Senior Dems say party is stronger, playing farther than before

MARYSVILLE -- Ohio’s three senior Democrats told PolitickerOH.com that their party is far ahead of where it was when it gained power in 2006 and is playing in more parts of the state than in recent memory.

After a campaign stop for Barack Obama, Gov. Ted Strickland, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and Ohio Democratic Party chair Chris Redfern said the party’s dramatically stronger than where it was just two years ago.

Strickland said the party has outraised all other state Democratic parties in the country, created an “unparalleled” voter identification file and hired 650 paid employees, a total that includes Obama employees.  

“It’s like comparing night and day, sweet and sour, light and dark,” Strickland said of the ODP in 2006 and 2008.

In addition, the party has identified thousands of volunteers and purchased a new statewide headquarters big enough to house the Obama campaign’s Ohio headquarters, Strickland said.

Aside from nuts-and-bolts, Brown said the contested Democratic presidential primary between Obama and Hillary Clinton created about 500,000 registered Democrats, whose impact will go beyond Election Day.

“That will make us a lot stronger. Not just this year but in the future,” Brown said.

Redfern used Mary Jo Kilroy’s failed 2006 Congressional race as an example of where Democrats failed to sufficiently penetrate Republican counties. Kilroy lost the race to U.S. Rep. Deb Pryce (R-Columbus) by about 1,000 votes.  

“There’s a reason that Mary Jo Kilroy came up a few votes short last time, for instance. That’s because we didn’t do a better job, the Democrats, of reaching out into Union County, or Madison County, or Delaware County, or those other areas,” Redfern said.

Democrats don’t need to carry those counties, just get a higher percentage of the vote in them.

“It’s not a question of winning every county. The beauty of this is that if you do better in every county, you’ll win the state,” Redfern said, estimating that six votes per precinct would have won Ohio for John Kerry in 2004.

Redfern said that early voters, especially those who cast ballots in person, have helped Democrats gain an edge going into Election Day. The party is four points ahead of where it needs to be in terms of get out the vote efforts, he said.