Ted Strickland still hates Cuyahoga County

Every politico knows that Northeast Ohio, specifically Cuyahoga and its adjacent counties, are the anchor to the Democrat vote in Ohio. During all of 2010, Third Base Politics highlighted how Ted Strickland and Chris Redfern were turning their back on Northeast Ohio and taking it for granted.

In February,

In 2006, Cuyahoga County and it's directly adjacent counties accounted for 28% of the votes Ted Strickland needed to win the Ohio Governor's race.

In other words, it's the Democratic base of Ohio.

Now take this into account:

When political hopefuls declare their candidacies this week for November's statewide elections, it will mark the first time in at least 70 years that a Democrat from Northeast Ohio will not be seeking an executive office. 

Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern quickly dismisses the observation by saying, "the reliance on having a Northeast Ohio candidate in a statewide race, from a regional standpoint, has become less important. That's not to suggest Northeast Ohio isn't important. Obviously it is, but it is as important now as central Ohio or other parts of the state."

Wrong.

And then, later that year we warned them after they ignored Cuyahoga again, even after Cleveland Democrats had expressed that they felt abandoned:

At the time, one Democrat big-whig said this:

Nationally known Democratic strategist Jerry Austin of Cleveland said this ticket will prove what elected officials in Northeast Ohio had suspected all along from the Strickland administration.

"Politicians up here have expressed frustration about the lack of attention from this administration for a while," Austin said. "And now you turn around and there is no one on the ballot from Cuyahoga County. Well, now people think there is absolutely a disregard for Northeast Ohio going on."

And Democratic State Senator Nina Turner said this:

"If anyone thinks they can disregard Cuyahoga County, then they are sadly mistaken," Turner said. She added that "people are talking about this everywhere, young and old, average citizens to bigwigs."

Well, here was Ted and Chris' opportunity to do both the right thing in appointing an apolitical temporary Chief Justice and also appease their supposed allies in the Northeast.

And they blew it.

And then November. Lo and behold, Ted came up short in Cuyahoga County. Bigtime. 100,000 votes short of their goal.

Jerry Chabler, a Democratic party fund-raiser and operative, said Mr. Redfern raised more money than any other chairman he's ever known. But a promised "get-out-the-vote" effort on Election Day in Cuyahoga County never materialized and he wants to know why."There have been some folks who were disappointed in the failure of the vaunted get-out-the-vote effort. There's no question about it. If we got 100,000 more votes out of Cuyahoga County, Ted Strickland would be the governor today. What exactly happened in Cuyahoga County I don't know, but myself and other Democrats were led to believe there'd be this great get-out-the-vote program," Mr. Chabler said.

So, with Ted presumably eyeing a run in 2014, you would think that he would want to patch things up and reestablish those relationships in Cleveland.

You would be wrong.

This past weekend, the Cuyahoga County Party Dinner was held. Guess who didn't bother to go?

I'm sure Ted had a good excuse. If he wants the chance to run for his old job, he better hope it was good enough for the Northeast Ohio Democrats he ignored while he was governor.

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