Tweet
Today Blue America is proud to host our friends from Progressive Majority and Matt Patten, the Democrat running for an open red seat in Ohio’s 18th state legislative district (in the Berea area). Like Barack Obama and Jesus, Matt came up as a community organizer. He’s a new generation labor leader and he’s exactly the kind of progressive activist the Democratic Party needs so we don’t wind up with slime from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party taking over. We have more than enough Rahm Emanuels and Tim Mahoneys.
We asked David Dettman from Progressive Majority to introduce Matt for us:
Just four seats. That’s all that separates Democrats from a majority in the Ohio House of Representatives. And, in 2008, Progressive Majority’s number one goal in Ohio is to elect progressive champions to the House and deliver that majority.
Progressive Majority has a slate of 11 fantastic candidates for the Ohio House ready to advance our progressive agenda. The Number 1 targeted race for the Ohio House features Matt Patten in House District 18, which includes the critical Cleveland suburbs of Strongsville, North Royalton, Berea, Olmsted Falls, and Olmsted Township. This seat is held by a term-limited conservative and the Republicans have nominated an even more conservative candidate to run against Matt.
Matt, a long-time union and community activist, will fight for economic justice, quality education and universal access to health care. He is the grandson of Irish immigrants who has dedicated himself to improving his community and enhancing economic opportunity for Ohioans. His opponent, Colleen Grady, is an ultra-conservative member of the State Board of Education who is best known for her avid support for teaching creationism in the science classroom. She is a Sarah Palin wannabe who is spending enormous amounts of money attacking Matt in ways that have been called “dirty politics” by the local media.
When Matt and our other candidates for the Ohio House form a Democratic majority, they’ll usher in a new era of progressive legislation and leadership, and help Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland bring to ALL Ohioans the progressive values of economic justice, civil rights, quality health care and education, a clean environment and reproductive freedom.
Progressive Majority’s winning strategy to recruit, train and elect progressive champions ensures a strong, lasting progressive base in Ohio and seven other “must-win” states across the nation.
62 Comments
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About Firedoglake
Welcome to Firedoglake, Matt and David!
Hi there. David here from Progressive Majority. Matt and I are excited to be here with you.
Hi there, very glad to have an opportunity to talk with you today.
Hey Howie!
How long has it been (if ever) since the Ohio House was a Democratic majority?
Hi this is Matt, the Democrats last had control of the Ohio House in 1994.
Ah, OK. Bad enough but not quite as bad as I thought (I grew up south of Cincinnati and had a lot of Ohio friends in both HS and college)
Glad you could make it David and Matt. One thing we really need is a better bench. Otherwise we’re always going to wind up with either Republicans or with nominal Democrats from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party. When I read about Matt’s background, it made me think we have a future political star. How does the district lean though? I know a wingnut is the retiring incumbent.
Hi Matt, I’d like to know your thoughts on the person running for the Muskingum county area. I believe his name is Rick Shriver.
It has been leaning Republican but it is a true swing district that has been trending our way.
Sorry I am not familiar with Rick Shriver. I know he is running for the Ohio Senate, from the southeast portion of Ohio.
Hi there, this is David. Rick’s in a tough race. The Republicans are running the same campaigns all over the state. They start with smears, do some more smearing, and close with smears.
David, I think we can carry on two conversations at once. While Matt is answering questions about the race in Ohio specifically, can you fill us in on the kind of work Progressive Majority does in bringing BETTER DEMOCRATS instead of just MORE Democrats into the system? I know Ohio elects some pretty reactionary Democrats to office. Do you oppose them in primaries?
For David or Matt either one, do you feel things are at least a bit more stable having a Democrat as the Secretary of State than it was with Blackwell?
Sure. Our mission is to recruit, train, and elect progressive champions like Matt. We start our targeting in swing districts to run progressives against Republicans (and WIN). That way, we seek to build a critical mass of progressive champions while strategically joining-in on the fight for a Democratic majority. We view a D majority as the first step to a Progressive Majority.
Matt, is the legislative district you’re contesting in Kucinich’s congressional district? Or Sutton’s?
In general, we target Republicans first. We hope to expand the playing field against conservatives and take the fight to them. In a term-limited state like Ohio, opportunities to bring more progressives into the legislature open-up every cycle.
YES! It is very comforting to have a Secretary of State in Jennifer Brunner who has been working hard to ensure a fair, accountable election system that will allow for every vote to be counted. Her hard work and dedication has been a model to follow and was backed yesterday by the US Supreme Court in a 9-0 decision against the Republican Party that will allow for ALL new legitimate registrations to be counted.
The Ohio House 18th District is covered by both Dennis Kucinich and Betty Sutton.
David, that’s a good approach. Does it lead Progressive Majority to support Democrats like Zach Space and Charles Wilson, who are, way better than Republicans but who couldn’t really be described as progressives?
Secretary Brunner (a Progressive Majority candidate from 2006), has been under constant attack from the moment she took office. Basically, the Republicans are coming after her for BEING HONEST AND FAIR. She happens to be a committed progressive but she’s also tough enough to handle the attacks. In addition, she actually knows something about elections-administration, which is a nice change.
Will Blackwell try for a comeback or has he been discredited enough so that he will never win statewide office again?
Progressive Majority has a strict set of ideological guidelines candidates must meet for us to endorse them (I’ll let Matt talk about what an endorsement means). If they don’t get 100% on our questionnaire, they don’t get our endorsement.
Our issue areas include: Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Health Care, Education, Environment, and Reproductive Freedom.
Also, Progressive Majority does not work with Federal candidates, we’re strickly state-level.
Of course, aside for making life better for Ohioans specifically, the people who Progressive Majority helps get into state office, are the ones who have the best chance to go on to federal office where they will impact the lives of the whole country.
Matt, are there any especially galvanizing issues that are going to determine who wins the 18th in 2 weeks?
Secretary Brunner rocked on her tv appearance. Unmovable.
ActBlue doesn’t accept donations for local Ohio races yet but anyone who would like to help Matt win his race can do it here.
Howie, you bring up an excellent point about our work. We’re doing work to build a movement, not just help out in one election cycle. This means that we are recruiting a “farm team” of progressives to run for office now, 2009, 2010, 2012, and beyond.
yes, a little thing called THE ECONOMY! This district has seen a large amount of new residential construction in the last 8 years and we have some very nice neighborhoods that have been hit very hard by the predatory lending bug. We now have bus tours of investors looking to buy 2 or 3 yr old homes on the cheap and it has the community nervous to see who will buy these homes. This trickle down effect has been devistating to this district.
Matt,
Best of Luck in your campaign. it will be fun to watch another Blue American take the oath of office and stand to Defend Our Constitution.
Sure hope none of the community organizeyiness rubs off, sounds like cooties! lol
We are all very afraid that we will have an empty community here after all of the foreclosures. It is very eerie to drive through once happy neighborhoods and see so many empty homes.
Thank you Elliott, it is my goal to get into the legislature and continue to fight for progressive values.
For me one of the joys of hanging around the Lake is the chance that we inspire more & better Democrats all the way down to the neighborhood.
Thank heaven for our Secretary of State!!! Still, especially in states like Ohio, the big reason for early voting is voter protection. There are lawyers ready to help voters whose voter registrations have been messed up in any number of the ways it can happen.
Voting early means the lawyers have more time to do the research to support your right to vote on a regular ballot, not a provincial one. Anyone who has registered recently (within the year) or has changed address or has married etc. should try to vote before election day to provide time for lawyers at the BOE to protect your vote should it be challenged.
For example, in Lorain County, Ohio, there are 4 lawyers standing by each day prepared to aid any voter whose registration is questioned and is advised to vote on a provincional ballot. The objective is to vote on a regular ballot so the vote is counted on election day…not several days later after victory has been declared by the Rovian forces living in LaLa Land. I called more than one hundred provincial voters in 2004 to tell them their vote wasn’t counted…I never want to do that again!
The economy is dominating all of our Ohio campaigns. Ohio in general, and Cleveland in particular, has been one of the hardest-hit by foreclosures in the country. We are literally seeing a mass depopulation from entire neighborhoods around the state.
I’m in.
digg this, please,
and upvote on reddit
David mentioned what it means to be endorsed by Progressive Majority and I have to tell you I have been impressed with how they have had my back from the very beginning. My opponent launched a negative attack on me early and she has been outspending me 10 to 1. The one organization that has ALWAYS BEEN THERE FOR ME has been Progressive Majority.
It is hard to be a progressive champion in a state like Ohio. As a candidate and hopefully, a legislator, it would be important to me to know that I can count on allies within the progressive community.
One thing I will mention is that the mark of an organization is where they stand when things get tough. When the chips were down, the ONE organization that stood with me was Progressive Majority.
Right now I am tied with my ultra-conservative opponent. We have A LOT OF WORK to do in the coming weeks,by staying true to our values and standing up for what we believe in, we are going to win!
Wow!. Your opponent is outspending you 10 to 1 and you’re TIED? That should tell everyone something about the world today.
Matt, do the Republicans try turning Progressive Majority and their support for you into a weapon they can use against you?
I know. She came after me in way that a local newspaper called “DIRTY POLITICS”. The Republicans can’t run on their issues, so they are trying to falsely tie me to controversial figures in the state. SOUND FAMILIAR?
It’s strange to see the Republican attack machine at work this year. They’re running really nasty and misleading ads, AND THAT’S ALL. They have no new ideas, failed policies, and a bankrupt ideology. In their attacks on Matt, the only thing they can trot-out is the same-old ad homimem smears.
Yes, but I am proud to run on our values of standing up for working families, protecting our environment, equal opportunity for all and good education for our kids and access to health care.
Matt, are you getting any substantial help Kucinich and Sutton? Does the Obama campaign reach out to local campaigns there?
We are all Democrats and we have been working hard
It is exciting to work with the whole Democratic ticket. In particular, Governor Strickland has been fantastic to work with! He is really taking an interest in the Ohio House races and his support has been invaluable. Gov. Strickland has been working tirelessly to turn Ohio blue.
To be honest with you, I am honored and moved to be on the same ballot with Barack Obama. While the Obama campaign helps me, I am doing my best to try and help them. This is the most important election of my lifetime and we all have to do ALL WE CAN to ensure that Barack Obama WINS!
I know Sherrod Brown isn’t on the ticket this year but he’s from your area. Is he a help at all?
YES! Sherrod has been a friend and an inspiration for those of us who run campaigns based on our values. He is unapologetic progressive champion who wins by standing up for what he believes is right. I count on his advice and support as someone who has been fighting the fight for many years.
Matt, Dave, are their other candidates for the state legislature in Ohio who fit into the BETTER DEMOCRAT category?
Matt Patten has a terrific smile!
Sure! Progressive Majority has endorsed 11 candidates for the Ohio House. I encourage you all to check them out. Each of them has demonstrated their committment to our movement and are working like crazy to finally build the kind of government Ohio deserves.
http://www.progressivemajority…..ograms/oh/
I think that they are all terrific candidates and will all help us turn this state around.
Marshen,
If I may brag on one of our candidates, Matt’s also very funny. You should check out his ads on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/user/MattPatten4Rep
Dave, what are the other states you guys are active in besides Ohio?
Howie, we are in 8 Arizona, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Washington, Wisconsin. Oh yeah, and the great state of Ohio!
Second that. The ads are super.
Dave, Matt, thanks for stopping by and chatting with us today. Glad to meet both you guys; I think I speak for our whole community when I say I hope it won’t be the last time. Best of luck with the election!
Howie, Thanks so much for having us. Now Matt needs to get back to knocking on doors. That’s how we’ll win this year: out-hustle, out-organize, and out-work our opponents.
Matt and David, thank you for taking time out of an obviously busy schedule to join us today. Good luck!
I have really enjoyed this experience! It’s nice to know that there are people all over the country who are interested in to turning Ohio around. Keep up the good work!
Hey Matt – best of luck and keep us posted on your race!
The opposite of progressive is conservative or tyrannical…. and thas exactly what the bush regime symbolizes and is… I hope Obama wins so that we as a country can be open to progress. The opposite is presented in my favorite book America2014: an Orwellian tale. Its a sequel of 1984 but set in the current situation. Its not as if the author had to stretch the truth much. Even the altered bill of rights are awesome you can even see em for free at http://www.america2014.com
http://www.saysme.tv/blueamerica is awesome.
Good luck on your race, Matt. And thanks for being here today, David. Progressive Majority is a great organization and offers much-needed support to candidates at a time in their careers when they really need it.
Please keep up posted on what’s happening as the race progresses.