COLUMBUS, Ohio — While there are likely many political issues Dan La Botz and Eric Deaton do not agree on, one timely issue they do share in common is that the anticipated debate between Republican Rob Portman and Democrat Lee Fisher, both running to replace George Voinovich in the U.S. Senate, should include them.
La Botz of the Socialist Party of Ohio and Deaton of the Ohio Constitution Party, whose names and party affiliations will be listed as candidates on the fall statewide ballot to replace Ohio's two-term, retiring senior senator, are calling on Ohio's chief elections officer to include them in the anticipated debates.
Political odd couple birds of a feather for debates
The odd couple duo of Botz and Deaton, whose political ideologies diverge often and by wide margins, may be a match made in heaven if their timely merger of purpose to get themselves on the same stage with Portman and Fisher can light a fire under someone who wants to champion their cause, if not them or their parties specifically.
In this election-year melodrama, that someone is Jennifer Brunner. It is to her agency, one she won in 2006 but is now term-limited to leave at the end of the year, that the petition both are supporting will be directed; and where an exchange of correspondence on the idea with La Botz has already taken place.
Moreover, Brunner, who lost this year's primary race to fellow Democrat Lee Fisher to be on the General Election ballot with Portman, La Botz and Deacon, but who will oversee her fourth and final General Election, appears to be doing something no other state agency is readying to do, sponsor a debate this year between the two major political party candidates running to win an open statewide seat.
For Secretary of State, those candidates are Democrat Maryellen O'Shaughnessy of Columbus and Republican Jon Husted of Kettering.
On Monday, La Botz, of Cincinnati, initiated an online petition he's asking supporters to sign that calls for inclusive political debates in Ohio, and that will be sent to Brunner.
La Botz, Deaton to appeal to Brunner
La Botz's online petition called attention to reports that discussions between Portman and Fisher on the possibility of scheduling debates that will not include him or Deaton.
In a prepared statement, La Botz said, “The Ohio Secretary of State has the responsibility to insure fair elections. So far Jennifer Brunner has done an excellent job to insure that all parties and candidates will appear on the ballot."
Hoping to force some action from Brunner, who has many good political reasons to ignore the petition but who also ran against Fisher directly and Portman indirectly on a theme of having the "Courage" to improve elections so they are "free, fair, open and honest," the overture by La Botz and Deaton gives Brunner an opportunity to again show her electoral courage.
Using the remaining months she has in office, and the megaphone she still wields on election issues, Brunner has another opportunity to exit in grand style, one that will bode her well should she seek public office again.
Having fought the good fight in her loss to Fisher in the spring, Brunner go the next mile, and in doing so command an otherwise disinterested mainstream media to pay some attention to the plight of two candidates from outgunned and out manned political parties, who want to stand toe-to-toe with political kingpins like Portman and Fisher, who each have millions in war chest funding and dozens of campaign workers at their disposal, so Ohio voters could see and hear the field of candidates they can vote for.
La Botz gave Brunner her defensible talking point this way: "But, if an election is to be fair, then voters have to be able to hear all of the candidates’ views—not just the Republicans and Democrats.”
Deaton issued a media release Tuesday that said La Botz's petition has his approval.
"It is obvious that most Americans are now disgusted with the predominant two party system and are looking for alternatives." Deaton said, adding, "It is time for all of us to stop voting for the lesser-of-two-evils and start voting for people we believe in."
La Botz argues that while legal theory in this area is contested, political parties - like Democrats, Republicans, Constitution, Green Party, Libertarians and Socialists - have been ruled by courts as "creatures of the state," and as such, should be treated equally by the state, including inclusion in any debates between major party candidates.
Brunner official deflects overture
In an exchange with a senior legal adviser to Brunner, La Botz was told that the federal court specifically ruled in 2008 that the Secretary of State has no legal authority to make law when the General Assembly fails to act. Moreover, the Office of Secretary of State has "no legal authority over the media and the private entities that are sponsoring the debates."
The one debate the agency is sponsoring, the official said, does include Libertarian candidate Charles Earl.
"So, aside from filling my email box with hundreds of emails, you are giving these people false hope that we can do something about it," La Botz was told. "Your efforts might be more effective if aimed at the sponsors of the debate."
Responding, La Botz raised the issue of the abolishment of the Federal Fairness Doctrine, accomplished in 1987 during President Reagan's second term under pressure from conservatives.
La Botz is urging Brunner to "continue her good work of stepping in where the legislature has failed to
create law, by insisting on fairness in Ohio."
"If the Secretary of State does not use her moral and legal authority to demand fairness, then corporate money that goes to the Republican Portman--nine million dollars; and to the Democrat Fisher--two million dollars--will decide our elections through advertising and direct mail," wrote.
"Money will snuff out the truth. Brunner has already seen this in her experience in the Democratic Party primary, and I know that she is sensitive to the issue."
Brunner's agency's sponsorship of a debate raises the question of why other statewide office holders like Auditor Mary Taylor, who herself will leave her post at the end of the year to either become Ohio's next Lt. Gov or become a practicing private accountant again, doesn't sponsor a debate between candidates running to replace her.
While the mainstream media has traditionally restricted its reporting on political discourse to candidates and messages from the nation's two largest political parties, Democrats and Republicans, delivering a steady diet of ping-pong style campaign press releases, often designed to inflame instead of inform, La Botz and Deaton, who will each be on the November ballot representing their respective minority political parties, need not engage in guerrilla marketing to contact Ohio voters.
La Botz, Socialist for Senate 2010
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