House Filings Show Dems Are All Over Ohio Again - CQ Today

[Kolesar]

House Filings Show Dems Are All Over Ohio Again
By Greg Giroux, CQ Staff
The just-passed candidate filing deadline in Ohio simply underscored what already was well-known. The state’s congressional contests include major targets for House Democratic strategists, who in 2006 succeeded in one House takeover bid in Ohio and fell narrowly short in three others.

The end of the filing period late Friday afternoon confirmed that Democrats will wage highly competitive challenges in two districts that Republican incumbents are leaving open to retire — including the Columbus-based constituency where Rep. Deborah Pryce survived her 2006 race by a razor-thin margin — while picking up where they left off in two Cincinnati-area districts where Republican incumbents toughed out close races last time.

Ohio Republicans, playing mostly defense in this year’s slate of House races, are staking their hopes for a comeback on their efforts to unseat freshman Democratic Rep. Zack Space . He won the seat that veteran Republican Bob Ney vacated just before the 2006 election after his conviction on political corruption charges in the scandal involving influence-peddling lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Perhaps nowhere in Ohio are Democrats’ takeover hopes higher than in the Columbus-based 15th, a swing district where President Bush edged Democratic challenger John Kerry by just 1 percentage point in 2004. While Republican incumbent Pryce decided not to seek a ninth House term this year, her Democratic opponent in the close 2006 race is back for a second try. Mary Jo Kilroy — an elected commissioner in Franklin County, which includes Columbus and contains most of the 15th District’s population — is running again after losing to Pryce by fewer than 1,100 votes and half a percentage point.

...

The other open seat that is in the Democrats’ sights is the 16th District, which 83-year-old Republican Ralph Regula has left open to retire after 18 House terms. Democratic state Sen. John Boccieri began preparing a campaign in the district, dominated by the city of Canton and other territory in northeast Ohio, well before Regula announced in October that he was retiring. Though Boccieri has long been viewed as his party’s presumptive nominee, he will face primary opposition from Mary Cirelli, a councilwoman in Canton who previously represented the city in the state House. Cirelli, a surprise candidate, filed her papers just before the filing deadline.

...more more more...

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000002652647

[rucky]

1. My webmaster's running in OH-3

he just produced this cool ad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjRek_SnylY

here's his website:

http://esrati.com/

[geiger]

2. makes ya wonder who encouraged her to get in; Shuring's a shoe-in now for sure

I have no idea who she is, but she needs to get a clue.

[OhioBlue]

3. it does make you wonder what's going on

she served with Boccieri in the State House. This combined with the fact that the dems just changed minority leadership makes me think there is a bit of a power struggle or something in Dem politics in Ohio.

[geiger]

4. unless the "powers that be" have already given up....

...and this is a face-saving device.

I hate to say it, but some of the other stuff I read on DU these days makes me wonder if there isn't a lot of sophomoric thinking going around these days....