Sunday, May 02, 1999
Dems tired of losing
Determined veterans begin comeback plan
BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
There comes a point in politics, as in life, when enough is enough.
A party's faithful — its leaders, elected officials, volunteers and followers — get fed up with losing races, losing power, arrogant yet successful opponents, smart-aleck columnists, dwindling campaign coffers and reporters who relish chronicling the demise of a once mighty and winning political machine.
Academy award winner Peter Finch, who played the whacked-out television anchorman in the late 1970s film Network, said it best when he chanted and hollered over and over, “I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!”
The Kenton County Democratic Party has hit that point.
Not the whacked-out part, but the “mad as hell” part.
As recently as the early 1980s, they used to make jokes about the near nonexistence of a two-party system in Kenton County. Back then, it was the Democrats telling the jokes and needling the weak Republican Party.
Well, we're starting to hear those jokes again. Only now it's the Republicans laughing all the way to the polls.
The GOP controls all four seats on the county fiscal court, most of the major courthouse offices, a majority of the statehouse seats from the county and a growing number of city councils.
Time to fight back
It's a near given that Republican candidates for state and federal office will run well and win more often than not in Kenton County.
Clearly, the power has shifted in Northern Kentucky's largest county from left to right.
Now, Democrats say, it's time to reclaim lost turf.
“It's time to sit down and take a look at everything,” said Steve Hoffman, a Kenton County magistrate and torch-bearer for the Democratic Party.
“It hurts, but I'll admit it. We've let the Republicans define us on their terms,” he said. “They call us (pro-abortion) baby killers, tax-and-spend liberals, good ol' boys and more. None of that is true.
“We're just not going to let that happen anymore,” Mr. Hoffman practically vowed.
The first step in becoming a winner is believing you can win. That's a rather simple lesson a lot of Kenton County Democrats seem to have forgotten.
So on May 10, in a corner of Walt's Hitching Post, that splendid ribs eatery in Fort Wright, Democrats will gather to start trying to reclaim at least some of their past glory. Mr. Hoffman said they are going to begin rewriting a local Democratic Party platform. Others say the changes won't be quite as radical, more like coming up with a new mission statement or direction.
For now, that's so much semantics. The real issue is that the Democrats are finally starting to realize that resting on laurels, taking partisan punches from the Republicans and pining for the old days won't change one darn vote.
Or so they say. We've all heard it before. The Centrist Group was going to pump new life into the party. It faded.
A new moderate group based on the national Democratic Leadership Council was going to be formed. It wasn't.
Democrats who are against abortion but don't like the heavy-handed, sometimes radical politics of Northern Kentucky Right to Life — the area's leading anti-abortion group — were going to join with some moderate Republicans and form a new Right to Life group. They haven't.
Let's see some action
So all we can do is watch and see if the Democrats make good on their claims to reinvigorate, recharge and redirect the party.
There are indications that blood is one again pulsing through the party's veins.
A few Democrats took exception to the shots leveled last week by this space and the Republicans about not having candidates to run in Kenton County for the Kentucky General Assembly.
They say at least two statehouse Republicans can expect challenges next year:
• Sen. Jack Westwood of Erlanger, a one-term legislator who pulled off a stunning upset in 1996 by beating longtime Democratic incumbent Joe Meyer;
• And the indestructible Rep. Jon David Reinhardt of Campbell County, who is elected year after year despite being gerrymandered out of his home county, passing very little legislation during his 15 years in Frankfort and rarely showing up for schmooze fests or community gatherings.
Mr. Hoffman promises that experienced party leaders and members are coming together with Generation X'ers, the kind of young professionals and new parents that have fled the Democrats locally for the Republican Party.
“It probably won't be pretty,” Mr. Hoffman said. “There's going to be some disagreements. People aren't going to be on the same page on all these issues.
“But that's good. We need that debate. We need some fire and some passion. It needs to be done. And we need to do it now.”
Patrick Crowley covers Kentucky politics for The Kentucky Enquirer. His column appears Thursdays and Sundays. He can be reached at 578-5581, or (502) 875-7526 in Frankfort, or by e-mail at crowleys@cinci.infi.net.
Patrick Crowley covers Kentucky politics for the Enquirer. He can be reached at 578-5581, or (502) 875-7526 in Frankfort.
CROWLEY ARCHIVE
