Freshman Reps Celeste and Szollosi raise most $$ in Dem House Caucus

This is a story that I meant to post on yesterday, but it got overshadowed by the bombardment of congressional news. The Dispatch printed an article on Wednesday discussing the strong fundraising freshman members of the Ohio House are doing. The article noted that Republican Reps. Mandel and Rabenold brought in the big bucks for their caucus, but the real story is on the Democratic side. Ted Celeste of Grandview and Matt Szollosi of Oregon raised the most money out of the entire House Democratic caucus. Szollosi bagged $130K while Celeste brought in $122k.

So why all the attention being paid to the freshman? Outgoing Rep. Driehaus hits the nail on the head:

"Many entities engaged in the political process understand full well that the freshman of today can be the speaker or minority leader of tomorrow," said Rep. Steven L. Driehaus, a Cincinnati Democrat serving his fourth and final term under term limits. "They want to make sure that if they see someone who appears to be ascending that they are on the bandwagon."

Amazingly, of the 10 leadership positions between the two parties, 9 of them will be open after the 2008 election. There are going to be a lot of new faces in leadership next session.

It has also been interesting to note where the money is coming from. The Republicans are getting it from the usual suspects in the business world, but the Democrats are more diverse. Szollosi is relying heavily on the labor connections he has made as a union attorney. 99% of his money came from PACs and six unions gave the maximum donation to his campaign. Celeste, a small businessman himself, has relied more on individual donors. His suburban Columbus district contains relatively wealthy Upper Arlington and Marble Cliff, not to mention easy access to the vast financial resources of Columbus itself.

The freshman class is setting itself up to take over both sides of the Ohio House next session. Let's hope we're electing a Speaker instead of a Minority Leader after 2008.