Marion Democratic Party chair stepping down
Chaffin lending her energy to Democrat Lee Fisher's bid
MARION - "Politics is in your blood. Once you have it, you have it. You can't escape it."
Marion County Democratic Party chairwoman Cathy Chaffin is stepping down from the top local party post to campaign for U.S. Senate candidate Lee Fisher.
Chaffin informed Democratic Party Central Committee members in mid-January that she was leaving the post she's held for five years.
"I am personally working for Lee Fisher," she said Wednesday. "As chair I can't really do that and work on one candidate's campaign."
She said she'll remain a Grand Prairie Precinct C central committee member.
Fisher, Ohio's lieutenant governor, is running against Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat Sen. George Voinovich will vacate this year. The Republican has announced he will not seek a third term.
Former Rep. Rob Portman is the leading Republican candidate for the seat.
During Chaffin's tenure, the Democratic Party had a particularly strong 2007 election, taking a 7-to-2 majority on City Council that slipped to 6-to-3 in 2009. Democrats also won races for mayor, law director and auditor and two of the three seats on the Marion County Board of Commissioners.
John Matthews, Marion County Republican Party chairman, wished his former Marion Harding High School classmate well.
"I wasn't too surprised, because Cathy and I talk," Matthews said. "I know she's got bigger and better plans."
He praised her work as the opposing party's leader.
"To her credit she was able ... to bring control of City Council, the mayor's office and the county commission" to the Democrats, he said. "She did extremely well for her party."
Working to secure candidates for her party in local races is part of the fun, she said.
"When you have a new person who becomes involved, they're so energetic and so full of spunk, you love to see that because you remember why you got into it in the first place," she said.
Joan Kasotis, Marion County auditor and Democrat, said Chaffin has "always been back behind all the Democratic candidates to help them do the best they could. She always seemed to try to get people involved, get a variety of people involved in different spots."
Chaffin counted President Bill Clinton's visit to Harding High School to campaign for his wife, Hillary, in the 2008 presidential race as her most treasured memory as party chairwoman.
"To have a president come here under your watch, that's truly special," she said.
Interaction with voters is her favorite memory of local campaigns.
"Going door to door, because you understand why you do it, and it makes you a better person understanding what's important to people," she said. "Until you go talk to them you can say you know what's important to people, but when you go door to door you understand what's important."
Of the recent upset victory by Republican Scott Brown for Ted Kennedy's vacant Senate seat in highly Democratic Massachusetts, Chaffin acknowledged a swing of the political pendulum.
"They do say in politics that politics has a wave," she said. "It waved Republican when Reagan (was president), then it waves back Democrat. People look forward to elections to have change. Do I think it's going to have that much effect on local (elections)? No."
She said she will miss being her party's local chairwoman, but she is excited about the change her departure represents.
"I'm looking forward to the new," she said. "I'm looking for new leadership, too. I think it's a good change."
Mayor Scott Schertzer will serve as the county Democratic Party's interim chairman until after the central committee elections are decided in the May primary. Central committee members then will elect their party chairperson.
Currently, Schertzer is the party's first vice chairman, City Auditor Kelly Carr is second vice chairwoman, Tim Combs is party treasurer and Melanie Parish is party secretary.