tea Party had drawn Republicanism too far to
the right. He describes himself as a moderate Democrat. He’s
running in the Democratic primary against Jim B., a former two-time Libertarian
candidate, and Michele Y., a local lawyer and author. Jim B.
garnered 2-3% of the vote in past elections. Michele Y. is a first-time
candidate but is endorsed by the Hamilton County Democratic Party.
Geographical Boundaries of Ohio
District 1
Actually it doesn’t matter who wins the Democratic primary
because, in effect, whoever the candidate is they have already lost November’s
general election. District 1 was reasonably competitive a decade
ago. However, as a consequence of gerrymandering by Republican
legislators after the 2010 census, the boundaries of Ohio District 1 have been
manipulated to guarantee victory for Republican candidates. The map above
shows how preposterous the geographical arrangement is. Ohio is one of
the most gerrymandered states in the nation. For example, in the 2012
election Democratic candidates for the Ohio house received 55,000 more votes
than Republican candidates, but, due to gerrymandering, Republicans won a
supermajority of 60 out of 99 House seats. Consequently we have an
extremely right-wing state legislature. Because election outcomes are
preordained in our district, there isn’t much incentive for local Democrats to
vote at all, at least in the congressional race.
Katja thinks we are obligated to vote for Fred K. because we are
promoting him in our front yard. After looking over the primary
candidates I will probably vote for Michele Y. She doesn’t have any
record in public office, but at least she hasn’t yet been decimated by
Steve Chabot. If Michele Y. wants to add a sign or two in our yard, she’s
more than welcome. We’ll go faithfully to the polls as we have in the
past. However, it’s grating and pitiful to realize that Ohio’s
congressional election outcomes have already been decided in Columbus.
Love,
Dave
P.S. There is a ray of hope. In November 2015 Ohio
voters overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan anti-gerrymandering bill which will
go into operation in 2021 and provide for fairer rules for drawing districts
for state legislature elections. Supporters hope that a similar plan will
be approved this year for congressional districts in Ohio.
No comments:
Post a Comment