The Ohio Democratic Party has a new leader. David Pepper was elected by ODP’s Executive Committee to be the new state chairman Tuesday night. In the aftermath of November’s disastrous midterm elections, Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern faced a significant amount of blame for the brutal election results as well the process by which Ed FitzGerald, with his dubious history as a licensed driver, made it to the top of the Democratic ticket.
On Election Night, Redfern, who was voted out of office as a state representative, offered to resign his chairmanship effective in mid-December. With that, a mini-battle opened up among state Democrats to see who would lead the party out of the weeds.
The initial frontrunner for the position was former state representative Dennis “Denny” Wojtanowski. Wojtanowski’s appeal was boosted by the endorsement of Sen. Sherrod Brown, Ohio’s highest-ranking Democrat. Just a day after Brown’s endorsement, however, Wojtanowski withdrew his name from consideration.
Wojtanowski cited his work as a lobbyist, and his contributions to Republicans as well as Democrats, as the reason many Democrats felt he was an inappropriate choice for state party boss. At the same time, Ohio’s four Democrats in the US House of Representatives, Joyce Beatty, Tim Ryan, Marcia Fudge and Marcy Kaptur, issued a joint statement calling for a slower and more deliberative process in choosing the new chairman.
“As Democrats, we believe the success of replacing Chairman Redfern depends on listening to all voices within our broad coalition,” wrote the four representatives. “We believe our Party will emerge stronger only if an inclusive process is employed across Ohio.”
With Wojtanowski the frontrunner out, the party descended into controlled chaos, and despite the “backroom deals and infighting” alleged by Ohio Supreme Court Justice Bill O’Neill, five candidates for party boss emerged, with two showing the most promise; Sharen Neuhardt and David Pepper.
Neuhardt and Pepper were both victims of the midterm debacle, with Pepper losing his bid for Ohio attorney general and Neuhardt losing the lieutenant governor’s race. Neuhardt was favored by Sen. Brown and was able to snag the endorsement of Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman in early December. Coincidentally, Coleman’s friend and ally Rep. Joyce Beatty decided to endorse Pepper.
This week, however, Neuhardt withdrew from the race for party boss, telling her supporters in an email “we need to accept that the majority of members of the Executive Committee believe that David Pepper is the right person to lead our party.”
In that same email to supporters, Neuhardt laid out a heavy indictment of the methods by which the Ohio Democratic Party operates, writing, “the party desperately needs to adopt good governance policies – the kind of governance policies that any well-respected business or nonprofit entity would have had in place for years, but which the ODP has neglected to adopt.”
Neuhardt lamented the Democratic Party’s “failure to have an ethics and conflicts of interest policy, procurement policies, and financial controls that are commonplace in virtually every other respected entity in this state.” Despite her concerns, Neuhardt wrote that in the interest of party unity – a near-mythological thing for Ohio Democrats – she would not longer seek the party chair.
And then there was one.
With Neuhardt out of the picture, Pepper’s ascension to the chairmanship was swift. Pepper must now lead a limping party, a divided party and a party desperately trying to put on a good face for 2016.
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