Other than the Comprehensive Safety Plan, this is my first time writing about county politics. I wanted mention the recent agreement between the Hamilton County Republican and Democratic parties to not endorse candidates in the Hamilton County Commissioners’ elections this November, allowing the current incumbents to run unopposed. In other words, Republican Greg Hartmann (current Republican Commissioner Pat DeWine is not running) and Democrat Todd Portune will run with against no candidate from opposing political party as a result of the deal. The Enquirer has the story here from January 4, 2008.
On the Enquirer’s Politics Extra Blog there are a number of comments.
Comments are falling in to a few camps. 1. General people who are upset that they will not have a choice. 2. Rank and file Republicans and Democrats upset that they will not have a candidate in a race where they feel the opposing candidate may be vulnerable. 3. Rank and file Republicans upset at the Party for basically resigning the fact that they will remain the minority on the commission to Democrats Portune & Pepper.
There are some challengers but they are not endorsed by either party.
My gut says I do not like the deal. I understand the want to devote resources elsewhere, especially in a Presidential election year. But I guess I still want the ability to at least try and vote the other guy out of office. I risk my guy losing . . . but with risk comes reward. And it is a reward I would think both parties would want. For the Democrats, they could have all three Commissioner seats. For the Republicans, they could gain back a majority. Maybe both sides thought that was unlikely. I honestly thought both candidates were vulnerable and maybe party leadership did to.
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