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Dayton Daily News endorsement inquisition

I arrived 10 minutes early, Jane Mitakides was already in the lobby. The DDN had told her that they hadn’t been able to reach Charles Sanders. We made chit-chat. She shared that she used to be married to Rich Van Der Kay (I’m probably spelling it wrong), who used to run a small ad shop- and then went into selling direct mail.

At 11, we were ushered up. I have to thank Bill Herrick from DDN IT for getting my laptop up. When I later shut the Safari browser and killed the connection, I called him on my cell- and he was there in minutes to get me back up. That impressed Editor Kevin Riley, who apparently doesn’t get the same response (maybe if you would negotiate in good faith with the union, things would be different Kevin).

I was disappointed that Eddie Roth wasn’t there. I have history with both Martin Gottlieb and Ellen Belcher and it’s not great. Kevin Riley was pretty quiet, in fact, overall, it was the Jane show. If words were votes, Jane’s already won. It’s not that she had diarrhea of the mouth, but it sounded like someone pushed play on a tape recorder and out came political speak.

The first question was “What’s wrong with Mike Turner” and Jane was given the floor. After a bunch of meandering, she finally said that he’s taking credit for BRAC when in fact he had little influence, and that he’s only a junior congressman in the minority party at the end. When pushed for specifics, it was as if we were listening to C-SPAN analysis in the 2 minute report.

I talked about the Turner, Perception/Reality distortion field, and tried to focus on:

Jane “jumped in” to help me out. And from then on, it was Jane, Jane, Jane.

Sanders showed up at 11:30 in a hat, which didn’t come off. I don’t know what military he was in, but mine always told me that hats come off inside, unless you are armed (maybe he’s packing?). This was my first meeting with him. He was loud, angry, and 100% Union, all the time. He managed to get in that he “won Highland and Clinton Counties” last time out- which was wrong- according to my 2006 data he won Highland with 455 votes. The editors asked him if it was true he had also filed on OH-2, which he blamed on “bloggers, who just pay for internet access and can say anything.” Sanders thinks he can turn the district into the next Silicone Valley.

Jane kept going about herself. She’s hired Celinda Lake [1] to do polls (a high power pollster who worked for Bill Clinton, as Jane told me later) – and that OH-3 is winnable. You just need to get 55% of Montgomery County- and she cited Ted Stricklands 56% win in the district (So, she sees the same thing I do, which is more than Sanders realizes).

I’m not quite how to sum up the rest of Jane’s spiel, her roots in Appalachia, her families military background, her endorsements from unions, the NRA etc. and her claim that someone from the GOP had approached her (Charles piped in and said the same) about switching parties- for when Mike Turner “moves on” with his career, other than to say, she was probably doing me a favor by monopolizing the room- giving me less time to insert my foot in my mouth.

The Editorial board said they will do some deliberations, and may be back in touch with additional questions. We will see. Having a public position and sharing ideas for the last three years didn’t seem to mean much to them. Neither did having a site up and running a month before the others- or that I’d completed 2 youtube pieces already. Jane still thinks old people are who votes- and that they don’t do youtube. She’ll have conventional media (with a conventional message, I’m sure).

My having a history with Turner seemed totally new to Riley. He seemed unaware of my court battle with MT- and the disdain the man has towards me.

I was there mainly as a courtesy visit. We’ll see if there is any interest in promoting a real fight in OH-3, or if they just want to watch Jane fizzle with her sizzle.

I almost wish we were looked upon as Judges are- it’s not our job to take sides D or R, but to do what’s right for the people we represent. I’m not interested in being a puppet for anyone, other than the voters. I didn’t hear anything like that from the other candidates.

One endorsement screening for the day down, Montgomery County and Warren County Dems tonight.

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