Today’s Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer editorial marks the FIFTH editorial in the state focused on Strickland’s refusal to debate his primary opponent P.G. Sittenfeld.
Of note:
A Senate nomination isn’t something Democratic VIPs in Columbus or Washington…can present to someone, like a door prize…And that’s why Strickland shuns debates. It might remind Democrats they have choices beyond those made for them by certain party leaders.
Read more:
Editorial: Ted Strickland’s telling no-show on City Club debate
Northeast Ohio Media Group
You’d think a Democrat, of all people, would know that the words "nomination" and "coronation" don’t mean the same thing. Former Gov. Ted Strickland evidently doesn’t.
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So it wasn’t much of a surprise Tuesday when Strickland turned down a City Club of Cleveland invitation to debate Sittenfeld and Prather.
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But debates are different. They offer voters a chance to comparison shop — something Strickland’s team clearly doesn’t want.
Why remind rank-and-file Ohio Democrats they have options? After all, big shots in Columbus and Washington had it all figured out long ago: Unseating Portman could help Democrats win control of the U.S. Senate. And Strickland, so goes the thinking, is the Democrat best positioned to beat Portman. That theory, and that’s all it is, is why the state party backs Strickland; so does labor, especially public employee unions, and the (national) Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, chaired by Jon Tester, a U.S. senator from Montana.
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A Senate nomination isn’t something Democratic VIPs in Columbus or Washington — not even a U.S. senator from Big Sandy, Montana (pop. 598) — can present to someone, like a door prize. Only rank-and-file Ohio Democrats, voting in March’s primary, can pick the person whom they want to run against the GOP’s Portman. And that’s why Strickland shuns debates. It might remind Democrats they have choices beyond those made for them by certain party leaders.
Strickland’s refusal to debate raises a practical question. If a candidate fears the give and take of campaign debates, how can that person hope to succeed when sparring on behalf of Ohio in the U.S. Senate? What’s more, shunning debate can easily come across as arrogance – the very last thing voters want in a candidate. And voters, Ohio Democratic voters, not Columbus and Washington insiders, will select the Democrat who’ll take on Rob Portman.