Democrats furiously decried the plan, grumbling that it was unfairly gerrymandered to skew elections and hand Republicans easy victories in too many congressional races.
By IKE MGBATOGU
Contributing Writer
COLUMBUS – Reacting in jubilation inside a Columbus Downtown bar after her victory in the Democratic primary race for the new 3rd Congressional District, former Minority Leader in the Ohio House of Representatives Joyce Beatty declared that she won the election on the strength of her message to the people of the district.
“We started out this campaign saying we would get out there and take our message to all of the people in the district,” said Beatty. “We’d run a good campaign and talk about jobs and be that new voice. I think that resonated with people.”
Obviously, it did. But what also immensely helped Beatty’s bid was Mayor Michael Coleman’s enthusiastic endorsement of her over her rivals – former Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy, Columbus City Councilmember Priscilla Tyson, and State House Rep. Ted Celeste.
But just how important was Coleman’s support for Beatty?
That was huge, said a campaign strategist for Tyson.
“Had he not endorsed, Mary Jo Kilroy probably would have won the race,” said Antoinette Wilson.
Beatty, who stepped down from her job at The Ohio State University as the vice president of Outreach and Engagement to run for the new district seat, defeated her closest rival Kilroy by 3 percentage points, winning 38 percent of the vote while Kilroy received 35.
Tyson, who was supported by Columbus City Council President Andrew Ginther and former colleague Sen. Charleta Tavares, finished third in the race, corralling 15 percent while Celeste followed with 12 percent.
Beatty, 61, will now take on Republican Reynoldsburg City Councilman Chris Long, 53, in November, a race she is expected to handily win.
If Beatty defeats Long in November, she will join Rep. Marcia Fudge of the Cleveland’s 11th District as the only two Black members of Congress from Ohio, and part of the 535 members of the federal bicameral legislature.
In the campaign, Kilroy, who along with Beatty raised more money than their opponents, relied largely on her name recognition, touting her experience and accomplishments in Congress as a strong supporter of Obama policies.
She was endorsed by the Franklin County commissioners. However, in the end, the combined package of those appealing factors was not enough to propel her to victory in a race many in the African-American community are widely swooning would go to a minority candidate.
Kilroy and Celeste are White while Beatty and Tyson are African-Americans.
Carved out of the recent partisan redistricting row, the 3rd Congressional District was one of the four drawn to favor Democrats out of the 16 districts involved in the process. And quicker than you can say, “It is a shame that Ohio has one Black congressional representative,” it was immediately widely perceived as a historic opportunity to elect another Black member of congress.
According to the U.S. Census, African-Americans make up about 12 percent of Ohio’s population. Yet, they are represented in the Congress by only one member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and that is Fudge.
That’s unacceptable, said the President of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus Rep. Sandra Williams, who was deeply involved in the discussions over the GOP redistricting plan.
Williams’ initial lonesome support for the severely criticized GOP plan, even though she later joined her Democratic caucus in voicing opposition to several components of effort, was fuelled largely by what she saw as “real opportunity to have another minority member of the Ohio’s Congressional delegation.”
Democrats furiously decried the plan, grumbling that it was unfairly gerrymandered to skew elections and hand Republicans easy victories in too many congressional races.
Mgbatogu is a freelance writer and editor of Onumba.com based in Columbus. He can be reached by email at Onumbamedia@yahoo.com
