The parallels to the Presidential race are sadly similar - Strickland, former Governor and well-respected Democratic Party stalwart is being primaried by P.G. Sittenfeld, a Cincinnati Councilman. Strickland has been endorsed by damned-near everybody, including the state Party and Sherrod Brown. The angry and vociferous Sittenfeld supporters ostensibly have a beef with Strickland's working-class constituents, many of whom come from the coal country of Southeastern Ohio, but their actual animosity comes from Strickland's Establishment bona fides and support and, moreso, his utter indifference to their candidate and themselves.
Said supporters are a clear minority, but they're attempting to create a rift within the Party that serves no purpose other than to weaken Strickland's chances against Portman. This would (and should) be an important pickup, one that'll be challenging enough for Strickland.
See if this sounds familiar:
http://wvxu.org/post/topsy-turvy-world-strickland-sittenfeld-race#stream/0
Sometimes, it almost seems as if the Sittenfeld campaign is spending more time running against the Ohio Democratic Party than against Strickland.
Dale Butland, a long-time veteran of Ohio politics and Sittenfeld’s campaign spokesman, said the campaign’s only beef with Strickland is that he is “playing rope-a-dope” – in other words, he’s acting like a boxer just taking body blows and hope that his opponent wears himself out and that he can throw a knock-out punch.
...
Sittenfeld wants them to focus on the following topics – jobs and the economy, Social Security and Medicare, education and student loan debt, civil rights, trade agreements and foreign policy, and why each candidate thinks he would be the strongest to run against Portma.(sic)
...
A Quinnipiac University Poll in June had Strickland up by six percentage points on Portman – down a bit from the nine point lead the former governor had in April. But Portman led Sittenfeld with 49 percent to the Cincinnati council member’s 24 percent.
= new reply since forum marked as read
