Lucas County Party Leadership

There has been much speculation about the future leadership of the Democratic Party in Lucas County. I believe it is important that the future leadership of the party have the following attributes:



1. Solid Democratic Party credentials. We need someone who has been involved with the party at the local level for a period of time, fought the battles in the trenches, and has earned respect with their contributions to the Democratic Party in Lucas County.



2. Ability to relate to and forge partnerships with all factions of the local party, the knowledge and experience of having been active in local campaigns, and the drive and energy to stabilize the existing party structure and grow the party by inviting newcomers and welcoming back members who have become less active. We need to captilize on our strengths , recognize and correct our weaknesses, and build a party structure that appeals to the rank and file members across the county. If the job is done correctly and thoroughly, we'll move toward a party which no longer consists of "teams" but focuses on working to achieve progress for the citizens of Lucas County.



3. A professional approach which seeks to focus on a business-like atmosphere, to maximize our efforts in building a broad based coalition of labor, management, seniors, and young people to establish a party structure that will grow over time and look toward inclusion of all who believe in the principle of the Democratic Party in Lucas County and raises funds to help elect qualified, quality candidates.







My experience in the 2006 campaign leads me to believe that these goals are possible. I was able to work with, relate to, and get assistance from individuals associated with the "A" and "B" teams and I witnessed many newcomers to the political process become involved in some of the different campaigns. I was fortunate to have a core group of supporters who were basically new to the process, along with some political veterans, so I can speak from experience that there are concerned citizens who would like to become involved, so we must nurture those relationships.



I was fortunate to have the help of many newcomers, particularly young people, who expressed an interest in getting past the "politics as usual" approach which is pervasive in government and deters people from becoming involved.



With the help of labor organizations, and our core supporters, we were able to put forth a tremendous grass-roots effort which caused our opponent and the State Republican Party to spend upwards of $450,000 to defeat a candidate who began the race with zero name ID in Western Lucas County. The aggressive and spirited effort, was obviously recognized by the opposition which saw fit to spend the bulk of their resources telling voters why they should vote against me, rather than why to vote for my opponent. That, in addition to being quite sad for them, is remarkable. Money is certainly pervasive in politics, but our effort was successful as resources that could have been diverted to other state house districts stayed in District 46, allowing more Democrats to win across the state.



That being said, I would do it again, as I believe we need more "citizen" candidates, who have no polarizing agenda, but simply seek to work toward a government that actually addresses issues of concern to the average voter, rather than merely working for a certain constituency who happen to contribute large amounts to campaign coffers.



We need nothing less than a monumental movement to take our government back from the special interests, and lobbyists which currently drive public policy. In NW Ohio, we can help to ensure progress toward this goal, by building the strongest Democratic Party possible to assist in forwarding legislation that seeks to solve problems which will increase the quality of life for the average hard-working citizens.



Thanks and have a great evening.

What is really important

Lately in Lucas County, we have had quite a discussion about the Democratic Party's annual golf outing to raise funds for the local organization.

Any of us would agree that some of the events which reportedly transpired are unfortunate, and not indicative of our Democratic Party values and core beliefs.

That being said, there are certainly much larger issues of importance affecting millions of Ohioans and Americans which should consume more of our thought, energy and time. We have a state legislature which refuses to even attempt to tackle the dilemma of school funding, and we have seen time and time again that school systems across the state are scrambling to deal with the archaic non-working scheme we now operate under, after the tax weary electorate votes down levies on a regular basis. The present system puts too large of a burden on the property owning tax-paying public and our legislature continues to irresponsibly push the issue off into the future, with no plan to fix this decade plus long problem.

We have a federal government with spending that is out of control, a President who continues to take our country down the wrong path in foreign policy, wasting our resources and the lives of our brave servicemen and servicewomen, in an ill-conceived, poorly planned and ineffective proactive war, which has only served to remove the previous power structure in Iraq and replace it with mass chaos, civil war, and an increasingly dangerous region, which has become a breeding ground for the very terror groups that we set forth to eliminate.

We have other issues to tackle including our health care system which fails to protect the poor, young, and aged adequately. Yet, what we get out of Columbus, is political posturing by the majority, with our GOP leaders appeasing their right wing constituent groups with laws such as the new regulations on adult entertainment in Ohio.

Getting back to the original subject of this post, the so-called "Strippergate" at the county golf outing. Certainly better judgement could have been utilized when staffing the volunteers for the event. However, in the grand scheme of our region and our state, facing the major issues of jobs, taxes, health care, and the list goes on, this event should be seen as a mere blip on the radar screen.

Let's ask our local, state, and federal governments to tackle the important issues which are critical to our citizens. Thank you for reading and have a great evening.

Mark