DDN Editorial on Kevin DeWine

I stopped trolling the Dayton Daily News website for material when I started slacking on my weekly column for the MVCA, so it is due to the diligence of Matt Naugle at RightAngleBlog that I comment on this piece today.

Matt characterizes this editorial as an attack, which I am not sure that it is. The piece has several flaws, but serving as an attack is not one of them. Let's start with the premise of the editorial which is in the headline: "Our view: What would Kevin DeWine do about Mike?" We don't get their view on what they think Kevin would do about Mike; if they had, that might be construed as an attack.

The history:

From the time he got into politics, Kevin DeWine — the Republican state representative for Fairborn, Beavercreek and Xenia — has been seen as nearly destined to run statewide. The family name would be an advantage in a race for a low-visibility slot, like state treasurer. And he has some of the natural gifts of a politician.

Of course, certain recent events demonstrated that the DeWine name isn't exactly political magic on a Houdini level. Sen. Mike DeWine was defeated in 2006, and the year before, his son flopped in a congressional primary.

So what had seemed to be a dynasty in the making is ... well, read on.

Now, as Rep. DeWine (nephew to the former senator) approaches the end of his allotted years in the state House of Representatives, he has the all-but-official designation as the next chairman of the Ohio Republican Party. Current Chairman Robert Bennett will be leaving after 2008 and wants to groom a successor. So a No. 2 spot was created.

The job wasn't handed to Rep. DeWine. He had to beat two county party chairmen.

I think that is a fair and accurate portrayal of Kevin's career thus far. Republicans have been treated much worse in the paper...

This bit doesn't real feel "right" where it was placed in the editorial, but the sentiment is right on target:

It's always good to see somebody from the region playing an important statewide role. It helps guarantee that the area isn't forgotten.

I think having Kevin involved with the party at such a level is a major advantage for the region...

Here is the part that Matt objected to:

By taking the job, Rep. De-Wine certainly undermines any future charge that he is trying to skate to high office on his name. He even risks making some Republican enemies.

What, for example, happens in 2010 if Mike DeWine wants to be governor, but so does some other big-name Republican, say, Rob Portman, Jon Husted or John Kasich? It's not a far-fetched scenario.

Chairman Bennett has made perhaps his biggest mark by getting would-be candidates to step aside, so as to avoid divisive primaries (a trick he couldn't pull off in 2006). But a Chairman DeWine would not be in a great position to do that. He couldn't ask his uncle to step aside, and he couldn't ask anybody else to step aside for his kin.

Fine. Let the public have a choice. Avoiding primaries might be in a party's interest. (Chairmen always seem to think it is.) But the practice is not in the public interest.

Of course, in 2010 a lot of pragmatic Republicans will be worrying that primaries work to the advantage of Republican candidates who are too conservative to win a general election, given what happened to Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell last year. But that was one year, one set of circumstances.

The first paragraph is absolutely correct: by taking the job, Kevin puts to rest any notion of seeking higher office based solely on name recognition.

The premise of the piece is finally raised in the second paragraph, but no answer is given. What would Kevin do if Mike wanted to run against John Kasich, Rob Portman, Jon Husted or anybody else? I suspect that Kevin would actually stay out of the way of a primary race in that situation...something that Chairman Bennett should have done all along. But what difference does that make to an editorial board?

It is the last paragraph that I suspect really gets Matt going...and I can't disagree with anything that he says about it:

First of all, I love that the Dayton Daily News can claim Ken Blackwell lost because he was "too conservative", even though Betty Montgomery, Mike DeWine and many other liberal-leaning Republicans lost, while Mary Taylor was one of the most principled and conservative members of the Ohio legislature. The DDN might have avoided those points just because it doesn't fit their agenda-driven template.

That is the analysis that shatters the template that the Democrats and their accomplices in the media have been trying to sell about 2006... It wasn't conservatives or conservatism that lost in the '06 cycle, it was Republicans who faced a hostile environment due to corruption and complacency.

This last bit from the editorial is somwhat confusing:

Another subject naturally comes up as Rep. DeWine takes the party job. His election suggests that he hasn't paid any major price in his party for pushing for reform of the way legislative districts are drawn. That process — known as redistricting — is traditionally the most partisan of all activities undertaken by elected officials.

The current system — which gives all power to whichever party holds certain elective offices — has served Republicans well for two decades, but could turn on them in the future.

Reform — in a form that doesn't settle for balancing the interests of the parties, but brings non-partisans into map-drawing — would be a big step forward for the state. Hopefully, Rep. DeWine will continue to push for it.

A chairman's job is mainly to win elections. But victory always has a thousand fathers. A chairman who moves beyond that — to shape the election system itself — can play a more lasting role, and one that serves the state as a whole.

Well, redistricting doesn't actually come up naturally...and I disagree with the premise that "we" would be better off with a chariman willing to involve himself in the election system itself. Haven't we learned anything from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections nonsense?

One last thing: Kevin DeWine is entitled to no more of a "break" than any other public figure. If he can't take the heat, it is better that we learn this now rather than later...