Dems take a pass on 2nd District rugby scrum

When the Hamilton County Democratic Party's executive committee gathered Wednesday night in the basement of the Norwood Community Center, it appeared they were about to become the only one of seven counties in the 2nd Congressional District to endorse in the five-candidate primary.

By the time the meeting ended, though, they had thought better of it - thanks to some sage advice from some party elders.

The party's nominating committee had interviewed all five. Wednesday night, the nominating committee recommended a dual endorsement - one for Victoria Wulsin (even though the co-chairman of the nominating committee kept calling her "Wilson") and another for Gaby Downey of Sharonville, who teaches history and government at Milford High School.

All five candidates were given three minutes to make their pitches to the executive committee Wednesday night.

One of them, Newtown businessman Thor Jacobs could not be there; his mother passed away Wednesday morning. So David Little, a long-time political operative who is working on the Jacobs campaign, spoke for him, arguing that the party should not endorse and pointing out - rightly - that, a year ago, nobody in the room had heard of any of the candidates and there was no purpose to be served by giving one or two or them an advantage.

Wulsin used her three minutes to tell the Democrats that she thinks Jean Schmidt is an embarassment, which was not really a case of going out on a limb, given the audience she was speaking too.

Downey, a first-time candidate, did a little bank-shot hit on Wulsin, a resident of Indian Hill. The 2nd District, Downey said, is a place with regular working folks, not unlike the family she grew up in. "I don't have to pretend to be part of this district,'' Downey said.

Jeff Sinnard, a civil engineer from Anderson Township, was unapologetic for being a "pro-life Democrat,'' saying he knows that many Democrats "go crazy'' when they hear that.

Jim Parker, the health care administrator from Pike County, had people scratching their heads and looking nervously for the exits when he pulled out a jar of beans and threw them around the room, saying he was going to grow a "magic beanstalk'' that would presumably lead to Capitol Hill.

Honest, we're not making this up.

Parker was nice enough, though, to stay behind after the meeting and sweep up his beans.

After hearing from the five campaigns, three of the elder statesmen of the party - former congressman Tom Luken, retired AFL-CIO executive director Dan Radford and former party co-chairman Don Driehaus - rose to argue that the party really had no reason to endorse any of these candidates.

"Unless we have a really serious problem with one of these candidates, we should just let the process work,'' Driehaus said. "We should leave it up to the voters.''

The argument had an impact - county party chairman Tim Burke called for a voice vote on the Wulsin-Downey endorsements and they were voted down overwhelmingly.