Unrest stirring in Democrat ranks against county chair
By Nick Claussen
March 13, 2008
The embattled chair of the Athens County Democratic Party probably will face a challenger for her position when it comes up for a vote in April.
Susan Gwinn has served as the county chair of the party since 1996, and today the party dominates politics in Athens County more than ever. Many credit her for the party’s success, while others say the party would have done well no matter who was in charge.
Athens County Prosecutor C. David Warren in particular has been critical of Gwinn, especially after she ran unsuccessfully against him for the prosecutor’s position in the March 4 Democratic primary. The campaign was especially negative, with Gwinn’s campaign, in particular, paying for numerous TV, radio and print ads, as well as mailings, highly critical of Warren. Gwinn accused Warren in an article in The Athens Messenger earlier this week of trying to stage a party coup to unseat her as chair.
Warren said Tuesday that he has done nothing of the sort, but did say he supports anyone but Gwinn for the chair position.
Meanwhile, Carol Patterson, former member of Athens City Council, confirmed Tuesday that she has been asked to run for party chair and is interested in pursuing the position.
Other local Democrats have come out supporting or criticizing Gwinn, and former county Democratic Party chair Pete Lalich offered his perspective on Tuesday. Lalich made several key points, including that if he had run for prosecutor while serving as party chair, he would have stepped down from his position in the party.
Gwinn was roundly criticized during the campaign for saying she would keep both positions if elected as prosecutor, though she insisted that she would be a fair and effective prosecutor, even if she kept the party chairmanship.
Gwinn declined to comment Tuesday on her role as county chair, when the party will select the chair for the next two-year term, or other party matters related to her work as chair. She said everything about the party needs to be “chilled” for a while.
PATTERSON SERVED ON Athens City Council from 1999 through 2007, when she was defeated in the May primary. Since she left council, she has been asked to consider working in several positions, including as party chair, she confirmed.
“I’m exploring that,” Patterson said. One reason she said she’s exploring the idea is that Gwinn has told the news media that she plans to talk with members of the central committee about her role as chair and then will make her decision on if she will run for chair again or step down, Patterson said.
“You can’t step down unless there’s an alternative,” Patterson said. Several people contacted her to ask her to run as an alternative, she added.
“I hadn’t done anything (with the other positions people asked her about), and then when people started asking me about this, I felt that maybe there is a need,” Patterson said.
One reason for the possible necessity for a new chair is the “ongoing negativity” in the local Democratic Party, Patterson said.
She feels she can help in this area. “I tend to not go negative,” Patterson said. She did not want to comment about Gwinn, and stressed that she is just exploring the possibility of running for chair.
WARREN WAS NOT shy in commenting on Gwinn Tuesday, however, saying that he believes she violated the trust of the local Democratic Party when she ran in the primary against him, an incumbent Democrat uncontested by the other party.
“She no longer had the best interests of the party at heart,” Warren said. The party chair is supposed to represent county Democrats, not choose which ones she thinks are good Democrats and bad Democrats, he added.
Gwinn had been highly critical of Warren’s tenure in office, alleging that he favored some local lawyers over others, engaged in media grandstanding, and didn’t do enough for victims of crime.
Warren said Wednesday that he’s not pushing anyone else to run for the chair position, but said he hopes another candidate will run. He alleged that Gwinn is too divisive and should be replaced. While he is not organizing a campaign against Gwinn, Warren added, he has talked to some members of the Democratic Central Committee about his concerns.
“Anybody that wants to talk to me, I will talk to them,” Warren said.
He also argued that Gwinn has placed people that support her on the Democratic Central Committee, and charged that she has encouraged her supporters to run against incumbents on the committee who do not support her. His brothers Tim Warren and Cliff Warren are two members who were challenged, he said.
Warren denied Gwinn’s contention that he had Democrats such as Ted Linscott or Ginger Mender run against incumbent Central Committee members who support Gwinn, and said it was their choice and their right to run.
Asked about the successes the Democratic Party has had under Gwinn’s leadership, Warren said he attributes that more to the party having strong candidates and members.
“Go look at the people she supported in the primaries,” Warren said, implying that candidates she supported have often done poorly.
Warren also charged that Gwinn takes an active role with many campaigns toward their conclusion, and then takes credit for Democratic wins that she did not play much of a role in.
“Susan Gwinn didn’t get Pat Lang elected (as Athens city prosecutor in November). Pat Lang got Pat Lang elected,” Warren said. “I’m sure she’s out there right now trying to figure out a way to take credit for getting me elected.”
GWINN HAS MANY supporters and those who think she has played an integral role in the local party’s success. Bill Bias, president of Athens City Council, for example, said Tuesday that Gwinn has done an excellent job as county chair.
“I think the results speak for themselves,” Bias said. He added that all but one of the non-partisan elected countywide and Athens city positions are held by Democrats (the Athens County auditor position is currently held by a Republican, as it has been for decades).
“She has tirelessly worked for everybody that’s a Democrat that has run,” Bias said. “Is that partisan? Absolutely. There may be debate over whether the citizens want her as prosecuting attorney, but I don’t think anybody can say that she hasn’t done her job as county chair.”
Bias added that he is not on the Democratic Central Committee, so he will not have a vote in deciding who will be the party chair for the next two years.
“I would like to see her continue,” Bias said.
One person who does have a vote as a Central Committee member is Athens resident George Bain.
“I think she’s done a very good job,” Bain said about Gwinn. He added that the Democrats have more elected officials in the county than they did before Gwinn became party chair. In addition, Gwinn has worked hard to fill the previously vacant Central Committee seats, he said.
Asked about alleged divisiveness in the party, Bain acknowledged it exists, but reiterated that Gwinn has done a good job as party chair.
Bain said he has an idea whom he will support as party chair, but will wait until it’s time to vote to make a decision.
Figures from the Athens County Board of Elections show that the number of registered Democrats in the county has fluctuated since Gwinn became chair in 1996, but the number of Democrats who voted this year greatly surpassed numbers from past years. The numbers also show that the gap between the number of Democrats and Republicans in the county has grown substantially since 2000.
The number of Republicans or Democrats in each primary may be higher or lower depending on whether races for party nominations for president, governor or county positions are contested, but they do show how the number of Democrats voting in primaries has gone up in the last four years, particularly this year.
The primaries for every two years since 1992 (primary turnouts are traditionally higher in even years because those are the years for presidential or statewide primary races) are as follows:
• In the presidential primary in 1992, there were 8,304 registered Democrats, compared to 4,344 registered Republicans.
• 1994 — 5,804 Democrats compared to 3,432 Republicans.
• I1996 — 8,010 Democrats and 3,903 Republicans.
• 1998 — 7,223 Democrats and 4,068 Republicans.
• 2000 — 6,854 Democrats and 5,142 Republicans.
• 2002 — 6,448 Democrats and 2,340 Republicans.
• 2004 — 9,214 Democrats and 2,632 Republicans.
• 2006 — 5,856 Democrats and 2,204 Republicans.
• This year — 13,618 Democrats and 3,310 Republicans.
According to the county Democratic Party Web site, in 2004 Athens County had the greatest percentage increase in Democratic votes in Ohio. In 2006, the statewide Democratic candidates won every race in Athens County, the Web site states.
In addition, in 2004, Athens County was the only county in the state that did not support a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, according to the Web site.
Across the state, Athens County is often referred to by Republican as “The People’s Republic of Athens” because of the liberal nature of the county and the high proportion of Democratic voters.
PETE LALICH SERVED as party chair until 1996 when Gwinn took over, and on Tuesday explained how the county chair is selected.
Between five and 15 days after the official count is final for the primary (the official count will take place on March 27), the outgoing secretary of the Central Committee will convene a meeting for all of the committee members elected in the primary, Lalich said. The county has 69 precincts, so if all of the precinct positions are filled, there will be 69 members of the Central Committee.
The Central Committee will then elect its officers, including the party chair. After the officers and chair are elected, a motion will be made to transition the Central Committee membership into the Executive Committee, he said. The chair can then make recommendations on up to 68 additional members of the Executive Committee.
Because the Central Committee elects the chair, it is important for the incumbent chair to have members on the committee who support him or her, Lalich said.
“Essentially, if you’re doing a good job as chairman, you don’t have to encourage people to support you; they will,” Lalich said.
In many smaller counties like Athens, the party chair often serves on the county Board of Elections, according to Lalich. The pay from that position “helps cover some of their expenses,” but Lalich said the day is coming when most county chairs will not serve on these boards.
“They’re too partisan,” he said about the chairs. He said that he did serve on the board while he was chair, but said politics have become more hard-edged since then.
Gwinn stepped down from her position on the elections board to run for county prosecutor, and former county Prosecutor Bill Biddlestone has been named to replace her. Asked Tuesday if she plans to get back on the board, Gwinn replied simply, “There isn’t a vacancy.”
Lalich said that Gwinn also should have given up her party position to run for prosecutor.
“She had every right to run, but she has a party position, and she should have given that up, particularly for that particular job,” Lalich said. The chair is inherently partisan, and the county prosecutor position “requires something else,” he noted.
The party chair position is not a lifetime job, and Lalich said that his term of 14 years was probably too long.
“There are a lot of capable people out there that can lead,” he said. He likes the idea of having a person around the age of 25 to 30 running the party, but added that he’s not necessarily saying a change should be made now.
“I think she has done some good things, and I think she has done some things that perhaps she shouldn’t have,” he said about Gwinn. The good things include how she has raised money for the party and how the party has won so many elections, he said.
“She has gone very partisan in city elections, and I didn’t do that,” he said, adding that he is not certain city elections should even be partisan.
Gwinn has also organized the student Democrats at Ohio University, but that organization may actually keep some students away from getting involved, he said.
Asked about divisiveness within the party, Lalich acknowledged clear differences in opinion about how the party should operate. Divisiveness could hurt the party if people don’t want to work together, he said, but he does not expect it to change the fact that local Democrats will still support their candidates.
“They’re going to get behind Debbie Phillips for state representative big time, no matter what they think of Susan Gwinn,” Lalich said.
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jda66 commented, on March 14, 2008 at 10:05 p.m.:
Gwinn should be history after that primary campaign.
