Marc Dann was out of sight at last night's Licking County JJ Dinner, but certainly not out of mind.
The sexual harassment scandal threatening Dann's job as Ohio attorney general forced his withdrawal as keynote speaker at the annual Jefferson-Jackson bash sponsored by the Licking County Democratic Club. This not only left a gaping hole to be filled in the evening's agenda, but also threatened to roll back the Democratic tide which swept Ohio politics in 2006.
Marc Dann, said State Rep. Dan Dodd, D-Hebron, has managed to overshadow the gains achieved by Gov. Ted Strickland and other Democratic officeholders over the past 16 months.
"What he has been accused of is very serious, and he has cast a dark cloud over everything we've accomplished," said Dodd.
Dodd this week was one of three House Democratic attorneys appointed by Minority Leader Joyce Beatty to investigate possible use of the impeachment process to remove Dann. Dodd left no doubt where he stands in regard to the attorney general's future.
Democrats won in 2006, Dodd said, because they promised to clean up the corruption which piled up during years of Republican rule.
"They brought shame to our state and we ran with a promise to clean that up, and that's what we'll do whether it involves Republicans or Democrats," he said. "If we don't, our clocks will be cleaned in November" when control of the Ohio House is on the line.
In addition to Rep. Dodd, the packed union hall heard from candidates Howard Hill (Ohio House), Doug Moreland (county commissioner) and David Robinson (U.S. House), as well from two guest speakers: Mark Forni and Cliff Schecter.
Forni, director of farmland preservation in the Ohio Department of Agriculture, warned that Ohio trails only Texas in loss of farms each year. Ohio is a major agricultural state but still, he said, only about 1 percent of the food consumed here is actually grown here.
Jobs are important, but Ohio has to stop replacing valuable farmland with warehouses and other low-wage commercial developments, he said. "Development should not necessarily have priority over agriculture."
Schecter, author of a new book, The Real McCain, said his research found that the presumed Republican presidential nominee is a poor choice for the Oval Office on many counts.
McCain frequently loses control of his temper, and allows himself to be surrounded and manipulated by lobbyists, Schecter said. "It's not believable when he says he's a reformer."
McCain's foreign policy would be indistinguishable from that of President Bush, he said, and when it comes to the domestic economy, "his response is always deregulation and tax cuts."
On a lighter note, the hall was entertained by several satirical political ballots sung and strummed by county resident musician Allen Schwartz.
While Schwartz didn't pick the Ray Charles classic, Hit The Road Jack, that was certainly the message of the evening – to Marc Dann and to Republicans hoping to make a comeback this year.
(Gray Hunter)
