COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s Republican and Democratic
gubernatorial front-runners are gearing up for a November showdown amid
complaints both major parties got too aggressive in pushing out primary
challengers.
A little-known Democrat from the Dayton filed before
Wednesday’s afternoon deadline for the May 6 primary. However,
Montgomery County Democratic Party Chairman Mark Owens was skeptical
about the bid, telling newspaper reporters that Larry Ealy had past
problems qualifying to run for other offices. Candidates for governor
submit petitions with signatures of 1,000 registered voters that have to
be verified by elections officials.
A phone listing for Ealy wasn’t working Wednesday evening.
The
Democrats had a primary battle looming as recently as last Friday,
before Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune quietly withdrew his
late bid against Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald.
The
Republican primary field was clear for first-term Gov. John Kasich as a
potential tea party challenge fell through. Would-be challenger Ted
Stevenot, a tea party favorite, decided against it, and other possible
candidates didn’t move forward.
Portune and Stevenot both said
they would have liked to take their campaigns farther but party pressure
got in the way. Neither was among candidates who filed by Wednesday’s
deadline.
Such concerns aren’t unusual to hear from underdog
challengers but were a surprise this year because neither party was
expected to face a primary — then both did, said John Green, director of
the University of Akron’s Bliss Institute for Applied Politics.
Green
said incumbent governors rarely have a primary, and Ohio Democrats
eager to maximize their chances of beating him were doing their best to
rally leaders, officeholders, donors and activists behind FitzGerald.
"There
were, no doubt, people against those challenges," he said. He noted
party leaders often oppose primaries as unnecessarily divisive and
expensive, while supporters view them as a good way to air party
differences.
FitzGerald had been running since early last year,
but Portune entered the race Dec. 30 after a flap over tax liens
prompted FitzGerald’s first running mate to drop out of the race. He
said he was hearing from rank-and-file Democrats the desire for a
choice.
Portune saw his effort to mount a challenge to FitzGerald
fizzle when he ran into problems attracting a running mate, a
requirement before the filing deadline for governor. He said last month
he thought some potential lieutenant governor candidates were scared off
by party leaders’ opposition.
"The party has made it very clear
that it doesn’t want this to happen. There is a lot of pressure on
would-be candidates," Portune said.
On the Republican side,
Stevenot was saying exactly the same things — tea party activists wanted
a choice and, when he dropped out, that party pressure had come to
bear.
"I do this reluctantly, because I know that part of what has
gone wrong with our political process is that the two major parties
have made it exceedingly difficult for a common person to run for
office," he said.
Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern rejected suggestions the party blocked Portune’s gubernatorial
aspirations.
In
a Wednesday interview, he said the party carries out an extensive
public process leading to its endorsements of statewide candidates and
Portune was never part of that process.
"It’s public. We can’t
have it in a back room. It’s not, ‘Let’s make a decision to go with
so-and-so and no one will know it,’ in a smoke-filled room and all that
stuff. That’s not the way it works," he said. "This is why I get a
little exasperated at this notion that the fix was in and we were all
out to get Todd Portune out of the race."
Chris Schrimpf, a spokesman for the Republicans, said it’s the party’s practice to stick by incumbents.

Green
said he didn’t see party leaders being any more, or less, aggressive
than usual. But he said because both Portune and Stevenot effectively
represented dissident voices and weren’t in the party pipeline for
future office, gentle negotiation wasn’t likely.
"When candidates
see themselves as opposing the leaders of the party then it’s much more
difficult to take them for a glass of wine or a beer and work out what’s
going to happen," he said.
Kasich and FitzGerald will still see
at least one third-party challenger — Libertarian Charlie Earl —
alongside them on November’s ballot.
___
Sewell reported from Cincinnati.
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