Latest / Brian Thomas / Hamilton County Republican GOP Party Chairman Josh Gerth

Transcript

Hamilton County Republican GOP Party Chairman Josh Gerth · Brian Thomas

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: 845, pick it up here, CD Talk Station. Of course,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: reeling from yesterday's election. I know there's some folks out
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: there that are experiencing schadenfreude, and they're entitled to do
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: that because we on the conservative side of the ledger
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: have done that in the past. But deal with the
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  Speaker 1: outcome we must. And Hamilton County obviously was very, very
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  Speaker 1: blue this time, and you cannot lay the blame with
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  Speaker 1: the chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party, Josh Gerth,
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  Speaker 1: who's joined the program now. uh, Josh, I want to
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  Speaker 1: applaud you for you bent over backwards. You were engaged.
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  Speaker 1: You were enthused. I know you did everything humanly possible
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  Speaker 1: to counter this extraordinarily blue County. We find ourselves in
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  Speaker 1: welcome to the program. Can I get you just out
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  Speaker 1: of the gate, your reaction and where we go from here,
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  Speaker 1: Josh Gerth.
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  Speaker 2: Well, thanks Brian, for having me on. I got to
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  Speaker 2: tell you, obviously it was a tough night for us,
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  Speaker 2: but I get requests from other media to talk about it,
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  Speaker 2: but I definitely want and will gladly accept being on
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  Speaker 2: your show anytime, even after a devastating loss, but just
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: because of your fairness, your insight, your ability to let
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  Speaker 2: people have discussion, just like you talked about with the
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  Speaker 2: judge previously. It's great. I respect the hell out of
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  Speaker 2: you for it, and I appreciate you having me on.
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  Speaker 1: Well, thanks, man. Again, I'm so self-deprecating, it's difficult for
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  Speaker 1: me to take a compliment, but I appreciate your willingness
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  Speaker 1: to at least talk about it. You know, thinking about
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  Speaker 1: Amy Acton, her strategy of hiding in the basement actually
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  Speaker 1: paid off. And I just don't understand, given her demonstrably
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  Speaker 1: poor record, she couldn't hold a job more than 15 minutes.
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  Speaker 1: That's an overstatement. Obviously, no one is happy with her
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  Speaker 1: role as medical director and what she did to the
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  Speaker 1: state of Ohio. But lo and behold, look at that outcome.
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  Speaker 1: Just amazing to behold. But more fundamentally for me here
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  Speaker 1: in Hamilton County. We needed better judges, Josh Gerth. We
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  Speaker 1: had some amazing judges who were on the bench already,
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  Speaker 1: have been voted out, and now we have the Carrie
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  Speaker 1: Bloom continues with her antics in the juvenile court. I
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  Speaker 1: just thought public safety was in everybody's best interest, and
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  Speaker 1: a critical component of that is following through with punishment
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: in the court system. We don't have that, though, do we?
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  Speaker 2: No, we don't. Unfortunately, it looks like it might continue.
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  Speaker 2: But here's the good news. So the Republican Party in
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  Speaker 2: Hamilton County has a new mantra going forward. We're going
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  Speaker 2: to get candidates who run on less safety and higher taxes.
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  Speaker 2: And I think we're going to do all right.
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  Speaker 1: Reverse psychology. Why not? Yeah. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: We'll start passing out blue tickets. And, you know, I
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  Speaker 2: see a bright future for us if we take that strategy. Look, Brian,
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  Speaker 2: I I mean, I joke because I kind of have
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  Speaker 2: to at this point because there's really no explanation other
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  Speaker 2: than what everybody has said this morning and even last night.
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  Speaker 2: It's a referendum on the party, and you can blame
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  Speaker 2: whoever you want. Some will blame the president. Some will
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  Speaker 2: blame local, but whatever. We have to listen to the
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  Speaker 2: voters and the voters wiped us out in a lot
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  Speaker 2: of Republican states across the country. And so why we
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  Speaker 2: would be surprised that in a Democrat county like Hamilton,
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  Speaker 2: we wouldn't suffer. I mean, of course, that was going
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  Speaker 2: to likely happen. And we fought a great fight. You know,
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  Speaker 2: I got thrown into this about five months ago. We
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  Speaker 2: had candidates who. Also, we're working their you-know-what's off. We
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  Speaker 2: did everything we could. We could have spent a billion
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  Speaker 2: dollars in Hamilton County trying to get those judges elected,
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  Speaker 2: and it wouldn't have mattered last night.
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  Speaker 1: Well, since Dusty Rhodes is retired, he's one Democrat. I
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  Speaker 1: think maybe the Republican Party might be able to get behind,
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  Speaker 1: but how are you, as your role, assuming you stay
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  Speaker 1: with it, and I hope you do, as chairman of
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  Speaker 1: the Hamilton County Republican Party.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not going anywhere.
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  Speaker 1: You're not good. I'm glad to hear that. Amen to that.
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  Speaker 1: My listeners, thank you, and I'll just talk on their behalf.
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  Speaker 1: How do you get candidates to run. You had great
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  Speaker 1: candidates in Hamilton County versus what was being offered by
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  Speaker 1: the Democrats. It obviously went all Democrats. You know, that's
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  Speaker 1: not exactly a recipe for getting people to line up
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  Speaker 1: to run for office in Hamilton County because running for
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  Speaker 1: office is a time-consuming, difficult job.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it sure is. I mean, I take it from
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  Speaker 2: someone who did it for a dozen years and And
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  Speaker 2: and I think that and the reason why I even
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  Speaker 2: signed up to do the Hamilton County Republican chairman job
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  Speaker 2: is because I still think it matters. And I still
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  Speaker 2: think that there's a lot of people, whether you're Republican,
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  Speaker 2: independent or a blue dog Democrat, people still care about
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  Speaker 2: local kitchen table issues. And I believe that that's still
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  Speaker 2: the case here in this county. And what happened last
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  Speaker 2: night was was kind of crazy. But I still believe
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  Speaker 2: that public safety. I believe that low taxes, I believe
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  Speaker 2: that common sense government, I believe all those things still
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  Speaker 2: matter to a lot of people. And so, yeah, going forward,
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  Speaker 2: we have to, I think, have to find candidates that
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  Speaker 2: believe in that message, but also believe in a way
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  Speaker 2: that we deliver it so that we try and get
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  Speaker 2: as many of those independent voters as possible. I would
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  Speaker 2: have told you yesterday, I mean, I drove all around
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  Speaker 2: the county yesterday. And I was in places like Crosby Township,
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  Speaker 2: way on the west side, which, by the way, on
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  Speaker 2: the west side, I had a great time over there.
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  Speaker 2: Some phenomenal people over there.
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  Speaker 1: Of course you did.
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  Speaker 2: But the turnout and what I was hearing, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: was great. I mean, I was so excited about people
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  Speaker 2: who were getting our material for the first time in
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  Speaker 2: the mail and bringing it to the polls. And so
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  Speaker 2: I was encouraged. I still think that plays. I still
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  Speaker 2: think there's hope. I still think that we can field
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  Speaker 2: great candidates. Next year, we're going to have a lot
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  Speaker 2: of local races for cities, townships, villages. muni court i
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  Speaker 2: mean all all those things still matter and i still
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  Speaker 2: think there's people sitting out there thinking okay i i
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  Speaker 2: want to be part of this and whether you're a
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  Speaker 2: candidate or behind the scenes or just helping deliver a
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  Speaker 2: message of common sense i i'm still believing it which
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  Speaker 2: is why i'm not throwing in the towel i got
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  Speaker 2: up this morning it's time to keep going send a
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  Speaker 2: message to all the judges saying the same thing we're
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  Speaker 2: not giving up in hamilton county.
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  Speaker 1: I'm glad to hear that, Josh Gerth, and of all
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  Speaker 1: people out there, I know that you're a principled guy,
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  Speaker 1: and it doesn't shock me a bit that you're not
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  Speaker 1: going to throw in the towel, and I'll just recommend
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  Speaker 1: before you pull the flag out and pack up and
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  Speaker 1: leave Hamilton County, it's not over. Maybe I'm just an idiot.
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  Speaker 1: You're doing the same thing over and over again. The
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  Speaker 1: definition is stupidity, expecting a different result. Well, I would
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  Speaker 1: think that some point, and I've said this before, the
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  Speaker 1: voters will wake up and realize that Hamilton County will
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  Speaker 1: have been in Democrat control now for maybe more north
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  Speaker 1: of a decade, perhaps more, that the city of Cincinnati
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  Speaker 1: has been under Democrat control for 40-plus years. You've got
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  Speaker 1: to go back to, like, Ken Blackwell on a Charterite
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  Speaker 1: side or Gene Ruhlman on the Republican side to find
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  Speaker 1: a Republican in charge of downtown. Things have not gotten better.
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  Speaker 1: Things continue to deteriorate and get worse. The number of
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  Speaker 1: lane miles that need to be repaired keeps growing. All
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  Speaker 1: these nongovernmental organizations that are used to send out and
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  Speaker 1: politic around the city, they've created this, well, I would argue,
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  Speaker 1: is a nightmare situation. At some point, I'd like to
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  Speaker 1: think people would wake up and be like, wait a second.
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  Speaker 1: Who's been running the show here for? Wait, it's the Democrats.
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  Speaker 1: Why would I do this to myself again?
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  Speaker 2: Right now, I hear you. And we do have to
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  Speaker 2: do some different things. And we did a lot of
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  Speaker 2: different things that we'd never done in the past five months.
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  Speaker 2: But it's not all gloom and doom. You know, we
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  Speaker 2: did win a couple of races. And one I want
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  Speaker 2: to point out in particular was Zach Haynes. And Zach
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  Speaker 2: Haynes obviously was not only Hamilton County, but Warren County districts.
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  Speaker 2: One of the things we're going to do, Brian, is
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  Speaker 2: we're going to partner with the Southwest Ohio counties around us.
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  Speaker 2: So Butler, Clinton, Claremont, Warren. We're going to collaborate with
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  Speaker 2: them because I have talked to all those chairmen. I've
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  Speaker 2: talked to a lot of the candidates. A lot of
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  Speaker 2: candidates in those places still won, by the way. The
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  Speaker 2: stuff that's happening in Hamilton is spreading, and it will
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  Speaker 2: continue to spread. And so we're going to work with these–
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  Speaker 2: more red counties to help come up with a game
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  Speaker 2: plan to push back on some of the madness that's
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  Speaker 2: happening in Hamilton County. It's going to take time. We
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  Speaker 2: knew it when I was elected. I said it's going
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  Speaker 2: to take some time, but it's not over. These midterm
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  Speaker 2: cycles and what happened yesterday have happened before. We just
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  Speaker 2: got to put a game plan together and be ready
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  Speaker 2: to come back.
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  Speaker 1: I like the idea of cooperating with the outlying counties.
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  Speaker 1: That sort of shared services concept, you know, working together
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  Speaker 1: for the collective good of all. Hamilton County Republican Party
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  Speaker 1: Chair Josh Gerth. Am I going to see you today
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  Speaker 1: at Anderson Pub and Grow for listener lunch?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely. I mean, I'm going on a proof-of-life tour today,
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  Speaker 2: so I will definitely be there. That's great.
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  Speaker 1: Well, everybody, you're invited to join the fun. You get
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  Speaker 1: to meet and shake hands with Josh and encourage him
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  Speaker 1: to continue the