Local, state Dems organize early for November and beyond

The party’s philosophy about the upcoming election has changed dramatically in just the past year, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper told members of the Logan County Democratic Party during a spring dinner Wednesday evening.

“The question we thought we would be asking is ‘Do we keep going with this progress made by President Obama or do we go back to a George W. Bush-style politics?’” he said.

“But now we know what they are putting forward with Donald Trump and it is far worse than George W. Bush politics. Now, not only are we talking about moving the country forward, but we are also talking about stopping someone who is clearly not fit to be president from getting elected. That’s our job this year.”

He also said with a win in the presidential election, a Democratic president will get to name the next U.S. Supreme Court justice and tip the balance from the 4-4 stalemate that currently exists.

“Any issue you care about in politics — whether that’s the environment or women’s rights — is at stake in this election,” Mr. Pepper told his fellow Democrats. “I’m challenged and energized by how much is at stake in this election.”

But he also criticized his own party for resting on its laurels in non-presidential election years.

“Sometimes in Ohio, this presidential election is a bright shining object, but once we get the job done, we forget about it and lose everything else.”

He challenged the local level party leaders to remain active by running candidates in local races and getting out the vote in the mid-term elections.

“I’ve got a (20) ’16-18 plan that everything we do in ’16 is about building for ’18,” Mr. Pepper said. “In the past, we’ve waited for a presidential campaign to come through and build an infrastructure for us and then when the campaign is over, it all disappears.

“This year as a party, we’ve started building an infrastructure for Ohio Democrats, and the beauty of it is when the campaign is over, we get to keep it.”

And he said the new party infrastructure will be useful in getting ballot candidates elected such as Janet Garrett, the Democrat who is taking on incumbent 4th District Congressman Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, in November.

Ms. Garrett, a retired educator from Oberlin, also spoke at the local dinner Wednesday.

She said she was inspired to run by Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who represented her prior to the 2012 redistricting that both she and Mr. Pepper referred to as a “horrible example of gerrymandering.” The 4th District includes Logan, Champaign and Union counties at the far south and snakes its way all the way north to the shores of Lake Erie.

Ms. Garrett said the incumbent’s far right views fail to represent the district and said his hard line stances over the past 10 years are counterproductive to the progress of the nation.

“Jim Jordan has been in office since 2007 and he has had no legislative successes to speak of,” Ms. Garrett said. “He is there because he wants to advance his personal agenda instead of representing the people of his district.

“If you need proof of this, just look at who he took to the State of the Union address. Instead of looking for a hero in his own district, he went all the way to Kentucky to find someone mean-spirited enough to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples,” she said of the representative’s decision to invite Rowan County, Ky., Clerk Kim Davis to this year’s speech.

She also said he has opposed bills for equal pay for women and has been an obstructionist to compromise.

“We deserve better than this,” Ms. Garrett said. “I’m not going to be a career politician; I’ve already had a career. I want to be an agent of change. I am here because I want to lift up the lives of average people.”

Read complete story in Thursday’s Examiner. 
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