Republican no more

Steve Black knows he has some explaining to do.

The Indian Hill lawyer has voted in Republican primaries every two years for his adult life, as recently as 2006. In a state where you declare your party loyalty by choosing either a Democrat or Republican ballot in a primary, that pretty much settles the issue - you're a Republican.

But Black says he is a Republican no more. Thursday afternoon, standing on the back deck of his Indian Hill home before a crowd of about 30 Indian Hill friends and neighbors - some of whom we know to be Republicans - he announced he is a Democratic candidate for Congress in the 2nd Congressional District.

Before the event, Black sat on the back porch waiting for his guests to arrived and acknowledged that, yes, the biggest challenge he will have is convincing Democratic voters in the seven-county district that he is, in fact, one of them.

"I've had enough of the Republican party,'' Black said. "I'm disturbed by the direction that a Republican in the White House has taken this country. I'm done with them.''

Yes, Black has been a Republican, but he comes from a family that has not always followed the party line.

His mother, Helen Black, is a long-time environmental activist and a bona fide Democrat. His father, retired judge Robert L. Black, ran as a Republican for decades, but, in the middle of the 2004 election season, he wrote a blistering op-ed piece in the Enquirer, blasting George W. Bush and the party and declaring his political independence.

Thursday, the brand-new Democratic candidate gave a speech lambasting the Bush administration, calling himself "angry and frustrted that the Bush administration has led us so astray.''

He made it clear he doesn't have much use for the woman who now represents the 2nd District in Congress - Rep. Jean Schmidt. Schmidt, Black said, has made the 2nd District "the laughingstock of the country because (she) has failed to behave with dignity and decorum."

Too soon to tell if this conversion will lead to a Democratic primary win next May. There are lots of hurdles to jump - the biggest one being Victoria Wulsin, his Indian Hill neighbor who managed to come within a whisker of beating Schmidt last fall.

More candidates may jump in the race. Jeff Sinnard, who has run twice before, says he is in. Russ Arey, a party leader from Schmidt's home county of Clermont, and State Rep. Todd Book of Scioto County said to be mulling it over.

Lots of competition for a newly-hatched Democrat to deal with.