Hamilton County Democratic Party Exec Endorsements

I think these meetings are always a good show. It's a mix of the sweet, sad, and angry.
To get into the meeting exec committee members had to walk through a gauntlet of people asking them not to endorse tonight in one race or another. The meeting began with a moment of silence because Thor Jacobs Mother died today. (We will be postponing our interview with Thor for a while.) The endorsement count went down like this:

* County Commission: David Pepper
* 1st Congressional District: John Cranley
* 2nd Congressional District: None- Candidates are Gaby Downey, Thor Jacobs,
Jim Parker, Jeff Sinnard & Vic Wulsin.
* 9th District State Senate Seat: Eric Kearney
* 32nd District State Representative: None- Candidates are Eve Bolton and Dale Mallory.

Here are the highlights as I remember.
2nd District:
All candidates that were up for an endorsement were asked to give speeches.
In the second district race Jeff Sinnard was the first one up. He said he did not seek or would accept the endorsement. (He had nothing to lose since no DEMOCRATIC party would give him an endorsement. Jim Parker was next up. He was very entertaining. He brought his jar, you’ve heard about, but tonight it was filled with beans. He mentioned that Jack Murtha was his congressman when he lived in PA. He weaved some sort of story about jack and the magic beans. He spilled out the beans on the podium and said I'm giving the Hamilton County Democratic party magic beans. I don't know who is coaching Jim, but keep it up. He is the assured comic relief of politics. I can't wait till next Thursday night to see what he has in the jar for the Hamilton County Democratic Forum Meeting.

Gaby Downey gave a very good speech, she mentioned that she is like the district, and told how she can appeal to the voters district wide. She talked about growing up in Forest Park, a very diverse neighborhood. She mentioned that she was the next to last in a family of six children, so money for college was non-existent. She said that she decided that she was tall, she would learn basket ball be good and get a scholarship. As a high schooler she was already thinking out her game plan if she incurred and injury. She would work hard at school. She graduated with a 4.0 so she could get an academic scholarship if she needed it. (Can you say over achiever?) She mentioned that she had no money cause she entered the race late. She was very impassioned and by god at the end of her speech I was reaching into my wallet.

Then David Little got up and made the plea for Thor Jacobs. What a crappy day for the Jacobs campaign today. Not only did Thor's mother pass away, but also his consultant David Little buried his dog. After putting his dog of 14 years to rest, David was up asking the committee not to endorse in this race. He stated that up until a year ago no one knew any of these candidates, he had been in politics for 25 years and he didn't know them.

Last up was Vic Wulsin. She was her usual spunky self. She was amusing, she held up a big sign and said she may be the smallest candidate, but she had the biggest sign.

After all that the nominating committee announced their endorsement of both Vic and Gaby. Long story short the exec committee did not accept the endorsement and instead voted to endorse no one. (Yeah.) The crowd was very excited by this turn of events. There is DEMOCRACY.

9th District:
In the race against Kearney and Barrett Eric Kearney was allowed to speak first and gave a speech about the duality of his life. Living in an African American neighborhood, and hanging with kids that listened to the Ohio Players and ate Now and Laters; getting on a bus and going to school with kids that wear blazers and striped ties. Evidently there was some sort of duality in his adult life, but that was lost on me. The audience was shocked when Katherine Barrett made a withdraw speech instead of a stump speech. Most shocking her supporters had no idea. Katherine seemed a bit tired and maybe defeated. The crowd gave her lots of support. They gave her a standing ovation.

32nd District:
In another interesting race Dale Mallory got up and gave a speech. He didn't sound very convincing. All I remember is he pointed out that the district had always been represented by an African American, and that he is Mark's older brother, not younger as the paper reported.

Then Eve Bolton got up and was on fire. She brought a visual aide. She showed a map of the district. She said that she had lived, worked, or owned property in the district ever since she was 7 years old. She talked about the places in her district evidently there is a total of 20 distinct neighborhoods in that district. She talked about education, what a stretch. I would give her an A. She was very good, that may be attributed to her constant candidacy in one race or another. Maybe her time has come.

This vote was one of the most entertaining of the night. The committee was recommending endorsement for Mallory, and then it got turned into a no endorsement vote.


I hope you didn't want any more dirt. That's all I remember. Oh, no as many were getting up to leave Stephanie Dumas took the floor and was railing against the vote on her race. She evidentially did not make the nominating committee interview. There was miscommunication according to Stephanie. She stated that if she had been interviewed she believed that she would have received the endorsement. I don't think it went anywhere, but it was dramatic. ...