Three former mayors endorse A.J. Wagner
With today’s announcement that former Dayton Mayor Mike Turner, now Congressman for the 10th district, endorses A.J. Wagner over Nan Whaley- that puts three former mayors behind Wagner. Current mayor, Independent Gary Leitzell, who had to “work” with Whaley for the last 3.8 years, already had backed Wagner, as had former Mayor Rhine McLin- who used to be the leader of Whaley’s team.
Leitzell has told me that he’s had more meaningful conversations with Wagner over the last 3 months, than he’s had with Whaley in the last 3 years. McLin who lost to Leitzell in a surprise underdog upset, has backed Wagner from the primary. Considering that four years ago, Whaley was McLin’s best friend and shadow- hints to the real nature of Whaley’s purely political nature- using whomever she can to get what she wants.
Hopefully Dayton voters will see that anyone willing to spend north of $400,000 to get a job that only gives Whaley a $7,000 a year raise and the ability to marry people, is a megalomaniac.
Apparently after McLin lost, and was no longer of value to Whaley, she told her something to the effect of “shut up and go away, no one wants you anymore” according to confidential sources. Placing McLin on the Board of Elections also guaranteed that she wouldn’t run for commission or mayor against Whaley.
The only odd bird out in the mayoral endorsements is Clay Dixon who is backing the party line- and Whaley, despite A.J. having served as Dixon’s campaign manager when he won the race for mayor.
This is the first time Turner has weighed in on local politics, but after the constant meddling by U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown in local races, maybe he felt it was appropriate. This may be the first and only time I’ve agreed with Turner, other than when he passed legislation banning the use of construction debris as backfill for demolitions in Dayton.
The question is what we’ll see in the mailer war between now and election day- and what goes on TV and radio and if voters really care who the Montgomery County Democrats endorse.
Considering that Whaley is stupid enough to spend money mailing pieces with Wagner’s face and name on it- is a good indication of how quickly this campaign could backfire on her, no matter how much money and union help she has. Already, the UAW has endorsed Wagner- and many union members have told me that although their unions have backed her, they are voting for Wagner.
No word from Paul Leonard?
@DJW- I forgot about Paul. I imagine he’d back the party pick, like Dixon. But that sill puts AJ ahead 3-2
[…] was curious. Since 3 out of 5 living Dayton Mayors had backed AJ Wagner, I wondered what Paul Leonard would say. So I wrote him an email. He gave permission to publish- as […]
good post. I got one of those mailers and the first thing I thought about is that she must be getting pretty desperate to be spending more many and spreading negative ads. This is the first negative I’ve seen in the race so far by either candidate.
She’s obviously not “getting desperate.” For better or worse (I’m inclined to think worse) she’s obviously going to win easily. It’s not like anything has really changed since the primary.
Primary voters have very little correlation to general election voters. Esp in dayton when there are so few. Add up Gary’s and AJ’s votes- it should be a dead heat. Problem for Nan is that a lot of people don’t like her. We may see a surprise. I think she is targeting people with mailings who responded they were voting for AJ in her polling.
Any voter who votes for a candidate simply because they receive the candidate’s postcard in the mail is an idiot.
If Dayton is full of voter idiots, than Dayton is going to get what it deserves.