Some six years ago (during the 2005-06 election cycle) there were a host of African Americans running for public office. You say big deal that’s the case every election cycle. The Congressional Black Caucus has to run every two years. But, 2006 was different. There was a new field of African Americans running for office, they were Republican. For the first time, at least in my memory, we had a number of notable Black Republicans running for US Senate, Governor, Treasurer, and even some state generally assembly seats.
Unfortunately, the Republican Party was not held in high regard. The disaster associated with hurricane Katrina, although unfairly attributed to the Bush administration, and problems with the execution of the war in Iraq brought the president’s approval rating down to 37% in September 2006 just weeks before the general election. This negative environment meant that anyone with an “R” next to their name was toast.
The backlash from the public’s dissatisfaction with the president was felt across the country in the national, state and local elections. I remember well because I was one of the casualties of that tsunami. Having been inspired by Michael Steele who was vying for the US Senate seat in Maryland; Lynn Swan running for governor in Pennsylvania; and Ken Blackwell running for Governor in Ohio I thought this would be the year for Black Republicans. I ran for state senate in Illinois and lost.
Shortly after the election President Bush replace Rumsfeld and initiated the surge, a strategy that would eventually find success in Iraq.
Since then, in 2008 this nation has seen the election of its first Black president—who is arguably the most liberal man to reside in the White house. We have watched the rise of the tea parties in reaction to his liberal ideology and the retaking of the House of Representatives by the GOP in 2010. It is believed that the GOP has a great chance of taking the US Senate, especially since the economy is still in the tank and President Obama has no solutions to offer.
I (like so many others) believe the time is right for Ken Blackwell to run and win in Ohio. Although I am not from the state nor am I familiar with all the political dynamics there, I’m convinced that with the political climate of the country right now all things point to a person like Blackwell who has clearly demonstrated his ability to lead. Ken is solid on the issues that make our country strong. He is a fiscal, social and national defense conservative.
People are tired of halfhearted conservatives like former US Senator DeWine and full-blown liberals like the current US Senator Brown. They want principled conservatives who say what they mean and mean what they say. DeWine lost to Brown in 2006 for four reasons in my humble opinion.
- DeWine turned off conservative Republicans, especially when it came to gun control
- He began to try to distance himself from the party claiming to be an independent
- Republican Gov. Bob Taft was dealing with corruption charges
- As stated earlier, the tide nationally had shifted away from Republicans because of Katrina and Iraq.
In other words DeWine lost his Republican base by not staying true to conservative principles. Then he lost independents and conservative democrats because the Bush administration was tone deaf to the calls to change course in Iraq and an inability to articulate what happen in New Orleans. He also had to deal with corruption in the Ohio Republican party. This scenario was truly a formula for disaster.
Senator Brown is a product of these issues. It was fortunate for Brown but unfortunate for DeWine and Blackwell who both lost in 2006. But this is 2011, just after 2010 elections. It is clear that Democrats have lost favor with the general public. President Obama is too far “left” for the tastes of most Americans. The only feather in Obama’s cap is the health care plan that DeWine supported but the rest of the country hates. The tide has shifted as witnessed by the 2010 elections. As the tsunami of 2006 carried into the elections of 2008 we can expect the Republican/tea party tsunami of 2010 to carry into 2012, especially if the economy does not turn around and the president continues to push his ultra liberal agenda.
With this in mind, Ken Blackwell is the clear choice to carry the banner for US Senate in Ohio. His forty-year political record, three books and public service as a city council member, mayor, an undersecretary of HUD, an ambassador to the U.N., state treasurer and Ohio secretary of state, and his clear and solid positions on all of major issues of our time make him the clear choice for the GOP nomination.
His lose in 2006 was an anomaly—a perfect storm of events that was beyond his ability to control. In this election cycle, however, there is a new tsunami moving the electorate in the direction of the GOP—with Blackwell, unlike before, perfectly positioned to ride this tsunami “right” into Ohio’s US. Senate seat.
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