A star is born in Ohio — Canton Mayor: Healy (D) Defeats Republican Incumbent

(From the diaries – promoted by James L.)

A star is born in OH! IO!

Canton, Ohio Mayoral Race
Challenger Jamey Healy (D): 53.4%
Incumbent Janet Creighton (R): 46.6%

Canton is the largest city in the 16th Congressional District — a place I called home during my first campaign and returned when given the opportunity by Senator Sherrod Brown a year later. 

It’s an inexpensive cocktail made from 2 parts economic depression and job loss, 1 part quaint strip-mall suburbia, and 1 part big city…ish.

And last night, it was home to a proxy war that will hopefully foretell the outcome of OH-16 and the Presidential election in 2008.

Canton is the largest city in what is widely considered THE swing district in Ohio: Stark County. Stark County, of course, is the largest county in what is considered the pivotal race in Ohio’s Congressional landscape this year: OH-16.

You hear a lot of “firewall” states for Presidential campaigns.  Ie. if candidate “x” loses such and such states, their “firewall” is Florida (for example) where he/she can regain lost momentum and come back to carry the day.  In this instance, Canton was the firewall city for the Ohio GOP.  Until last night, it was the largest city under Republican control.

And this morning, there isn’t a single Republican elected official in the entire city.

For the final days and weeks, Republicans re-allocated their resources away from races like the longshot attempt to unseat Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman and started sending troops Northeast torwards Canton.

Emails went out, troops came in, money flew in all directions in what was the most expensive Mayoral race in the city’s history.  Ted Strickland, Chris Redfern and the resurgent Ohio Democratic Party responded in-kind with dollars, bodies and political heft.  And with a week to go, it was clear: Canton was the place to be.

At the end of the day, the Ohio Democratic Party train rolled on — decisively beating the Republicans and forcing them back to a fall-back position they only envisioned in their worst nightmares.

The Stark County Democratic party *was* an ossified pseudo-machine under the leadership of Johnnie Maier.  Maier is an opportunist, pure and simple.  The kind of man who would quickly place his own political ambitions directly ahead of any perceived threat to his own power or future ladders he might contemplate climbing.

And that includes Democratic candidates running for office in his own backyard.

Johnnie Maier is a checkers master trying to compete on a three dimensional chess board.  His inability to completely grasp his surroundings is rivaled only by the lead character in the movie Momento.

He alienates activists like it were his job.  He chased away Kerry coordinators, pissed off ACT, and actively worked against Reform Ohio Now. Quite the trifecta.

Johnnie Maier is no longer the leader of the Ohio Democratic Party in Stark County.  There is a new sheriff in town. It’s a new breed of Democrat that will deliver votes to John Boccieri and the Democratic nominee in OH-16.  People like Jamey and Deametrious St. John flexed their muscles and led the ticket to a clean sweep.

Finally, a star is born. I had long considered Jamey a top prospect to run either against Ralph Regula, or in the open seat in a post-Regula world.  He went another route, and that opened the door for someone like John Boccieri to walk through it. 

A victory here signals strength in OH-16 that hasn’t been seen for quite some time.  It signals a Democratic Party on the move and a Republican Party retreating to the reddest of red portions of the state.  And it was a test of wills in a battle that most viewed as a precursor of things to come statewide in 2008.

There is a lot to be encouraged about in this race.  We won the battle, and it was a nice little leap in the right direction towards winning the war.