How Powerful Are Party Endorsements, After All?

It's a puzzle. Close to home, in my Ohio House of Representatives district, a party-endorsed former legislator (Barbara Boyd-D) easily withstood a determined, energetic challenge from a promising young candidate with a big newspaper endorsement and many endorsements from area office-holders (Julian Rogers-D). And on the statewide level, a party-endorsed legislator (State Sen. Marc Dann-D) turned out to have little to fear from a brilliant, aggressive Attorney General candidate with many endorsements from newspapers and big-city mayors (Subodh Chandra-D). It makes party endorsement seem all-powerful. But how did prickly Court of Appeals Judge William O'Neill (D) win big (58%-42%) over ODP-endorsed and well-funded Common Pleas Judge A.J. Wagner (D)? And how did under-funded Ashtabula County Auditor Sandra O'Brien (R) oust GOP-endorsed incumbent State Treasurer Jennette Bradley (R)?

In O'Neill's case, he had name recognition from his previous Supreme Court campaign, but so did Juvenile Judge Peter Sikora in the other primary. It must have been O'Neill's more extensive judicial experience or his extreme stance on judicial independence (accepting no campaign conributions), or a combination of those, that overcame the endorsement.

In the O'Brien-Bradley case, it's clear that the wishes of the state GOP apparatus are trumped by the demands of extremist social ideology. We see that reflected in the gubernatorial race as well, where there was no formal endorsement but there were many signs of informal support for Petro from party officials.

So party endorsement overcomes all, except when it doesn't.