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GOP to replace LaTourette
Republican officials replacing U.S. Rep. Steven C. LaTourette in the 14th Congressional District race likely will support the same candidate, said Trumbull County GOP Chairwoman Kathi Creed.
Creed along with Marilyn Thomas, secretary of the county’s central committee, along with their counterparts in the six other counties that are all or partially in the 14th will choose LaTourette’s replacement between Aug. 9 and 13.
“I expect we’ll be on the same page” with a candidate, Creed said.
Despite the number of residents in the district from each county — ranging from 230,041 in Lake County to 23,016 in Trumbull County, which has just 11 of its townships in the 14th — the chairmen and central committee secretary each get one vote.
Creed said she’s already been contacted by Geauga County Prosecutor David P. Joyce, who GOP officials say is a leading candidate, and ex-Judge Colleen Mary O’Toole, who is on the Nov. 6 ballot trying to regain a seat on the Warren-based 11th Court of Appeals. She lost a 2010 re-election bid.
Also, Ann Womer Benjamin, a former Ohio House member who lost the 2002 17th Congressional District race to U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat, has left a message, Creed said.
LaTourette, a nine-term congressman from Bainbridge, announced Tuesday that he is quitting his race for re-election.
During a press conference at his Painesville office, LaTourette said he’ll officially take his name off the ballot next Wednesday, a move that allows the chairmen and secretaries to select his replacement.
LaTourette, considered a moderate Republican, said federal politics had become too partisan for him and few look to find “common ground” to work together.
LaTourette also said “words like compromise have been like dirty words,” and that it was an “embarrassment to the House of Representatives” that a highway infrastructure bill hasn’t passed.
Ryan, of Niles, said: “Steve is one of the most thoughtful, intelligent and constructive members of Congress I have served with. I always looked up to him as a mentor, friend and working partner in helping the people of Ohio.”
LaTourette denied reports that he was not seeking re-election because he was upset with committee assignments.
The 14th District is one of the most competitive Democratic-Republican districts in the state.
With LaTourette not seeking re-election, it would make it easier for Democrats to win the seat.
But Dale Virgil Blanchard of Solon, the Democratic nominee, says he will absolutely not quit the race. Blanchard has lost eight-consecutive congressional races.
If Blanchard left, it would allow Democrats to field a better-funded candidate with a stronger political track record.
“There is no way I’d ever get out of the race,” Blanchard said.
No one else filed as a Democrat in the district.
“Democrats should be doing what they always should have been doing, and that’s backing me,” Blanchard said. “They’ve never helped me raise money in any of my campaigns.”
In a Tuesday statement, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern said, “Republicans are in complete disarray as they scramble” to find a replacement.
Redfern’s statement didn’t address Blanchard’s comments, and a party spokesman said the Democrats had nothing to add about Blanchard.