The Washington Post reports our good friend Jason Mauk, the Ohio GOP's political director and the blogger behind State of the Union as saying, "To the extent that voters in that district were sending a message to the Republican Party at the state or national level, we have heard that message and we will continue to listen to their concerns." and I have to wonder if Jason actually got the message.
Mauk said the economy, national security and a scandal that has touched Gov. Bob Taft and other Ohio Republicans may have contributed to the narrower-than-expected outcome. "There does seem to be a sour mood among the electorate at both the state and national level," he said.But does Jason or Mr. Bennett have any idea why there is a sour mood?
The Ohio GOP has some very real challenges to overcome if they want to maintain their precious grip on power in this state. For one, they are going to have to get serious about conservative values. There are three main camps of Republican voters: value voters (social conservatives), pro-business/anti-tax voters (fiscal conservatives), and foreign policy hawks (so-called South Park Conservatives). Republicans also have a shot at pulling in the libertarians and conservative Democrat voters that are disgusted by the hijacking of their party by the far left. This is a difficult balance to maintain. The strategy in Ohio has been to build a "Big Tent" wherein the party attract a wide variety of voters by sponsoring a wide variety of candidates that have a wide variety of views.
The problem is that the tent is now too big. There are too many Republicans who have wandered away from the Republican base. The political climate in Columbus is stale and reeks of corruption and scandal. The time for change in the Ohio GOP is now and if the Republicans in Columbus fail to see that, they will definitely see it come election time.
Pundits can debate the lessons of the special election to replace Rob Portman for weeks, but this is the primary lesson for the Ohio GOP. The message that was delivered is this: it is time for the Ohio GOP to reclaimm it's conservative credentials or risk losing power until they do.
It is not okay for politicians to campaign as conservatives when they need our vote and then abandon those principles once they get that vote. It is not okay for politicians to work backroom deals in order to curry favor. And it is not okay to ignore constituents because you think they'll be there on election day voting for you anyway.
Whatever happened to the tradition of asking people for their vote and then being what you promised to be and do what you promised you would do? And since when did incumbency and maintaining power become more important than representing the values of the constituency?
We aren't going to find many candidates that appeal to all three pillars of Republican values. But when we do, we should support them over candidates that don't. There shouldn't be a primary with 9 candidates in it. That makes the Democrats job that much easier to divide us. It may be cliche these days, but united we stand and divided we fall. The lesson for some conservatives is (and forgive me for paraphrasing Don Rumsfeld) that sometimes you have to go to the polls with the candidate you have and not neccessarily the candidate that you want.
This commentary has been cross-posted at the Miami Valley Conservative Alliance's Commentary and Journal site.
Mark's Remarks
The problem with the State GOP is that they did not have a viable opposition party for many years. In the wake of Dick "Massive Failure" Celeste, the GOP walked to victory. Celeste had scandals and overspending, some of which are even beyond Bob Taft (hard as that is to believe, I know). Ohio's Republicans, in essence, became the very thing they despised--establishment politicians. We don't want an establishment of big spending politicos here in the Buckeye state, we want a conservative agenda. Excepting the Hellhole of Cleveland Ohio, the liberal Mecca of the Buckeye state, most Ohioans want low taxes, low government involvement, and good roads. The Ohio GOP instead of focusing on an agenda chose to focus on focus groups, on building the tent over building the agenda, and in terms of falling prey to base greed. Dedicated conservatives like Ken Blackwell were few and far between, Rose Vesper, a former State rep, being one of the few.
The Chairman of this party in Ohio, quite frankly, needs to either get the party focused on the agenda of making change and advancing conservative bedrock American values, or he needs to get the hell out of the way. In the 2nd District, the voters showed that they cannot and will not be considered rubber stamps for a coronation, and they will no longer be taken for granted. They will stay home if you do not shape up.
Jason and the Chairman claim the message was received....we shall see....
