Help Stop Ohio's Sarah Palin!

You may remember a clueless reactionary by the name of Ken Blackwell. He was the Secretary of State in Ohio during the 2004 election, meaning that much like his more infamous Florida counterpart, Katherine Harris, he was a corrupt partisan in control of the voting process during a national election.

As was expected, Blackwell did what he could to suppress the the Ohio vote in African-American neighborhoods and college towns, knowing that would help a dimwitted President gain reelection.

Now fast forward to 2009. There is an election in Ohio coming up in 2010 for this very position, giving someone the power to oversee how the votes are counted in the presidential race in 2012-- to award one candidate the 7th largest electoral haul in the country from key swing state.

So you'd think that Democrats in Ohio would unite behind Franklin County Commissioner and devoted Progressive, Marilyn Brown. Sadly, you'd be wrong.

As we've seen with healthcare, never underestimate the propensity of reactionary Blue Dog-type Democrats to cave, cower, and generally embrace corruption. The gist of this story: even though they won't admit it publicly, behind the scenes conservative Blue Dog sympathizer (and now Ohio Democratic Party Chair-- yet, somehow married to a Republican lobbyist) Chris Redfern, and his partner in crime who supported him for that position, Ohio Governor/screw-the-poor Ohio budget author Ted Strickland, are supporting a vicious, homophobic, anti-union, anti-choice, pro-coal, anti-minimum wage, reactionary stooge named Jennifer Garrison in the Democratic Primary. She offers nothing but attack politics, exclusionary policies, an overabundance of botox and the ability to make right-wing men embrace their rifles extra tight in the cold of the night.

Hence the plentiful Palin comparisons.

Jennifer Garrison: Ohio's Sarah Palin calls herself a Democrat

Redfern and Strickland have been pretending to be neutral, while it only took me a few phone calls to confirm rumors that both are having their henchmen call Brown's funders and potential endorsers and cajole and threaten them into backing off supporting this devoted progressive. Of course, when reactionary Blue-Dog Ohio Congressman Zack Space-- the very same cretin who is helping block the public option in Washington to protect his big insurance buddies and screw his constituents-- chose to stand with Mrs. Garrison, well, that was just fine with with the Redfern/Strickland team.

Now let me give you a little background about Mrs. Garrison, so you can decide if you would trust her any more than a garden-variety corrupt GOPer to count our votes accurately and not sell out to the first corporate hack with a wad of cash who comes knocking (motivation: the last four Ohio Secretary of States have been: Sherrod Brown, Bob Taft, Ken Blackwell and Jennifer Brunner--it is a stepping stone to running for governor or the U.S. Senate).

Garrison beat a Republican incumbent in 2004 to win a state house seat from Southeast Ohio, by ATTACKING HER GOP OPPONENT FOR BEING TOO PRO-GAY. Yes, you read that right. From the Gay People's Chronicle:

Garrison already has a rocky relationship with the LGBT community. She won her House seat by gay-baiting her predecessor, Nancy Hollister, in 2004.

Earlier that year, Hollister was the only Republican to vote against the so-called "defense of marriage act." It was considered a courageous vote.

Garrison sent out mailings that read, "If you believe marriage is between one man and one woman, there's something you should know about Nancy Hollister."

The other side of the card said, "DOMA was enacted precisely to protect Ohioans from having to accept 'marriages' or 'unions' entered into in other states. Despite the value of DOMA, Nancy Hollister voted against it. Jennifer Garrison believes marriage is between one man and one woman and will fight to protect our values."

In 2006, as a member of the House Education Committee, Garrison helped to kill an amendment that would have required Ohio schools to protect students from bullying for their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The anti-bullying bill passed without the LGBT protections.

An attorney, Garrison opposed EHEA last year, saying it is wrong to single out classes of people for protection. This is a common talking point that anti-gays use against equality laws, and is legally flawed.

From the Akron Beacon Journal (November 11, 2004):

Garrison turned the Hollister vote [against the Ohio Defense of Marriage Act] into something seemingly sinister. She told the Parkersburg (W.Va.) newspapers that 'the big difference between Nancy and I is the gay marriage issue. I am against it. She is for it.' Garrison sent mailings into homes that read: 'If you believe marriage is between one man and one woman, there is something you should know about Nancy Hollister.' The mailing then all but declares that Hollister embraces gay marriage, concluding Garrison will 'fight to protect our values.' Karl Rove would be proud. Clearly, Garrison rode the wave of state Issue 1. She and her pals should be ashamed."

But not only content to have the LGBT community exist as second-class citizens, Jennifer Garrison also wants her own gender to subist that way. From a NARAL email yesterday:

Last week, Jennifer Garrison, a Democrat from Marietta, officially entered the race for Ohio's Secretary of State. Jennifer Garrison currently serves in the Ohio House of Representatives and has a 0% rating from NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio.

Rep. Garrison showed just how extreme her anti-choice position is when she filled out the 2008 candidate questionnaire for Ohio Right to Life, saying she would:

* support legislation in Ohio to outlaw abortion (with only an exception to save a woman's life),

* support legislation that would allow pharmacists to refuse to dispense emergency contraception, and

* support state funding for so-called "crisis pregnancy centers" that lie to women about the risks of abortion and never refer patients for abortion or birth control services.

Representative Garrison does not share our values.

She has also voted against the minimum wage, has counted coal interests as a top-ten funder and would like to protect the rights of criminals to get their hands on guns.

So, as should be obvious, she is not a Democrat, and not someone we can trust to count votes in a presidential year, lest corporate cash convince her to submarine a Democrat so she can stockpile cash for higher office (there were rumors around Ohio that she would switch parties for a while). That Redfern or Strickland would support her, tells you all you need to know about Strickland's cratering approval numbers as his advisors (and I use that term loosely) have given such other brilliant advice as refusing to repeal a tax cut for the super-wealthy while cutting funds for libraries, health centers, mental health, etc.

Let's let Strickland, Redfern, Garrison, and their Blue Dog friends in Ohio and DC know we will not stand for this.

Go to Marilyn Brown's site and give a great progressive (and one who has proven her electoral viability by knocking off a three-term Republican incumbent to gain a seat on the Franklin County Board of Commissioners in 2006) some support for her race.

And why not give Strickland a call and tell him to stay out of this race, before it starts affecting his ability to win reelection in 2010. He can be reached at [phone]. Let him know how you feel about Blue Dogs' undermining our values, and tell him to stop supporting reactionary Jennifer Garrison for Ohio Secretary of State (and be polite).

Also, call and say hi to Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern. And tell him to back off, if he wants any support for the ODP in the coming election: 1-877-OHIO-DEM (toll-free). Ask him to take a look at the Republicans For Garrison blog and at the Facebook page that really tells the story about this abomination he's backing.

The movement is going forward. Let your voice be heard. In the meantime, here is owner of The Outlook, a magazine covering issues affecting the gay community, threatening to walk away from Strickland/Redfern if they don't walk away from Garrison:

Follow Howie Klein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/downwithtyranny

Comments

[OH-Voter]

She's a piece of work, all right. She has thrown D colleagues under the bus in the wink of an eye to further her political amibitions. As self-serving, shallow, patronizing, and inept as any I have seen. But, this part of Ohio is filled with Garrison's breed of politician. Just ALL OVER the place on issues. Telling voters just what they want and only what they want to hear. It is no wonder then that labor unions in her district have actively supported R candidates, and groups like the local Sierra Club have supported R candidates who have openly embraced coal mining. It's a confused place filled with confused voters led my confusing elected officials.

[sohio31]

It should have been noted in your post that Ken Blackwell who suppressed African-American votes is in fact an African-American himself.

[fanav]

Howie, you're obviously taking your entitlement to your own opinions very seriously, but you should at least try to get all your facts straight. Another point you misfired on - check out previous election results for the Ohio 18th Congressional District:
2000: 55% George W. Bush 41% Al Gore
2004: 57% George W. Bush 43% John Kerry
2008: 52% John McCain 46% Barack Obama
Um yeah, Zack Space is actually doing a much better job of listening to and representing his constituents than a lot of the other democrats are when it comes to health care reform - and I'm one of them. This district of OH is one of the most conservative in the country. Fact check.

[anastasiap]

I was with you to a point until you launched your over-the-top screed on Strickland. Certainly, i don't agree with him on everything. However, I do believe he has negotiated the pitfalls of our state's disastrous budget situation with some adeptness. I am tired of our conservative state media blaming every cut or failure to raise taxes on Strickland, as if we had no legislature and he had all the power. Fact is, our state budget is in dire shape and as painful as it is, cuts are going to occur – and not all of them came from Strickland. It's also misguided to attack Strickland for not raising taxes on the rich. He can't do it. He has no power t o single-handedly raise taxes. The legislature has to OK it. The GOP-controlled Senate would gleefully refuse and then use his advocacy as the key factor to defeat him next year. End result: no increased revenue, no repeal of tax breaks for the wealthy, and John Kasich is our next governor. No thank you. I'm tired of faint-hearted Democrats blaming Strickland for t his mess. In fact, he has probably made it less bad than it would be.

That said, i agree that Garrison is a disaster. I wish you had stuck to methodically dissecting her validity as a Democratic candidate instead of firing cannons in every direction.