What do you think about Jerry Springer running for governor of Ohio?

He's thinking about running and today was named an Ohio delegate at the national convention.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=492&u=/ap/20040516/ap_en_ce/people_springer_5&printer=1

The guy's politics are good, I guess, but I can't stand his homophobic sleazefest TV show.

Oh yeah, and that little thing about bouncing a check for a hooker? Embarrassing.

I don't like this guy one bit.

incapable of winning. Actions have consequences.

...and I can tell you the Democratic Party augers-in every time when it comes to statewide races. The Democrats run a "credible" candidate..they die. The Democrats run Jerry Springer...they die.

Id rather Jerry Springer run as a sacrificial lamb and spend some of his money on the race then wasting the partys money running some no-name politician (probably some county judge or commissioner or state rep or lawyer/activist from Northwest Ohio) who is going to lose anyway.

get him to run against Armpit Schwollenpecker in California. I think he would make a fine Governor. He's very intelligent and he is a liberal.He is politically savvy and experienced. I don't think his show business career would hurt him at all here. Hey Jerry if you are reading this, we need you in California.

I don't think he could pull it off here. The cities like Columbus are pretty liberal, but I can't imagine the swing moderates in the rest of the state accepting him. And Ohio as a whole is spread out across the political spectrum enough that you have to get the moderates to win.

He's got good name recognition, but I think too many people have a negative impression of him based on his show. Too big of a handicap to overcome? Who knows? But Waverley_Hills_Hiker is absolutely right about the state party running "credible" no-name candidates. We've seen how that's working out. (We're shut out of the state-wide offices.)

Whether it's the inability to find strong enough candidates to go up against both non-invulnerable senators or Jim Traficant or, although we all like him, the jokish media coverage Kucinich got, Jerry Springer would hurt us in Ohio and nationally I believe. He should start some sort of non-profit or something to help people. The kind of people he "showcases" on his awful show.

... but then - where would the retards stage all their fist fights?

And that was before years of parading teenaged hookers on a stage to beat each other up. Somehow, I really don't think it would work. I mean, he has the same right to try as anybody else, and frankly I believe today every bit as much as I believed in 1982 that he'd probably be a good governor ... I just don't think he can sell it. He sold something else -- it's something no amount of name recognition or money could ever buy back for him. He has to know that. The Republicans in this state would eat his lunch -- he has to know that, too.

...we'll see how that plays out.

It could be that would mean the end of his career for good, if the regular Democrats can put up a good candidate to beat him.

If they run, say, Strickland or Marcy Kaptur, I'd vote for them.

If they run someone like Joel Hyatt, or Fingerhut, forget it.

Isn't he Metzenbaum's son-in-law? Not that it's relevant, just happened to pop into my head. I think he's doing fundraising or managing stuff for Fingerhut right now.

I guess Strickland's about my favorite of any of them they're talking about running -- he's the rep from the district where I grew up. He's a tough customer ... he survived several of Cremeans's whispering campaigns about his sexual orientation because he was unmarried well into his thirties and hasn't, as far as I know, ever had kids. I met his nephew back in the early '90s, he said as soon as Cremeans gave up on running Ted would win the district. Damned if he wasn't right.

Ted's an okay guy, and as I said, he's a real survivor. He's had some tough stuff to get through, and anybody who can win a district with that many rural blockheads voting in it has to have something going for him.

....I floated his name here.

As far as I know he is the only Democrat in this state who could run a solid , really competetative race for either Governor or Senator. May Kaptur.

But Id hate to lose another congressional seat.

but he is no Metzenbalm.

so that Jerry Springer can run for President. :evilgrin:

Who think it would be a good idea to run Schwarzengroper -- 'yeah, and you know what? It would open up the Oval Office to Jerry Springer, too, and he's a Democrat! Maybe it's not such a bad idea after all.'

throwing chairs in the state legislature

A RV lot behind the statehouse

State flag changed to "nekid lady mud flaps"

First, if you haven't already noticed, the state-level Ohio Democratic party isn't exactly in its healthiest possible condition. We haven't held any major state offices since the days of John Glenn, Howard Metzenbaum and Dick Celeste, more than a decade ago, and Republicans presently hold a very cushy majority over Democrats in the state legislature. Now, is all of this because Voinovich, Taft and DeWine are really that good? HA! Please don't make me laugh. There simply haven't been any Democratic candidates who could successfully build a statewide coalition. Case in point: Tim Hagan and his joke of an underfunded, under-supported gubernatorial run in 2002 against the perpetually inept lame duck Taft, who should have been handily whipped with a wet noodle by a blindfolded, hands-tied Hagan, into a landslide defeat.

Unfortunately, Hagan, like most of the recent state-level Democratic challengers in Ohio, simply didn't possess the gravitas, and perhaps the charisma, to rally the party together behind him. You'd think there'd be little excuse for that, seeing as how Democrats still dominate city government in all eight of Ohio's largest and most populated urban centers. Hagan should have had it easy, but he slacked off on building up his social network, and so he lost to an already established, ineptitude notwithstanding, Bob Taft.

Enter Jerry Springer, who has wasted no time in wowing dinner audiences of Democratic Party officials, and even banquet halls full of college students at Ohio's public universities. Yes, he's already got the charisma, which is a critically important quality of any successful candidate for high office. But he's also developing his social network, by building a coalition that will span Ohio's major cities and regions, and assist him, should he run for governor. This is where Hagan fell way short, and where Tony Celebreeze missed the mark. This, a statewide coalition of Democratic mayors and councilmen, college students and party supporters, is what will give Springer the edge in a multi-region state with a democratic majority of voters who aren't always motivated to make it to the polls.

In addition, Ohio Republicans, though generally moderate, have until now been as lock-step as their cousins around the US. Governor Taft, who has fallen out of favor with many people even within his own party for consistently demonstrating an insipid level of leadership, will face term limits in 2006, preventing him from campaigning for a third term. The Ohio GOP has long been aware of this fact, but hasn't yet ironed out the details as to who Taft's successor will be. Ohio Secretary of State, J. Kenneth Blackwell, a would be frontrunner for the 2006 GOP gubernatorial nomination, has already openly declared his interest in succeeding Taft, which would place him in the running to become Ohio's first elected African-American governor. A conservative among a fairly moderate-dominated party, however, Blackwell is already facing opposition from House Speaker Larry Householder, a Republican closely aligned with Gov. Taft who has apparently planned a $8.5 million campaign to destroy Blackwell's image over his effors to repeal a recent 1-cent statewide sales tax increase.

Although 2006 is still 2 years away, a split in GOP ranks now may leave that party divided, and the Ohio Dems with a critical opportunity to rally and take back the Governor's mansion. Unless the Republicans can settle early upon a viable candidate and build upon his or her good reputation, they may provide a more easily identifiable Jerry Springer with all the chance he needs to redevelop his own.

Springer, I mean. And from my perspective, the reason Hagan lost was $$$$$ -- plain and simple. He did very well in televised debates with Taft, and many people thought he was a good candidate. He didn't have the money to do a scorched earth media campaign, which Republicans always do.

The Republican mud wrestling match gives me hope, however. My own take on it is that the old-style Repubs in Ohio don't want to hand the baton off to guys like Ken Blackwell yet. Blackwell apparently feels compelled only to be loyal to Blackwell -- he's committed the cardinal sin of attacking a fellow Republican by kicking up a fuss over the sales tax increase, which may well have been a necessity (and Taft doesn't have to worry about re-election because of Ohio's oddball term limit setup). Ohio has to balance its budget every year, and it's already in a world of hurt due to federal budget cutbacks -- I really don't think Taft had a choice but add to the sales tax. The raise was temporary anyway, so as far as I'm concerned Blackwell's only reason for grandstanding on it -- and it sincerely appears to have been that -- was to spread his name to newspapers other than the Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus papers to raise his 'Q Factor' for a run for governor.

All that being said, I really like Springer. I just don't think he can divorce himself from the (however overblown by people who don't like him) taint of the show. There are plenty of Ohio Democrats who don't like him; who have a knee-jerk negative reaction to him, among other things for pandering violence on his show -- can you imagine what the Republicans would do with material like they have on him? They'll dismantle him from the ankles up. It's too bad, because twenty years ago Springer might have had a bright future. He chose to fill it with what he filled it with to make a buck, though.

Would I vote for him? Probably -- I did it once, and I'd probably do it again. I think the basic qualities that made me believe he was a good candidate in 1982 probably still exist. Do I think he'd make a good governor? I think I said that in the previous post -- I thought so twenty years ago, and I still think it's probably the case. But I'm not your average Dem, let alone your average Ohio Dem. He was very liberal, progressive, intelligent and articulate -- apparently, he still is. All those things are pluses in my book, and enough for me to overlook the fact he whored his talents for fifteen years on a show I couldn't even bring myself to watch. I'm not the one he'd have to win over, though, and I don't know if he could convince more moderate, cautious Dems like many of the ones we have here in Ohio to vote for him.

say what you will about his entertainment show, he's a solid, dedicated, liberal democrat. how could you NOT support him?

and he was a good mayor. dont know what city. regardless of his lame show, he is a smart, really smart man

tasteless TV show but in political matters, he is one of us! Go Jerry!