Chris Redfern easily won re-election as chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, crushing Lorain County attorney Anthony Giardini by a large majority vote of the state’s 66-member central committee.
The newly elected central committee cast 51 votes in favor of Redfern and 10 for Giardini, during a meeting in a packed room at party headquarters in Columbus.
Redfern retains the position he’s held since December of 2005, surviving an attempt by organized labor and people close to Attorney General Richard Cordray to push him out.
A driving force behind Giardini’s campaign was long-time political adviser and fundraiser for Cordray, Melissa Barnhart.
The UAW in Ohio was the latest statewide labor organization to support Giardini’s campaign, circulating a letter to the central committee Monday on his behalf.
The Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council, the Ohio State Association of Plumbers, Pipefitters and Sprinkler-Fitters, and the Laborers’ District Council of Ohio were among the other statewide organized labor groups to publicly call for Redfern’s ouster.
But U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, who’s on the ballot this fall, endorsed Redfern’s reelection, as did Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, former Gov. Ted Strickland, and Ohio House Minority Leader Armond Budish of Beachwood.
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