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Republicans nix peace effort in auditor's race

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By William Hershey, Staff Writer Updated 11:27 PM Saturday, March 6, 2010

There’s no Nobel Prize for negotiating intraparty political peace, especially in Ohio, but you can’t blame Bob Bennett for trying.

After all, Bennett, 71, is in a special group — recovering political party chairmen.

A year after leaving office, he may be having withdrawal symptoms.

Bennett stepped down as Ohio Republican chairman in January 2009 after 20 years of mostly incredible success, marred by statewide Democratic blowouts in 2006 and 2008.

Three consecutive Republican sweeps of all statewide nonjudicial offices under Bennett — 1994, 1998 and 2002 — might be the gold standard in Ohio politics.

So there he was last week at a meeting of the Cuyahoga County Republican Party trying to fashion a rapprochement of sorts in the increasingly hard-fought battle for the GOP nomination for state auditor between state Rep. Seth Morgan of Huber Heights and Dave Yost, the Delaware County prosecutor.

He failed.

Bennett wanted the county party to endorse both Yost and Morgan, but Morgan, the insurgent in this conflict, carried the day and the endorsement. Bennett’s an organization man, and the organization — the state Republican Party — already had endorsed Yost. That’s who Bennett, a member of the county committee, backed.

He tried to put the best face on things and said he didn’t think the squabble would interfere with what right now looks like a big comeback year for Republicans.

“I think they’re both highly qualified,” Bennett said.

Still, he’s not a fan of contested primaries, and this one is shaping up as a good one — for the Democrats, that is.

After the Cuyahoga County meeting, the two campaigns started quarreling about charges from the Morgan camp that a top Yost adviser “has admitted to public corruption charges.” Yost called a letter outlining the charges “utterly wrong” and said the Morgan campaign “appears to have slid into the gutter of ‘politics as usual.’ ”

Bennett never liked to hear Republicans say such things about each other, and then there’s the dollar factor.

“I hate to see a lot of money spent in the primary,” said Bennett. That could be a big waste for the Republicans in the auditor’s race, where Democratic candidate David Pepper, a Hamilton County commissioner, has a big head start in fundraising.

Pepper had $604,616 on hand at the end of 2009, compared to $29,016 for Morgan and $27,319 for Yost.

The primary for auditor is being contested against the backdrop of the Tea Party’s emergence as a factor in Republican politics.

Tea Partiers liked both Yost and Morgan, but wanted Yost to stay in the attorney general’s race in an effort to beat former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine of Cedarville, not a Tea Party favorite.

“The Tea Party is made up of a lot of folks who want purity in the party,” Bennett said.

Bennett is not a “purity” fan. He said he looked to former President Ronald Reagan for guidance.

“Somebody who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is certainly a friend, not an enemy,” Bennett said.

Bennett turned over control of the state party to former state Rep. Kevin DeWine of Fairborn, Mike DeWine’s second cousin. There were reports that Kevin DeWine was not Bennett’s first choice to be his successor, but the former chairman had nothing but praise for the current chairman’s effort to put together a winning ticket.

They talk regularly, Bennett said.

“I think this is the strongest ticket we’ve have since 1994. I think Kevin deserves a lot of credit for his ability to sort it out,” Bennett said.

Bennett, who still serves on the Republican National Committee, remembers what it was like for him to start out in the state chairman’s job.

“I had dark hair in 1988,” said Bennett, who still has lots of hair, but none of it dark.

Contact this reporter at  (614) 224-1608 or whershey@ DaytonDailyNews.com.

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In 2010 when you walk into the voting booth don't vote for any republican or democrat. Only vote for the Libertarian or Constitution Party candidates. And when only an R or D is running in a race then put in as a write in ballot NOTA meaning none of the above.

Metoo
11:15 AM, 3/8/2010

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@impeach the moran,
Hey moran, didn't you hear that 54,000 people in Dayton went to see "Wicked". Obviously, we don't that that big of an unemployment problem or no-one could afford to go see it.

JustMe
11:13 AM, 3/8/2010

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John F thanks for shooting off your big mouth just like Obobo would before all the facts are out. Turns out he didn't capture the "American al Q", but yet another lower teir American. THANK YOU PRESIDENT OBAMA FOR WORRYING TOO MUCH ABOUT HEALTH CARE REFORM AND NOT ENOUGH ON CREATING NEW JOBS!!!!!

Impeach the moron
8:28 AM, 3/8/2010

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The Predator Drone was developed in the mid 90's. The weapons carried by the armed version is the hellfire missle. This missle is employed on several aircraft. There has been no shortage of the missle.

Predator:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MQ-1_P...

Hellfire Missle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellfi...

fattrak
6:34 PM, 3/7/2010

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John F,

the reason Obobo can launch more strikes is that there are many more Predators available now than when George Bush was in office. The ramp-up in available Predators has been exponential. George Bush was using them all back then just as Obobo is using them all now.

Obobo has killed proportionally more civilians (accidentally) also. Want to give him a medal for that too?

Tony
5:18 PM, 3/7/2010

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