Ted Strickland: We built him up; it’s our duty to take him down

^{(AP Photo/David Kohl)}

For nearly a decade, I’ve referred to Ted Strickland as a “friend.” It always hurts when you lose a friend, but it hurts more when the friend hurts you or betrays your trust.

Such things are normally best handled quietly and privately, and I’ve long said I would not air dirty laundry, even as others have told me I must. I see now they are right; this is not just something I should do, it is something I must do. Something all of us gun owners, regardless of party must do. It’s not spite or vengeance or anger, it’s just duty.

In 2006, I took a lot of heat from my Republican friends for saying that both Ken Blackwell and Ted Strickland would be good governors on our issue. Republicans didn’t believe that a Democrat was good on the issue, in spite of the fact that it was Republicans (not Democrats) who obstructed the passage of concealed carry in Ohio for almost 20 years.

After he was elected, Governor Strickland signed “Castle Doctrine” legislation, arguably the biggest pro-freedom bill in our history. It was the first bill that did not required us to give up some rights to secure others. The limit on that bill was not what a Democratic governor would sign, but what a Republican legislature could pass. In time, my Republican friends (including legislators) reluctantly admitted that we had correctly identified the weak link.

But in the years since he left Ohio, Strickland has abandoned us. He did not just work the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a vehemently anti-gun, anti-self-defense, anti-freedom lobbying group in Washington D.C. - he was the president! He now supports the radical anti-gun agenda of President Obama and Hillary Clinton. He is helping them split gun owners apart so that certain segments can be effectively targeted, thus weakening us all. He has not just evolved, but he has gone from being one of the best to joining forces with two of the worst.

Not only has he put a knife in our backs, he’s twisting it with every lie he tells. He’s back in Ohio now, courting your vote. But he is no longer our friend. We helped raise him up, and now we must retire him for good.

There is a reason Buckeye Firearms Association PAC is non-partisan. We support the best candidates, and one does not earn our endorsement just because their opponent is worse. It is by putting our partisan differences aside and focusing on our mission that we have been successful. That success is amplified when our supporters join us in voting for our endorsed candidates, even if they are members of the “wrong” party.

The Ted Strickland who stood for Katrina victims and hunters and concealed carry license-holders is gone. He has been replaced by someone I no longer recognize. He is openly hostile towards us and blames us for the actions of criminals and terrorists. I don’t know why, and I likely never will, but he has clearly decided that he does not want to be our friend any longer.

Like a once strong work-horse who is now well past his prime, Ted Strickland must be “put out to pasture” to live his remaining days in leisure. He is clearly unfit to do the job of Senator for anyone who values firearms or the lives they protect.

I’m proud to have once voted for pro-self-defense Ted Strickland, and to have once encouraged others to do the same. But it now my job not just to vote against him, but to let others know that he has violated our trust and our friendship. We must spread the word that Ted Strickland is now anti-gun. I love when formally anti-gun people awaken and join us. I’m sad that such a good friend has abandoned us for the dark side.

Together, we built him up, and now we must vote him down. It is what he rightfully deserves, and it is our duty to see this through to its bitter end.

Please forward this to other gun owning, freedom-loving friends, and vote for Rob Portman for U.S. Senate.

Jim Irvine is Chairman of the Buckeye Firearms Association Political Action Committee (BFA-PAC). He is also Board President of Buckeye Firearms Association, and recipient of the NRA-ILA's 2011 "Jay M. Littlefield Volunteer of the Year Award," the CCRKBA's 2012 "Gun Rights Defender of the Year Award," and the SAF's 2015 "Defender of Freedom Award."