What’s ironic is that in the 90s, Strickland demanded debates with his GOP opponent when he ran for Congress. And he even sent a person dressed as a chicken to events to mock his opponent.
Complaints from the Cremeans’ camp include a charge that Strickland’s people used a man in a chicken
suit to portray Cremeans’ in a Marietta parade. Strickland said it was a mask, not a suit, and the chicken
simply carried a sign saying, “I won’t debate Ted Strickland — who am I?”
Strickland wanted debates when he ran for governor in 2006 and he challenged John Kasich to debates in 2010.
I assume that he doesn’t want to give Sittenfeld any extra attention and publicity. He also likely doesn’t want to answer any tough questions that Rob Portman could capitalize on later.
PG Sittenfeld isn’t going away, however, and Strickland’s fundraising has not been impressive. As of September 30th, he had $1.5 million in the bank. Sittenfeld had $784,000 for his campaign.
But Sittenfeld has a SuperPAC in his corner, and they just announced that they have raised $733,000.
If you add that together with his own campaign, it matches what Strickland has on hand.
Sittenfeld and his PAC will no doubt use almost everything to knock Ted out in the primary, forcing Strickland to spend what little he has in defense.
While Sittenfeld bleeds out what little money Strickland has, Rob Portman is sitting on over $11 million as of September.
Ted Strickland may regret being roped into being the Ohio Democratic Party’s desperate retread candidate in this race. He’s obviously not the fundraiser he used to be, and he’s too chicken to even debate a fellow Democrat.