Never Heard Of Pat Tiberi? He's A Behind The Scenes Congressional Power Who's Retiring

John Kasich likes to paint himself as the most bipartisan politician in America. That's camouflage. He happily signed one of the most egregious gerrymandering bills in the country, cutting Ohio up, which voted for Obama both times he's ran and elected progressive Democrat Sherrod Brown both times he ran. Because Kasich did, 50/50 swing state Ohio now has 12 Republicans in Congress and 4 Democrats instead of 8 and 8. The state legislature is a joke. The districts are so ruthlessly gerrymandered that there are 24 Republicans in the state Senate and just 9 Democrats and the state House has 66 Republicans and just 33 Democrats.

As you have probably read by now, the quietly powerful congressman who succeeded Kasich when he retired from Congress, Pat Tiberi, is resigning to take a job as head of the Ohio Business Roundtable. Tiberi never makes the headlines but I see his name all the time when I check to see which members of Congress take the extra big bribes from various interest groups. He's always on every list. Take the Finance Sector-- he's a senior member of House Ways and Means so of course the banksters want him on their side. In fact, he was up for the chairmanship but was pushed aside by a more right-wing nut from Texas, Kevin Brady. Since first being elected in 2000, Tiberi has taken $6,734,095 from the sector, the 4th most of any current member of Congress. Last year alone he took in $1,132,932 from the banksters and so far this year-- $520,000, 6th most of anyone in the House.

A mainstream conservative and former Boehner ally, he'll be out of Congress by the end of January, triggering a special election to fill the rest of his 10 month term. In 2016, Tiberi raised $4,555,939 and spent $1,890,368 on his reelection campaign. (He has over $5 million on hand right now). His opponent in 2016, progressive Democrat Ed Albertson, who is running again this cycle, was ignored by the DCCC and only managed to raise $28,450. Right now Albertson has $9,209.27 in his campaign war chest.

OH-12 includes all of 3 central Ohio counties-- Delaware Licking County and Morrow-- and parts of Franklin, Muskingum, Marion and Richland counties. Most of the voters live in Franklin, Delaware and Licking (in that order). In 2015 the district had an R+8 PVI. It's slightly less red now-- R+7. Trump and Clinton both did worse than Romney and Obama in the district, but Trump won, 53.2% to 41.9%.

Tiberi wound up with 251,266 votes (66.6%) to Albertson's 112,638 (29.8%). That looks horrible for the Dems' prospects, right? And it is but I want to point something out. The 435 congressional districts have approximately 711,000 people. They're not exactly the same population-wise but they're not that different either. Last year Albertson did considerably better than many incumbents who were reelected. Blue Dog Jim Costa, a California Central Valley Democrat won reelection with just 72,111 and Republican David Valadao, also in the Central Valley, was reelected with even fewer votes, 68,481. Valadao's Democratic opponent, Emelio Huerta-- who, unlike Albertson, got some very substantial financial help from Pelosi's House Majority PAC ($1,751,651) only got 49,643. And, like Albertson, Huerta is running against this cycle.

Which leads to the question... can Albertson win in the age of Trump? Or will the DCCC recruit a more conservative GOP-lite candidate and muscle Albertson out of the race? In its first-blush report on Tiberi's resignation, the Columbus Dispatch didn't have much to offer on what would happen in the district next.

Sources close to Tiberi said a variety of factors played into his exit. His mother died earlier this year and his father is in ill health. House Speaker Paul Ryan last year bypassed Tiberi to select Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, as the chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, despite the fact that Tiberi had support from the majority of his colleagues on the Republican Steering Committee.

Another loss: the retirement of House Speaker John Boehner in 2015. The two were close political allies, with Tiberi benefiting politically from his close friendship with the West Chester Republican.

And a dysfunctional political environment in Washington made him “miserable” said a source close to Tiberi.

The veteran congressman, who represents Ohio’s 12th congressional district, had considered running for the U.S. Senate in 2018. He ended that speculation in May, announcing that he didn’t want a Senate campaign to take time away from working on tax reform from his position as a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee. Tiberi had more than $6.6 million in campaign funds at the beginning of the month.

Tiberi, 54, was elected to the House in 2000, replacing John Kasich, who had once hired him as an aide in Kasich’s congressional office in Columbus. Tiberi, who grew up in Columbus, also served four terms in the Ohio House in the 1990s.

He is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee’s subcommittee on health and is currently chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, a House-Senate committee that examines economic issues. And earlier this year, he became the chairman of the House “Main Street Caucus,” a group of moderate Republicans who billed themselves as the “governing” wing of the Republican Party.

Kasich isn't interested in running for the seat and Tiberi already had an extremist lunatic primarying him, Brandon Grisez, someone who Bannon probably would have gotten behind had Tiberi not decided to retire.