There’s been more than a small amount of speculation regarding a possible primary challenge to Governor John Kasich. And, according to an email from Tom Zawistowski, it looks like it will become official next Tuesday.
From their press release:
On Tuesday, January 7, 2014, state conservative TEA Party leader Ted Stevenot will make a major announcement concerning his Republican candidacy for Ohio governor. Stevenot, a past president of the Ohio Liberty Coalition and a business owner from the Cincinnati area, will be holding a press conference at 1:00 PM January 7, 2014, at the Holiday Inn Capitol Square, 175 East Town St., Columbus, OH 43215.
Stevenot will introduce conservative Brenda L. Mack of Canfield, Ohio as his running mate for lieutenant governor. Brenda Mack is the former President of the Ohio Black Republicans Association and is currently the Vice President of The Frederick Douglass Foundation Ohio chapter.
From a strictly political standpoint, Stevenot will have a huge uphill battle. He’ll likely have little to no campaign funds and he has little to no name ID. The one campaign resource that the OLC continues to brag about is their ground game, and it’s a virtual certainty that the grassroots will not be unified behind Stevenot.
But from a more general standpoint, it’s hard to take the OLC seriously when they seem to be trading in lies and mistruths these past few months. And today, they got called out in the Washington Times:
…the email claims, in bold font within the email, that “the Ohio Republican Party is looking to primary these individuals in 2014 and replace them with politicians who will do the party’s bidding.”
In a text exchange with The Washington Times today, the chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, Matthew Borges, was asked whether the Ohio Republican Party (ORP) is planning to primary these individuals, especially given that the ORP’s responsibility is to re-elect Republicans within the state. Borges replied, “No. We aren’t involved.” Reiterating, he wrote, there is “no truth to it.”
It’s deceitful tactics like this that make Stevenot’s candidacy even less credible. How are we to believe anything that comes from the mouth of Stevenot and his campaign if we cannot believe anything that comes from the mouth of the organization backing him?
Furthermore, how are conservatives supposed to find Stevenot an acceptable candidate when his business openly pushes (and dare I say, profits from) Obamacare?
