Ney Successor on Course for Legal Showdown

Democrats in Ohio might challenge the candidacy of Rep. Bob Ney’s (R-OH) chosen successor based on at least two different statutes, a spokesman for the Ohio Democrats told me today.

Republicans are still determining whether state Sen. Joy Padgett might be disqualified from running based on what’s called the “sore loser” statute in Ohio law. The law prevents a candidate from running in a general election after losing a primary. Padgett ran for lieutenant governor earlier this year.

But there’s yet another statute that might prevent Padgett from running. A year-old statute prevents Ohioans from running for both state and federal office in the same year. “Ironically,” the Columbus Dispatch notes, “Republicans slipped that restriction into the state budget bill last year — apparently to prevent Democratic U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland from running both for re-election and governor this year.”

Ohio Republicans have said that they’ll seek a ruling from Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell’s office on the “sore loser” statute; Blackwell spokesman James Lee told me that they hadn’t received the letter requesting a ruling yet. Such a ruling wouldn’t necessarily be conclusive, however. The determination whether to certify Padgett as a candidate is up to the Tuscaraws County Board of Elections in Ney’s district. The board is composed of two Republicans and two Democrats; Blackwell’s office is the tie breaker (Blackwell is a Republican). The board has until September 8th to certify a candidate.

Earlier this year, a former Republican named Charles Morrison was blocked by another county board from running as an independent against Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-OH) under the “sore loser” statute. He’s filed a motion in federal court to overrule the board’s determination, which was made with Blackwell’s deciding vote.

If the Republicans push ahead with Padgett, there are bound to be bumps in the road ahead. Spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party Brian Rothenberg told me that the Democrats hadn’t determined yet whether they will challenge Padgett’s nomination (after all, she hasn’t even officially been nominated yet). But lawyers there are studying the relevant statutes.

“The moral of the story is that people shouldn’t meet in back rooms in D.C. and choose who should run for Congress,” he said. “I bet Ney and [Majority Leader John Boehner] had no idea about Ohio law when they cooked this up on Monday.”