Ohio House Minority Leader expects to be Speaker after '06 election

[Algorem]

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

COLUMBUS

Democrat wants speaker seat

Ohio House Minority Leader Chris Redfern, an outspoken and articulate critic of the scandal-ridden Ohio Republican Party, announced this week he intends to be the next House speaker. Redfern, a Catawba Island Democrat, is signaling on one hand his decision not to seek statewide office. He had been testing the waters for taking a run at state auditor. But he is also anticipating wild success for his party in the 2006 elections - enough for it to add 11 seats to the 39 that Democrats now hold and, therefore, become the House majority. The speaker is elected from the majority party by fellow legislators in the 99-member House.

http://www.cleveland.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/1127295598122462.xml?nxcnb&coll=2

[rodeodance]

1. counting your chickens before they are hatched is dangerous. He needs

to stay very vigilant as the Repugs do not go down easily.

[NewJeffCT]

5. agreed

in the immortal words of Han Solo - "Don't get cocky, kid!"

He has no idea what the Republican slime machine can do once they get into high gear.

[Kolesar]

2. Swing for the fence!

Ok, which 11 seats?

[orion9941]

3. I have a feeling...

that Ohio democrats are still going to have one hell of a race on their hand in 2006. I don't think it's going to be a democratic windfall like some are thinking.

[Hippo_Tron]

6. Especially with Diebold

Now I'm not one of those pessimists who says, "it doesn't matter until we fix the voting machines". We absolutely need to gear up to help the Democrats in 2006. But you can bet that there will certainly be several races that are "too close to call". And one way or another, "when it's too close to call, it's close enough to steal".

[OzarkDem]

8. Agree completely

The news media in most areas will not cooperate. Dem candidates for house and senate seats are going to have to compete with the gubernatorial candidates for funds.

I hope ODP develops a better managed and better funded coordinated campaign for Ohio GA seats than they have in the past. These candidates need a fund for coordinated media buys in the last 30 days of the election.

The only consolation is that the Ohio R's wont have taxpayer dollars (Noe) to draw from for their campaign contributions - expect them to still outraise Dems, much of it from outside the state.

Then there are all the problems with crooked voting scams.

Taking back the majority in the Ohio GA is going to be really, really hard work. They won't win by default they have to earn those votes.

[pro_blue_guy]

4. Good luck, Chris.

Ignorance runs high in Ohio (the Republicans are in control as a result). But Mr. Redfern represents my district and ran unapposed in his last election. He is a good representative. He is definitely someone not to mess around with. But winning 11 seats......time will tell, I guess....

[OzarkDem]

7. Let's hope so

But I hope we're not relying totally on winning by default.

I hope our grassroots are better mobilized by 2006.