Our view: Ohio GOP can only blame itself for $20 million August primary disaster
If an election falls in August and nobody shows up to vote, do we still count the results?
Sadly, yes.
Licking County and Ohio voters stayed away from the polls in record numbers this month. Locally less than 10% of eligible voters participated in the Aug. 2 primary.
With such pitiful turnout, the Republican Party lurched farther to the right. Incumbent Rep. Mark Fraizer, R-Newark, was ousted by local businessman Thad Claggett, who campaigned on the conservative Fraizer being too liberal for Licking County. Ohio's first female attorney general, Betty Montgomery, did almost no campaigning, and lost her reelection to the state central committee to Sabrina Warner, owner of Knuckleheads restaurant in Buckeye Lake and a vocal critic of Gov. Mike DeWine's policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The state central committee helps set the direction of the party statewide.
For those who believe those victories are good for Licking County and Ohio, congratulations. For those shocked by the results, look in the mirror.
The fact Ohio spent $20 million or more to hold a second statewide primary election that drew less than 7% of registered voters should be considered nothing less than a colossal boondoggle. And Ohio Republicans, who control all branches of state government, have nobody to blame for this disaster but themselves.
It was Republican leaders who drew legislative districts that the Ohio Supreme Court determined were unconstitutional. It was those same leaders who continued to draw maps that would be rejected by that same court, leaving Ohio residents forced to vote for nominees for Congress and the state legislature to represent districts deemed to be unconstitutional.
Ohio Republicans then determined it made sense to have a primary in May and a separate one in August, instead of trying to keep all the races on one ballot for the convenience of voters. The end result was a joke of an August primary that voters overwhelmingly ignored. In Licking County, roughly twice as many voters participated in the first Claggett-Fraizer primary in 2020 - an election that was thrown into its own chaos because of COVID-19.
Fraizer - and Claggett - both tried to place the blame for the August primary squarely on Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor, a Republican, for having the audacity to require the Redistricting Commission to follow Ohio's Constitution. But while Fraizer bemoaned being forced to run in an August primary, he gets no sympathy here. Nor does Montgomery.
Fraizer and Montgomery could have used their voices to demand party leaders draw constitutional maps in a timely manner, allowing their races to be held in May. We heard no such pleas. And so the Ohio Republican Party set its incumbents up for a special summer primary battle where it was highly unlikely people would turn out to vote. And now they - and we - must live with the results.
The fiasco also highlights how unorganized local Democrats are. The party in Licking County could not even find a person to run in District 68, meaning Claggett will be Newark's newest state representative by winning fewer than 4,000 votes in a district with more than 120,000 residents.
We are hopeful that upon taking office, Claggett will do his best to represent the interest of his entire district, but given the realities of local politics, he won't have to in order to earn reelection.
Societies work best with an informed and engaged populace. Some of the blame does go to the many electors who felt it wasn't worth their time to show up to vote, but it is also incumbent upon our elected leaders to promote elections that encourage participation not minimize it.
Editorial Board
Jim Bidigare
Olivia Biggs
Tim Huffman
Paddy Kutz
Benjamin Lanka
Jody Richter
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Ohio GOP can only blame itself for $20 million August primary disaster
