Better Off Ted

[slaveplanet]

From clevescene.com
Originally published by Cleveland Scene 2006-03-01
©2005 New Times, Inc. All rights reserved.

Better Off Ted
Last year Ted Strickland said he wouldn't run for governor. Now we need him to.
By Josh Mound


Walter Novak



In his first three runs for Congress, young Strickland got walloped.

Jack Kustron/ photoj.com
Relentless campaigning -- and an ample war chest -- has turned the longshot into a front-runner.

Jack Kustron/ photoj.com
Strickland's background as a minister makes him a -- gasp -- likable presence at the podium.

Jack Kustron/ photoj.com
Critics said Strickland (pictured with Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones) would struggle to win over Ohio's big cities. So far that hasn't been the case.

Walter Novak
Even at Ted's birthday party, wife Frances steals the show.

Walter Novak
Strickland wrapped up key endorsements before his opponents could gain momentum.


Who / What:
Ted Strickland
Fund-raising is probably Ted Strickland's least favorite thing. This afternoon at the Euclid library, it's his job to tell a few dozen politicians, labor reps, and interest groups why he should be Ohio's next governor, and his words manage only to limp forward.

"We are reaching the point in Ohio where class matters, in terms of affording higher education," Strickland says and then pauses uncertainly. In 10 minutes at the podium, he has mustered little excitement and even less momentum. With regular folks, he never hesitates, never stumbles. He'll spin off anecdotes and one-liners effortlessly, gesturing for emphasis as he paces the stage.

The guy is damn near an institution in his southeastern Ohio district, where poverty runs rampant, and where Strickland is viewed by voters as one of their own. The local boy who has made very good, he's now six terms into a congressional career that's been marked by nary a whiff of scandal or impropriety. In Ohio politics, that's batting 1.000.

He takes pride in not sloughing off his duties in Washington, where he usually spends each Tuesday through Thursday, before racing back to Ohio to keep up appearances. The rigorous schedule is bound to sap his energy, and today in Euclid, before a friendly crowd hungering for a candidate to support, Strickland is flat.

After the speech, he shakes off his sluggishness, chatting with anyone who approaches him in a corner of the room. When the occasion calls for it, he'll pick up little kids and play the old-fashioned politician's game. But conjuring a larger-than-life personality or dominating conversation isn't in the Strickland playbook.

"Ted's a throwback to the way congressmen used to be, when you would have the farmer, the commoner, run for Congress and never lose touch with the people," says Rich Stoner, a friend and former co-worker of Strickland's.

Put another way: "Strickland is a liberal, but he's good at hiding it," says Mike Azinger, Strickland's Republican challenger in 2000.

Strickland has two months before the May primary to see that all of Ohio knows his name the way his congressional district has for years. The challenge is nothing Strickland hasn't overcome before. After all, he didn't make it to Congress by going through the usual channels in the first place. He's not a lawyer or a businessman, and he's certainly not a career politician. He's been a prison psychologist, a minister, a professor, a director of a children's home. In 1992, he became the first Democrat in 34 years to get elected in his district. And it took a lot of work -- including three failed campaigns in the 1970s -- to convince voters he'd be on their side. Now that he's running for Ohio's top office, he can't win people over the way he did in Appalachia -- he can't meet them all. But he might not need to.

Outgoing Governor Bob Taft boasts approval ratings comparable to malaria, while the Republicans dueling to succeed him, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and Attorney General Jim Petro, are slinging mud while fending off ties to scandals of their own.

For once, Ohio Democrats don't need a miracle worker to win. Somebody who can gain the ears of moderates and conservatives will do fine; someone with actual convictions wouldn't hurt. Observers say you can't hold statewide office until you've been defeated in the attempt. But Strickland might be the guy to break the mold. Lord knows, Ohio needs him to.

much more..

http://www.clevescene.com/Issues/2006-03-01/news/feature_print.html

[Kukesa]

1. Good article. How about you post it over in the Ohio forum, too? nt

[Kukesa]

2. THANX! (from a Buckeye.) nt