About a week and a half ago, I received a random text message from someone named Tara from the Ohio Democratic Party that said they were looking for people to run for local office in my town. Three days later, they texted again, this time from a Tanya, in which they apparently expanded to the entire county. Now, they didn’t explicitly target me as a candidate; they did disclaimer that with asking me if they could send information on how to run. But it did get me thinking about a lot of things.
First, and most obvious, was the timing. While my city doesn’t hold primaries until September, if memory serves correct. But, my councilman, who was appointed to his job years ago and has never run opposed, isn’t up for re-election in 2023. That leaves the race for mayor, finance director and council at-large. There is also two school board spots up as well.
Do any of those seem like things I want to run for? Not really.
For a county perspective, that was even odder, as there are no county-wide races that elected in odd-numbered years. Perhaps they’re planning out for 2024? I guess that would be a better strategy than 2022, where the state party fumbled around with lawsuits about redistricting before the finally got around to the candidacies of those races. In hindsight, it would have probably been smarter to focus on the actual races.
This brings me to the second thing: For as much shit as I’ve talked about the Democratic Party’s seemingly-perennial incompetence since the early 1990s, are they sure they didn’t send me these text messages by accident? Or are they that desperate for candidates?
If they’re sending me random text messages in February, I’m going to say the latter statement is true.
For several years, I have long contemplated running for public office, which is a sentiment that I have expressed publicly that everyone should do. In case you haven’t noticed, and given the voter turnout in these odd-numbered year elections you haven’t, many of these municipal posts feature candidates running unopposed. Such is the case with the aforementioned councilman who represents me.
The other part of me, however, wonders why I would to the Ohio Democratic Party a solid by putting my hat in the ring, especially when you consider my low opinion of them. It is earned, of course, as the state party has, as I said before, spent nearly three decades fumbling the ball and allow the state GOP, which has been a long-time combination of greedy, corrupt individuals to folks who use their Bibles to point to the parts that justify their awful thinking (and ONLY those parts!), to run amok at all levels.
Looking at this last election, even, I sat and watched as the state Senate and House districts where I live, two completely winnable races, fall into the hands of Republicans by narrow margins, as the state Dems basically sat on their thumbs down the stretch and barely did anything to help. And in the case of the state House race, where a useless rubber stamp by the name of Bill Roemer won re-election, the Democratic candidate, some county councilman I’d never heard of, basically phoned it in. It made me wonder why she was running at all.
Taking this into account, I could text back and say, “Yeah. I thought you’d never ask. What do I need to do?” But given that I was already looking into throwing my hat into the ring of that state House race, I already know what I need to do. It’s just a matter of whether I, or any of the other random people they texted, want to do it.
I haven’t said no, but I am weighing my options. Roemer is up for re-election in 2024, and I’d like nothing better than to beat him.
Be First to Comment