2nd District (OH) GOP Primary: Final Thoughts

This will be brief, because I recognize that readers’ patience threshold for these kinds of posts is low:

(click “more” to read final thoughts)

• Some people took great offense at my exposure of Bob McEwen’s unpleasant past and the current occupations he appears to have deliberately kept under wraps. I simply felt the voters had the right to know, and it became clear pretty quickly that if I didn’t do it, no one else would.
• A number of people also had a problem with my outside-imposition theme because the people doing the imposing are generally honorable people. I agree that they are, but that doesn’t mean they don’t make mistakes, and sometimes big ones. Their support of McEwen and disrespect for local candidates was a big mistake I hope they learn from, but thanks to my last point below, I’m not optimistic.
• Some people also had a problem with my bringing McEwen’s Amway-Quixtar involvement into the picture. A large part of me didn’t want to, and I actually sat on what I had for about a week and worked on his lobbying gigs and other matters. But McEwen’s non-disclosure gambit convinced me that I had to do it. I think the GOP in general had better be very careful about how closely it becomes associated with AQ.
• I got some very interesting e-mails from people who essentially told me that “you’re doing the right thing, and someone needs to do it.” I appreciate the encouragement, and believe that what I did made a positive difference, which at the end of the day is all a person can hope for.
• Finally, I’m more than a little disappointed that the big conservative blogs are taking so much pleasure in Pat DeWine’s defeat (therefore embarrassing his father) that they are ignoring the significance the McEwen debacle and the colossal blunders made by the people who backed him–people who should know better. It’s not like the bigtime center-right blogs weren’t watching. So it appears from here that the “values” outsiders and Beltway GOP establishment will for the most part escape accountability for their heavyhanded tampering here. Unfortunately, that may mean that somewhere else, in some other “safe” district, the anointed may try again to install the connected. Stay alert, everyone.

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UPDATE: I appreciate Paul Hackett’s statement last night that he was tired of hearing about bounced checks (and presumably tired of the negative campaigning). Agreed. If Bob McEwen had laid out his past from the start, if he had fully disclosed the things voters had a right to know before making their decisions, his past and his present and his positions could have been debated on their merits. But that didn’t happen. Neither primary winner has any of the baggage of McEwen, so the negative campaigning should be over. But Paul, pointing out positions of the person you oppose that you disagree with is not negative campaigning–as long as it’s factual and reasoned, it’s known as truth-telling.

UPDATE 2: Sent Ohio 2nd an e-mail today in response to his perhaps tongue-in-cheek concern that I was going to “turn my sights” on Hackett like I did McEwen. The e-mail probably does as much as anything to explain why I did what I did:

You mentioned something in a previous post that went something like “in a few days he (BizzyBlog) sets his sights on us” (as in Democrats).

Don’t worry. I’m not interested in whether Paul Hackett was a half-second late on some military maneuver or got an A-minus in boot camp. For that matter, I don’t care whether Jean Schmidt stole somebody’s boyfriend in high school or ran on the inside of a traffic cone in one of her marathons.

I started blogging the primary once I realized that Bob McEwen’s candidacy was serious, and was being supported by people who thought nothing of running over our local candidates. I was stunned at the brazen hypocrisy of his supporters and at the sheer volume of his accumulated baggage and potential conflicts of interest that were not being covered by anyone, anywhere.

With McEwen’s elimination and hoped-for retirement from Ohio politics (though, incredibly, he doesn’t seem to think so, at least publicly), I do not plan to blog the rest of the race, but instead will get back to blogging on business, personal finance, occasional politics as it affects those areas, and things that will hopefully help me grow my business and feed other web initiatives I’m trying.

But if it looks like it’s getting close in late July……..