Marisha Agana's campaign in the newly drawn 13th Congressional District is barely a campaign, but her campaign manager says that's about to change.
A television ad is supposed to air this weekend on cable in the Warren market, said Larry Nichols, who recently came on to run Agana's campaign against 17th District congressman Timothy J. Ryan, D-Niles.
His strategy will be to link Ryan to President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Nichols said he doesn't plan to do much to promote Agana. The connection he said he plans to make between Ryan and Obama, Reid and Pelosi is enough to get votes for Agana, a pediatrician from Howland.
''All I have to do is make sure that Tim Ryan is part of that mob and people will vote against him,'' said Nichols from his home in Conway, Ark., from where he's running the campaign.
Ryan's campaign spokesman, Wiley Runnestrand, declined to comment.
Nichols and Agana met on Pastor Ernie Sanders' radio show, ''What's Right, What's Left,'' and Sanders asked Nichols to manage the campaign. Nichols, who said he has ''the lowest regard for Washington,'' agreed because ''I saw this as an opportunity to fire a shot and try and get the country back on track.''
Nichols says it'll take between $125,000 and $150,000 to win, and raising that can be done. He said interest in the campaign has grown since Agana's tweet comparing Obama to Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin.
Agana, fully against abortion, later explained her position saying the tweet was in response to the president's stance on the issue. She said she puts national leaders who believe in and support abortion into a group of leaders who have either committed or supported genocide.
Federal campaign reports show that Ryan's war chest dwarfs Agana's, $232,567 for Ryan compared to only $4,223 for Agana.
Nichols has been a vocal critic of former President Bill Clinton.
Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald was at the Tribune Chronicle last week, and I got a chance to hear some of what he had to say.
Rumored to be one of the people considering a run for Ohio governor in 2014, FitzGerald would have to give up his job to run in what could be a crowded field. Former Gov. Ted Strickland, U.S. Rep. Timothy J. Ryan and former Ohio Treasurer and Attorney General Richard Cordray, now director of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, are all names that have been tossed out.
Strickland says he's waiting to make a decision and Ryan has said he has an interest, but only if Strickland, a close friend, decides not to run.
FitzGerald said he philosophically believes in a primary election, but in a four person race, candidates would spend their money trying to win the primary, leaving nothing to run against the Republican in the fall election.
So what probably will happen is the party will coalesce around one candidate to run, he said. That, however, takes the decision away from voters.
There's also a bunch of unknowns. If Obama wins, is Strickland, one of the president's campaign national co-chairs, in line for a job in his administration, FitzGerald said. And Cordray probably won't have his job if Obama loses.
As for Ryan, FitzGerald said because of his seniority, already having been elected to the House at a young age, if he's able to stay in the House, could he be a candidate some day for Speaker?
FitzGerald said by January it should be known who's really a Democrat contender for governor.