Upper Arlington's mayor kicks off Democratic Statehouse campaign with nest of Republicans
There's no need to rehabilitate John Kasich's communications director, for example.
In a sign of America’s ongoing political realignment, Democratic candidates swept the last election cycle in Upper Arlington, the affluent and once-ruby-red suburb of Columbus.
That’s no small thing, given that Upper Arlington didn’t elect a person of color to council until 2021.
Donald Trump’s return to national politics only accelerated the change in 2024, with Upper Arlington’s first minority council member, the Nigerian-born Ukeme Awakessien Jeter, becoming the first minority city council president (and mayor) elected by her peers in the city’s 103-year history.
As Awakessian Jeter’s official biography notes, she’s an engineer and lawyer by trade.
On Monday evening, Awakessian Jeter will kick off her campaign in Ohio House District 7, a safe Democratic seat currently held by State Rep. Allisson Russo, who’s running for Secretary of State ahead of being term-limited later this year.
Russo has put her thumb on the scale of what should be a competitive race to replace her in the Ohio House, as she will take a break from her statewide campaign to attend Awakessian Jeter’s inaugural event.
Her attendance and top-billing on Awakessian Jeter’s fundraiser flyer would be newsworthy in and of itself.
However, given the handful of tips that have flooded into Rooster Worldwide HQ over the last week, it’s other, lesser-known names on that flyer that have ruffled Democratic feathers in Grandview and Upper Arlington.
The list includes former Republicans, which isn’t a surprise given the district’s recent conversion. But it also includes three stone-cold Republicans, including the communications director for former Governor John “No. 1 Asshole” Kasich.
UA council member Todd Walter
Former UA council member Brian Close
Former UA council member Jim Lynch
According to the Board of Elections voter files obtained by The Rooster:
Walter voted in the 2022 and 2024 Republican primaries.
Close voted in the 2022 and 2024 Republican primaries.
Lynch voted in the 2022 and 2024 Republican primaries.
Lynch is particularly noteworthy because he served as the communications director for Kasich, who rode the Tea Party backlash to Barack Obama’s election and drove Ohio into the gerrymandered backwater outpost that we know today.
Not that long ago, Lynch was carrying water for Kasich, trying to conjure the magic words to turn Ohio into a right-to-work state, which would have happened if Ohio’s hog voters hadn’t risen in rebellion and shoved SB-5 back down Kasich’s throat.
There are two ways of looking at heavy Republican involvement in launching an ostensibly Democratic campaign.
On one hand, it’s amusing to see three prominent local Republicans reduced to attending a fundraiser for a Democrat. That they have exposed themselves as gutless worms, looking to write a check to maintain their local relevance, while maybe also trying to absolve their sins for voting for Donald Trump.
The other, less charitable interpretation is that it shows an alarming lack of political instincts on Awakessian Jeter's part to let three stone-cold Republicans partly host the kickoff of her Democratic campaign.
Following that train of thought, it’s also alarming that these three stone-cold Republicans, including a former henchman to one of the most loathed governors in Ohio history, somehow see Awakessian Jeter as the kind of Democrat “they can work with.”
Regardless, this isn’t a salient issue for most normal voters, who will go to the polls later this year. Most voters don’t know anything about state legislative candidates other than the letter next to their name.
But those aren’t the same voters that will decide a Democratic primary in a highly educated, affluent suburb like Upper Arlington. Those types of voters see every Republican as an affront to God, and that was before last week’s public execution in Minneapolis.
Through that lens, Awakessian Jeter, including three stone-cold Republicans on her inaugural host committee, is an embarrassing own goal and no way to introduce herself to Democratic voters not familiar with her previous work.
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