Ohio Democrats Select Chris Redfern as New Chair

Posted by on December 20, 2005 at 09:55 AM

The painful process that began with the resignation of former chair Denny White ended last night with the selection of Ohio House Minority leader Chris Redfern to lead Ohio Democrats into 2006.

House minority leader Chris Redfern easily won election Monday night as the state's Democratic Party chairman, defeating Dayton-area county chairman Dennis Lieberman.

Redfern will finish the term of Denny White, who had resigned Nov. 23 after four years, and will run for re-election in June to a two-year term.

The vote was delayed for more than an hour as a somewhat testy discussion developed in the party's executive committee over how the vote would proceed. But once the vote was counted, Redfern had 88 votes to Lieberman's 31.

Redfern sought to soothe the differences in his first speech as chairman, inviting Lieberman up on stage.

"We have one common objective and one common goal and now we begin," Redfern said. "The work begins tonight."

Chairman Redfern will step aside as Minority Leader in the Ohio House of Reprensentatives, but not resign from the body entirely. Many Ohio bloggers attended the event and wrote up eloquent descriptions, play-by-play, and process stories; one blogger even promises to have the audio on his website by the end of the day.

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