In contrast, the mood at the party's 65th annual McKinley Banquet
Thursday night was more giddy.
"It's night and day," said State Sen. Jon
Husted, R-Kettering, who is running for Ohio secretary of state. "Last year,
people were dejected. ... the conversation was how long is it going to be before
we win elections. Now people are energized because they believe the time is
now."
A couple hundred area Republicans packed into the Meyers Lake
Ballroom, occupying all but one table, to hear speeches by all Republicans
running for statewide office, except Republican candidate for governor John
Kasich, who did not attend.
"The dynamics have changed, thanks to the Massachusetts (Senate election)," said Ralph Regula, former Republican 16th District congressman.
"As you've seen in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts, the tide is
changing in America," Matthews told the attendees. "The Democrats have had their
chance at the national, state and county level. Let's face it. They haven't done
well. They found out governing is much harder than campaigning."
Former
U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, who is running for Ohio attorney general on a platform of
overhauling the state's crime lab, said people are worried about the policies of
the federal and Ohio governments.
"People are very scared of what's going
on in this country. Huge deficits, unemployment going up, national security," he
said.
Unwilling to allow Democrats to tactically outmaneuver his
organization during the upcoming campaigns, Matthews said he accepted some
Republicans' criticisms that he had failed to come up with a timeline for a
campaign strategy and had been too reluctant to accept people's help. Matthews
pledged that would change, to boost the chances of Republicans winning this
November.
"Who knows what happens in nine months?" said Rob Portman, the
Republican candidate for U.S. senator. "It's a long time in politics, but right
now, there's a lot of enthusiasm on our side."