Charlie Wilson's son has a chance to redeem himself

Friday, August 25, 2006 After the congressional campaign of state Sen. Charlie Wilson failed to get enough valid signatures on nominating petitions to get his name on the primary ballot, the candidate removed his son, Jason, as his campaign manager. Wilson made the decision after being pressured from national and state Democratic leaders to dump his son, who is interested in replacing his father in the state Senate should dad win the November congressional race. The signature issue made national news and caused a great deal of embarrassment to Wilson and Democratic leaders. While Wilson easily beat two underfunded and virtually unknown candidates in May for the 6th Congressional District Democratic nomination, it came with a steep price. Wilson spent more than $500,000 of his own money. Also, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent more than $500,000 to help Wilson win. The 12-county district includes Columbiana County and a portion of Mahoning County. Before the signature fiasco, Wilson was considered a shoo-in to win the primary and would have needed considerably less than $50,000 to do so. The campaign turned in only 96 signatures with 43 of them coming from people who don't live in the 6th District. Seven others were ruled invalid for reasons including the people signing the petitions weren't registered voters. Someone had to take the fall, and it was Wilson's son, Jason. While it is ultimately the candidate's responsibility to make sure there were at least 50 valid signatures on his nominating petition, Jason as the campaign manager supervised the campaign's collection of signatures. When it became apparent that there were serious problems with the petitions in mid-February, the DCCC swooped in and took over the campaign. That led to Jason's firing. He was replaced by Jason Burke, who worked on congressional campaigns in four other states. Burke rehabilitated the campaign, saw it through the primary, and left last month to run a campaign in Kentucky. Joe Elcock, a seasoned campaign organizer, replaced Burke. With all the negative national publicity and having his father replace him, it looked like Jason Wilson's days in politics were over. But Columbiana County Treasurer Linda Bolon, the Democratic nominee in the Ohio House 1st District race, has hired Wilson as her campaign coordinator. Wilson is second in charge of Bolon's campaign with K. Bret Apple, a former county court judge, serving as her campaign director. The open state House seat, that represents all of Columbiana County, is considered quite a competitive race with county Commissioner Jim Hoppel as the Republican nominee. This could be a chance for Wilson to repair his damaged image or completely seal his political fate. Meanwhile, there have been changes at the congressional campaigns of Charlie Wilson and his Republican opponent, state Rep. Chuck Blasdel. The Ohio 6th is considered among a handful of the most competitive U.S. House races in the country. Wilson hired Kristi Paolina as his campaign spokeswoman, a key position. Paolina is a friend of the Wilson family who's never been involved in a political campaign. Blasdel's campaign said good-bye to Jessica Towhey, its outspoken communications director. Ryan Stenger, Blasdel's campaign manager, said they wanted to move in a different direction and run a more aggressive campaign. [It's hard to believe you could find someone in politics more aggressive than Towhey, but that's the explanation.] Also, Stenger said he and Blasdel wanted to get more involved in dealing with the media, and the campaign will hire someone to handle scheduling and event planning. As for Towhey, she landed on her feet. She is handling communications for U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, a Republican running for re-election in the Cincinnati area.