Ohio glows red hot in 2018 as Dems are vanquished again

The so-called "Blue Wave" that was fueled over the last two years by the so-called "Resistance to President Donald Trump and his administration, produced a dramatic change in Washington Tuesday, when control of the U.S. House of Representatives flipped from Republican to Democrat.

John Kasich ran for 

governor in 2010 on lower

taxes and less regulation.

In Ohio, a perennial bellwether state in presidential elections, that much-ballyhooed movement failed to make a dent in Ohio's statewide elected officials in the 2018 midterm elections. Republicans won all important races again, including the retention of strong majorities in the Senate and House. This marks the third midterm election cycle that Ohio Democrats went home big losers.

The Ohio Democratic Party lost it all again when it came to statewide candidates and their message to voters. Some said Cordray went soft on the spending scandal tied to The Electronic Classroom of America, a for-profit charter school that Republicans from Kasich to Yost and DeWine could have been pilloried for but were let off the hook.

History shows Democrats can win when Republican scandals are ripe enough to be picked. Charter schools, pension-looting and Medicaid expansion are Kasich-era scandals Democrats could have but didn't exploit. Kasich and Republicans slashed The Local Government Fund, forcing cities to raise taxes to maintain service levels. Pay-to-play is alive and well in Columbus, but Dems couldn't figure it out enough to run with the bounty of scandals Kasich and company offered to hungry Democrats.

Ohio is solid red today despite major cities and the largest counties going blue. A statehouse observer commented on Tuesday's election results, "The boys with the greenbacks own both city and state and love the business certainty of uncompetitive races." 

After shamelessly fondling term-limited Gov. John R. Kasich for the one good policy decision he made since first being elected in 2010, that being accepting expanded Medicaid, Gov. Kasich has never reciprocated Dem's adulation foolishly dished out to him. The adoration of Kasich by Ohio Democrats was a case study in stupidity and foolishness. The former Fox News TV host and Lehman Brothers banker has surfed to national stardom with DC media as a result, offering his mantra of bringing people together when he done little of that at home as the Ohio's CEO.

Kasich, who has never spoken two words of praise for Democrats over his nearly 40 years in office and repeatedly says he doesn't know what they stand for, became the object of idol worship by Democrats. Worshipping Kasich as a golden calf, as Democrats from Ohio's senior senator in Washington, Sherrod Brown, who won a third 6-year term, to the party's losing gubernatorial candidate, Richard Cordray, and other down ballot candidates, was a terrible political blunder.

By not hanging Kasich's terrible record as governor around the neck of Ohio's now 70th governor-elect, Mike DeWine, who previously beat Cordray for the "top cop" job in 2010, the Ohio Democratic Party and its leadership squandered an arsenal of ammo that could have shot holes in DeWine's campaign enough to put Cordray in the driver's seat.

By coddling Kasich as it did, instead of shooting fish in a barrel of scandals, ODP's strategy was foolish from the outset. ODP argued that, because Kasich wasn't on the ballot and because he was "popular," attacking him and his record wasn't a good idea. It was, in fact, the best idea. 

Republicans, who had no second thoughts about running commercials tagging Cordray for conspiring with former Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland to lose hundreds of thousands of jobs and leaving the state budget with a giant hole in it over a decade ago, had no such squeamishness dredging up Strickland's one term from 2006-2010, when the Great Recession sucker punched Ohio and virtually every other state. Republicans created the very dynamics that triggered the Great Recession, then fought President Barack Obama at every turn to recover from it. 

This year's elections for Ohio were critical because Republicans will again control the Apportionment Board (Governor, Auditor, Secretary of State) and will again draw legislative districts to advantage their candidates following the next census in 2020. Their last effort at this task, done in 2011, created gerrymandered districts that made and will make it virtually impossible for Democrats, their candidates and their issues, to win statewide or key legislative seats.

Ohio's leading in dependent

reporter speaks with Sen.

Sherrod Brown.

After getting blown away for the third midterm election in a row, does ODP and its leadership have much promise going forward? Other than winning some mayor and county commissioner seats, Democrats have worked themselves into a corner they will be stuck in for another decade or more.

Meanwhile, Gov. Kasich is lauded by Democrats who thought cozying up to him would draw so-called moderate voters to their cause. What a silly strategy. It drew all jokers and not one ace. Kasich, who loves being courted as a presidential contender in two years, won't ever give Dems the time of day while he basks in their praise for expanded Medicaid, a decision he did for reasons that don't coincide with the reasons Democrats wanted it.

Ohio Republicans will continue to control the gears of government in a state that makes or breaks presidents. For years to come, Ohio Democrats are left to continue their wondering ways in the desert of irrelevance.