From the PD

Columbus - Your neighbor probably won’t ask you about it. It won’t grab as many headlines or get a fraction of the attention as the presidential race, but a 2008 political battle that will rage across Ohio began Friday.

It’s the fight for control of the Ohio House, where Republicans hope to hold off hard-charging Democrats and maintain their slim 53-46 edge. And it kicked off Friday as the filing deadline was met for the lower chamber’s 99 House districts that stretch across Ohio.

While Republicans must defend more seats opened by term limits, the House will likely swing on about a dozen or so hotly contested races. Included among those viewed to be the most competitive are a trio of state representative races from Cuyahoga and Lake counties - the 16th, 18th and 63rd House District races.

In the 16th District, which includes Bay Village, Rocky River, Westlake and North Olmsted, Democrats hope to hold onto a seat that they nabbed from under GOP noses in 2006 when Westlake Rep. Jennifer Brady won an upset. Republicans will challenge the freshman lawmaker with Nan Baker, a Westlake City Council member and small business owner.

“It’s a tough seat for us,” Ohio Democratic Party Chief Chris Redfern told reporters recently. “We’re going to hold it because Jennifer’s a great candidate - she’s right on the issues.”

House Speaker Jon Husted called Baker “a wonderful candidate” and said she has been running for the past year and probably has been “doing more events in the district than the incumbent.” Meanwhile, the head of the Ohio Republican Party, Robert Bennett, singled out Brady’s seat as one Republicans would win back while holding serve elsewhere.

A seat left vacant by Republican Rep. Tom Patton’s run for state Senate beckons both parties in the 18th District, which includes Berea, North Royalton and Strongsville. Democratic candidate Matt Patten, a 30-year-old community activist, looks to be fighting an uphill battle to knock off North Royalton Sen. Bob Spada, who was forced by term limits to switch over to the House to continue his political career.

Husted said Spada “has the trust of the district” and predicted that voters would once again elect him.

But House Minority Leader Joyce Beatty said voters who desire change will be tired of Spada.

“I don’t think it’s automatic,” she said. “I think people are tired of politicians switching back and forth.”

In the 63rd District, Republican freshman Rep. Carol-Ann Schindel, who beat Democrat Rep. Tim Cassell, who was damaged by a high-profile DUI conviction, will attempt to hold onto the seat encompassing eastern Lake County. She will face Democratic challenger Mark Schneider, a 32-year-old assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor.

While some Republicans acknowledge that Schindel’s win was a fluke, Husted said she has “exceeded expectations” during her first term in the Ohio House, pointing to an auditing bill she sponsored.

“She’s working real hard knocking on doors and building key relationships within the district,” said Husted.
Beatty called Schneider a “very talented candidate” and noted he has been campaigning for more than a year. As for Schindel, she “has not really found her way through the Statehouse here,” Beatty said. “I think we need to send her home where she can be more comfortable.”

While these races - and a handful of others across the state - will be hotly contested by parties bent on seizing control of state politics, the truth is that voter turnout will probably be most influenced by what happens on the national level.

“At the end of the day, this is about messaging and presidential politics,” said Scott Borgemenke, Husted’s chief of staff.

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Washington - Cleveland Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s run for the White House has led a large field of contenders to run for his congressional seat.

Kucinich continues to seek congressional re-election, even as he continues his presidential bid. He will officially kick off his congressional campaign on Wednesday.

That didn’t stop Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman, North Olmsted Mayor Thomas O’Grady, anti-war activist and former teacher and journalist Rosemary Palmer and former U.N. worker Barbara Ferris - who lost to Kucinich in the 2006 Democratic primary - from filing paperwork by Friday’s deadline to run against him in the March 4 Democratic primary.

Republican Jim Trakas - a former Independence councilman, state representative and Cuyahoga County Republican Party chairman - is also seeking Kucinich’s congressional seat, along with Jason Werner of Olmsted Township, who lost a 2006 GOP primary bid to face Kucinich.

“The good news is, whether in the primary or the general election, the people of the 10th District will have a choice and they will have better quality representation no matter what happens,” Trakas said.

Also, the retirement of longtime GOP Congressman Ralph Regula in the 16th Congressional District has prompted a crowd of potential successors to seek his seat. Republicans in the race include State Sen. J. Kirk Schuring of Jackson Township, Ashland County Commissioner Matt Miller - who got 42 percent of the 2006 GOP primary vote against Regula - and conservative radio talk-show host Paul R. Schiffer of Canton.

Democrats seeking the seat include State Sen. John Boccieri of New Middletown and Canton City Councilwoman Mary Cirelli, a former state legislator and Stark County commissioner.

Regula has said his district could “go either way” politically.

GOP Rep. Steve LaTourette, who represents many of Cleveland’s eastern suburbs, will be unopposed in the GOP primary, although a few Democrats are vying to run against him in November. Former appellate Judge Bill O’Neill of South Russell will face perennial candidate Dale Blanchard, a Solon accountant, in the 14th District’s Democratic primary, as well as John Greene Jr. of Pierpont.

“We need to change Congress, and we need to do it now,” said O’Neill, whose campaign spokesman called the crowded primary “a sign of frustration” with LaTourette and Washington in general.

Two Republicans want the chance to run against Democratic incumbent Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones in the 11th Congressional District. They are Thomas Pekarek of Cleveland and Bob Saffold of Shaker Heights. Tubbs Jones is unopposed in her primary.

Newly minted Democratic Rep. Betty Sutton of Copley Township also won’t be opposed in her primary, although Republicans Frank Chestney of Brunswick, Frances L. Kalapodis of Clinton and David S. Potter of Strongsville will compete to take her on.

In the 17th Congressional District, which includes Youngstown, Warren and parts of the Akron area, Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles won’t face primary opposition. Republican Duane V. Grassell of Mogadore filed paperwork to run against him in November.

In the 9th Congressional District, which includes portions of Lorain County, Toledo electrician Bradley Leavitt, a Republican who got 26 percent of the vote against incumbent Toledo Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur in 2006, is seeking a rematch. Neither has a contested primary.

But is Ohio moot?

The Ohio road to the White House was paved with candidates Friday as six Democrats and six Republicans filed paperwork to compete in the state’s March 4 presidential primary.

Democrats Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama are in. So are Republicans Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani, and Mitt Romney.

But it’s still unlikely Ohio voters will have a say in picking a nominee because the state’s primary falls too late to matter.

The bulk of the states will throw their delegates behind candidates before Ohio gets its chance. Ohio has 161 Democratic and 88 Republican delegates at stake, but about 50 percent of delegates from both parties will be pledged by March.

Even following the surprising results of Thursday’s Iowa caucus, in which Obama, a U.S. Senator from Illinois, and Huckabee, former Arkansas governor, upended the race with strong first-place finishes, political leaders don’t hold much hope that the race will be undecided two months from now.

“It’s highly likely we will have presumptive nominee by March,” said Doug Kelly, executive director of the Ohio Democratic Party and veteran of five presidential campaigns. “It’s hard to say anything has really changed after one contest. We’ll know more in the next two weeks.”

Candidates are not thinking about Ohio. Instead their campaigns are focused on New Hampshire and South Carolina, which hold the next two major presidential primaries. Candidates are also focused on Feb. 5, dubbed Super Duper Tuesday, when 22 states hold contests.

“We are seeing a little more activity in Ohio, but I don’t see the campaigns heating up until after February 5,” said Kevin DeWine, deputy chairman of the Ohio Republican Party.

Moreso than Kelly, DeWine holds out hope that Ohio’s primary might matter, at least on the GOP side. But both agree on this: Ohio will pick the next president in November.

Cleveland Congressman Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat, filed for both the presidential race and, as expected, for re-election to a seventh term in Congress.

For the first time, he faces serious Democratic challengers in the 10th Congressional District, making the race among the most contested of the short primary season and one that will likely shorten his long-shot bid to become president.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and U.S. Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware also filed for the Democratic primary. Biden filed before he dropped out of the race Thursday after placing fifth among Democrats in Iowa. Edwards, a former U.S. Senator from South Carolina, and Clinton, a U.S. Senator from New York finished second and third respectively. Richardson was fourth.

The other Republican presidential candidates filing in Ohio are Fred Thompson, former U.S. senator from Tennessee, U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.

Dozen of politicians in Northeast Ohio also filed for offices ranging from coroner to the Ohio Supreme Court. Most elected officials won’t face serious opposition until the November general election.

Congressman Steve LaTourette of Bainbridge Township, for instance, has no opposition in the primary but will face of one of three Democrats who filed. Among them is Democrat Bill O’Neill, a former appellate court judge.

Voters who don’t follow state politics closely might be a bit confused by a couple of filings. Republican State Rep. Tom Patton of Strongsville and Republican State Sen. Bob Spada of North Royalton are running for each other’s seat.

Spada, who will be forced out of the 24th Senate District at the end of the year by term limits, filed for Patton’s 18th House District seat. He faces no one in the primary but will face opposition in the general. Patton, who wants Spada’s more prestigious seat in the Senate, has no primary challengers, either. It appeared that no Democrats filed for the seat.