I earlier reported on the curious independent candidacy of Traci Kennedy in the Ohio 13 Congressional race. Some time later I was talking to a fellow blogger and mused that it is unusual to run against a incumbent, then find yourself working for him. But indeed Kennedy now works for Jim Laria, the guy she ran against last year for Muni Court Clerk. Unusual in most of the world, utterly unheard of in Alex Arshinkoff's fifedom. I wondered if something was up. I put it on my to-do list to look into things.
Today's Beacon Journal has the scoop with a clever article juxtaposing Kennedy's spoiler candidacy with the independent run of Charles Morrison against Deborah Pryce in Ohio 15 which has prompted Republicans there to file to disqualify Morrison.
The ABJ apparently dug up Kennedy's petitions:
In fact, [Muni Courts Clerk Laria was one of a long list of local Republicans who circulated Kennedy's petitions, including numerous Republican employees of the Summit County Board of Elections.
When asked about her role as designated spoiler, Kennedy plays shocked, shocked :
Kennedy said she was not aware that she was being used as a splitter. She maintains that despite being a registered Republican, she has a legitimate interest in running for office free of party affiliation so that she can represent all people's interests.
I'm digging now. More as this develops.
(BTW, if you missed the article online, the headline on the Ohio.com homepage links to a different article -- or at least did as of noon today. It looked like the Kennedy story, so I ran a search and found it.)
2 comments:
Great call, Scott! Just like you said, a put-up job to split the vote. And they didn't even bother to find neutral-looking petition circulators.
Amazing.
Everyone hates a spoiler! Better keep track of her donations and cross-check them with people giving to GOP candidates.
That and make sure she knows her political career is DOA.
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