blogger interrupted

In 2006, the primary for Attorney General in Ohio was the blogosphere’s cause, largely due to Subodh Chandra.  Subodh was a former law director of the City of Cleveland, and caught the eye of bloggers who wanted a clean break from the past of both the GOP and the Ohio Democratic Party.  Subodh campaigned hard, all across the state, and even got some important endorsements.

Marc Dann, inexplicably, got the endorsement of the Ohio Democratic Party.  That makes Marc Dann Chris Redfern’s problem.  The positively weird rush to endorse Dann from all corners of the traditional ODP control mongers happened quickly, and without any consideration for what Marc Dann would do to the ODP long term, hell, even short term.  

The UAW didn’t even consider former Cleveland law director Subodh Chandra. In fact, Chandra spokeswoman Scarlett Bouder says that union leaders wouldn’t even return her calls. She doesn’t have a beef with the UAW’s choice, but at least bosses could have comparison-shopped. “Marc Dann will eventually be the albatross around the Democratic Party’s neck,” she says.

Not only the UAW, and numerous unions, but Redfern was warned, repeatedly, that the rush to endorse Marc Dann made no sense whatsoever.  But Redfern created some strange process by which it was never doubted Dann would emerge endorsed.  The ODP endorsed Dann in February, 2006, despite the warnings, and despite the clear support Subodh had built.

And the warnings about Dann didn’t stop there.  After the endorsement, and before the primary in May, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, who herself was railroaded by Redfern and Ted Strickland in the process that made Redfern chair, endorsed Subodh to Marc Dann’s face.

Her next endorsement, for Attorney General, was a very ugly moment. With ODP-endorsed candidate Marc Dann standing right next to her, Tubbs Jones stated that she, Mayor Jackson, and Mayor McLin will endorse Subodh Chandra

It all comes back to the ODP chair race in December, 2005, during which Chris Redfern and Ted Strickland made complete fools of people like Stephanie, in order to get the chairmanship.  What role Marc Dann’s candidacy played in this drama is unclear, but it sure feels like Dann was just another cog in whatever wheel Redfern felt he needed to consolidate power. 

Now, Marc Dann is a complete laughingstock, and has made the office of Attorney General a laughingstock, and it is Chris Redfern’s problem.  Defend your boy, Fernsy.  Or get him out.  

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