These Democrats might help their party win by NOT running for governor

Democrats have been making news recently for electing a pro-gun legislator to head the party in Ohio, and for considering the damage their gun control agenda has caused when strategizing on how to recover power across the nation.

We thought we'd lend a hand to the folks hoping to retake the Ohio governor's office by mentioning a few people who would hurt their party's chances of reestablishing credibility with Ohio gun owners.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.

Last week, the Toledo Blade reported that one of Ohio's most powerful labor leaders is pushing U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur to run for governor next year, and that the Toledo Democrat is considering it.

From the story:

Lloyd Mahaffey, the director of the United Auto Workers in Ohio, said yesterday that he and other UAW officials have told Miss Kaptur for months she'd make "a great governor."

"I've been trying to urge her to run," Mr. Mahaffey said, "and I know other people have, too."

His comments came after Miss Kaptur, a 12-term congressman, told the Associated Press that she's mulling the 2006 race but worries about raising campaign funds and giving up her seniority in Washington.

Miss Kaptur's staff director, Steve Katich, confirmed her interest last night and said it had simmered, without change, for several months.

"It would be foolish not to keep your options open in her situation," Mr. Katich said.

But later he added: "Seniority is a very difficult thing to attain in the United States Congress. The congresswoman has to weigh that heavily in any thought process about a statewide race."

Miss Kaptur, he said, was stuck in a committee meeting and not available to comment...

In the wake of 9/11, Marcy Kaptur, former mayor of the anti-gun City of Toledo, created shock waves of disgust when she compared our Founding Fathers to Osama bin Laden's terror network. Kaptur has earned her "F" grade from the NRA with vote after vote for legislation that would destroy your firearms rights.

Look to the Columbus Dispatch for a report on another gun ban extremist who appears prepared to run for the Democrat nomination for governor in Ohio.

State Sen. Eric D. Fingerhut of Cleveland is moving closer to entering the Democratic race for governor.

Fingerhut, 46, is assembling a campaign team, including some Washington-based consultants who previously had signed up with Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman’s campaign for governor. Fingerhut supported Coleman until the mayor dropped out of the governor’s race on Nov. 29. Fingerhut quietly has been courting contributors in an effort to secure $1 million in campaign commitments.

Last year, Fingerhut lost a long-shot challenge against Republican U.S. Sen. George V. Voinovich. Fingerhut cannot run for the Ohio Senate next year because of eight-year term limits.

On the day the Buckeye state's concealed carry bill passed into law, Fingerhut told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that "It's going to lead to tragedies and accidents of all kinds." And in 2001, he told the Cincinnati Post that "the presence of a gun is actually likely to escalate violence."

He could not have been more wrong.

Until now, it was hard to imagine a much worse governor for Ohio than Bob Taft, but not any more!

The Cleveland Plain Dealer also recently reported that trashy TV show host Jerry Springer was also considering a run, but a spokesperson has just announced that Springer is, for once, taking the high road:

Springer, a former Cincinnati mayor, said Tuesday he watched the race for the Democratic nomination for governor develop for the last six months before deciding he wouldn't enter that or any race next year. With Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman dropping out, and U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland emerging as the front-runner, "what purpose does my running now serve?" Springer said in a statement released by his Ohio spokesman, Dale Butland.

"We have a candidate and a wonderful opportunity for party unity. Let's not blow it. Accordingly, I believe it would be irresponsible, divisive, and a betrayal of principle for me to jump into the race at this late stage," Springer said.

Leave it to a this trashy former talk-show host to find a way to the moral high ground over Sen. Eric Fingerhut (& possibly also Congresswoman Kaptur), who seems intent on dividing his party when it desperately needs untity to have any regaining the Governor's mansion.

Newly-elected Ohio Democratic Party Chair Chris Redfern, a pro-gun legislator from Catawba Island, would do his party well to tell these gun banners to take a lesson from Jerry, and to sit this one out and to let pro-gun Ted Strickland give Ohio's pro-Second Amendment majority a real choice on that side of the ticket next November. The filing deadline for candidates is Feb. 16.