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Members selected for Obama campaign
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Strickland
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Price
YOUNGSTOWN
Among the 35 people selected as national chairmen and chairwomen for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign are major-league politicians, two actors, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and a retired Warren state employee.
Members of the committee serve as “ambassadors” to the president, give advice to the campaign on key issues and help mobilize voters, according to Obama for America, the president’s political campaign committee.
Elaine Price of Warren, who retired in August after 18 years as a secretary in the warden’s office at the Trumbull Correctional Institution in Leavittsburg, said she was surprised to get the call asking her to be a national chairwoman.
“It sounded kind of huge, but I didn’t know what it was,” Price said. “When I found out, my mouth was open and I was quiet.”
Price and her husband, Grady, who died last April, started a small Trumbull County grass-roots support group for Obama during the 2008 campaign. By the November 2008 general election, there were 160 members, and the organ-ization had registered more than 2,000 voters in the county.
The work attracted the attention of the Obama campaign. Price said her organization, Trumbull for Positive Change, is working to help Obama win re-election this year.
“I feel very honored and privileged to be a co-chairperson of his national team,” she said. “When I sat down and look at [the list] online, I was humbled.”
The list includes actress Eva Longoria, actor Kalpen Modi as well as the governors of Rhode Island and Massachusetts; U.S. senators from Colorado, Illinois and New Hampshire; Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the former White House chief of staff; and Strickland.
Strickland, who discussed Ohio politics with Obama last month, said he’s proud to continue to serve as the president’s “surrogate, speaking up for him.”
Strickland, who lost a re-election bid in 2010 to Republican John Kasich, said Ohio is “always going to be competitive” in presidential elections.
But Strickland questioned the quality of the Republican presidential field.
“The people running for [president] are just terribly inadequate,” he said. “The four remaining candidates are deeply flawed. It’s difficult to believe the [Republican] party would put forth these four candidates knowing one of them will be their nominee.”
Strickland acknowledged Obama, like anyone, can be beat.
But “I think the Republicans are taking what could have been a reasonable opportunity and throwing it away,” he said.