Columbus Mayoral: Bill Todd and His Loser Buddies

Arguably the top of the ticket in 2007 will be the Columbus Mayoral Race between Mayor Coleman and Bill Todd (of anti-Strickland "Common Sense Ohio" fame). I say arguably because anyone that knows Bill Todd is profoundly aware of the fact that he's such a vile, despicable little man that even some leadership in his own party are nervous about his candidacy. As the Other Paper put it regarding Todd's candidacy in Columbus: "It’ll be closer than last time, when the Republicans didn’t run a candidate. But not a lot closer." So, the Columbus race is the top of the ticket on paper, but Todd's gonna get trounced and is probably just looking to drag Mayor Coleman through the mud a bit.

That said, I thought it'd be fun to look at who Todd's surrounding himself with at this point in the game. On Saturday Todd has a fundraiser lined up in Columbus with a long list of folks on his host committee. My first thought was that some of the names on the list seemed recognizable. About an hours worth of digging later, I wasn't too surprised.

The shindig is hosted at Sam Gedert's house. He's a big-whig GOPer that runs E-roots, a Republican lobbying/campaign firm out of Cbus that's worked with the likes of Congressional critters Pryce, Gilmor, Jordan and others. No doubt Bill Todd will be one of his future clients, so it makes sense for Mr. Gedert to help the wannabe candidate shake some folks down for cash.

BUT, I've got to ask if Todd and friends actually think they're going to raise any money at this thing. The Host committee is composed almost entirely of washed-up, out of work GOPers who were swept out of state government back in November.

See for yourself:

Erin O'Donnell, former Taft Criminal Justice Serivces Press Staffer
Brian Metzbower, Bush '04 NW Field Director
Tom Whatman, longtime Brennan Buddy, lobbyist and former Ohio GOP Exec. Director
Melissa Vasil, Petro Executive Assistant
Brad Sinnot, Chairman of Franklin County Central Committee
Doug Preisse, Chairman of Franklin County Executive Committee
Carol Porter, longtime GOP Hack
Matt Ottige, Treasurer Bradley's old Legislative Affairs Director
Jessica "Scottie" May, Blackwell Fundraiser...Married to Householder's former Cos and testified because of her involvement with Noe
Darrin Klinger, lobbyist/Campaign firm and former Executive Director of Bush's Ohio '04 campaign
Karri Hertel, Petro's Director of Special Counsel
Anna Headley, GOP Media Consultant
Mike Gonidakis, Petro Senior Deputy
Andy Bowers, Former GOP Statehouse Candidate
Jayme Bowers, Former Lt. Guv Bruce Johnson Aide

I mean, seriously, c'mon...there are only like three or four people on his host committee who haven't been life long hacks on the GOP payroll. I'm callin' "shenanigans". These are the folks that want Todd's campaign expenditures, or to work for him...they're not the big donors (except for Todd's Lobbyist buddies). The closest individual on the host committee to a "regular person" is Stephanie Peddicord who appears to be a high school baseball all-star. You're gonna need to do better than that Billy boy.