ATHENS, Ohio — Damon Krane is making a third try for Athens city office: Last week, Krane announced his intention to run against incumbent Athens Mayor Steve Patterson, a Democrat, in the November election should his petition to appear on the ballot be accepted.
Krane, a democratic socialist, was handily defeated in both his 2019 bid for mayor and his 2021 bid for an at-large city council seat. In 2019, Krane lost his bid for the mayor’s office with 22.52% of the vote to Patterson’s 77.48%.
Krane said he is unsure whether to expect a substantially different outcome this time around.
“I have usually thought that my best chance of winning and the best chance of people like me winning is if there was a shift, and if we saw higher turnout, particularly from younger folks,” Krane said, adding that Patterson has a “huge advantage” by running as a Democrat.
Patterson did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. (The Independent plans to cover Patterson’s reelection campaign separately.)
“Even if voter turnout changed dramatically, it would still be quite a feat for me to overcome that simple brand recognition,” Krane said. “I would always be happy to run, and I have a long list of things I’d want to do if I was mayor, but there’s always more to win in an election than just the office being sought, so I always try to have a positive impact whether I win or lose.”
In 2019, Krane emphasized rights for tenants and put forward numerous related policy proposals. Some were later taken up by United Athens County Tenants, an advocacy group Krane co-founded.
Athens City Council has adopted multiple of the group’s proposals, including a ‘pay to stay’ ordinance and a ban on ‘source of income discrimination,’ both meant to protect low-income tenants.
Krane, who also co-founded Athens County Copwatch and has participated in other local activist groups, said he hopes to continue advancing tenants rights and other issues through his election campaign. However, last week’s campaign announcement focused almost exclusively on increasing voter turnout among the left-leaning portion of the population.
Krane described the Athens County Democratic Party as failing on this front. Specifically, he alleges the local Democratic Party has not worked seriously to improve voter turnout and has suppressed competitive elections, which he says discourages consistent voting.
Krane cited numerous examples of the alleged pattern in his announcement, including Democratic candidates declining to participate in a 2021 debate on Ohio University’s campus, Patterson meeting with the county Republican party to encourage Republican voting in the same election cycle and what Krane described as inadequate student engagement, among other issues.
In an interview, Krane said he believes the pattern amounts to “local Democratic leaders really doing everything they can to suppress voter turnout among an overwhelmingly Democratic popular leaning population” so local party leaders can “maintain the stranglehold on local political power.”
He said this helps the party apparatus locally but benefits the Republican Party at higher levels. In contrast, Krane says he is emphasizing the issue because he shares an interest with Democrats in defeating Republicans.
Athens County voter turnout declined slightly between the last gubernatorial election in 2022 and the prior election in 2018; the county also saw slightly lower voting rates than the state as a whole.
Sean Parsons, chair of the Athens County Democratic Party, said the party supports competitive elections and “has for many years been working to support and encourage youth voting.”
Parsons cited the party’s partnership with the Ohio University College Democrats on events, voter registration drives, phone banking and other activities, as well as voter registration drives at Hocking College and internships that support student participation in party governance.
“Our efforts haven’t stopped there,” Parsons added. “Athens County Democrats were strong voices in opposing the closing or moving of polling locations further from the student populations. We moved our headquarters to a location closer to campus to make it more accessible to students to organize and meet. And during all of this, we continue to fight back against the continual youth and other voter suppression efforts.”
Parsons cited data which shows Ohio University student turnout increased by nearly 10 percentage points between the 2016 and 2020 presidential election cycles, reaching 70.6% in 2020.
Parsons also disagreed with Krane’s characterization of the party’s approach to competitive elections.
“We worked hard to find and encourage individuals to run for Athens City Council this year and have a number of exciting new candidates, many of whom worked independently of the party to file their candidacies,” Parsons said.
The lack of primary challenges in Athens city races this year is unusual, he said, adding that the party does not “put our thumb on the scale.”
However, former party chair John Haseley told The New Political in 2020 that he discouraged a primary challenge to Athens County Treasurer Ric Wasserman, an issue Krane pointed to in his campaign announcement.
Parsons took over as party chair in 2022.
Krane said he hopes to challenge the Democratic Party to do better on turnout and competitive elections during his campaign, while increasing turnout himself by contesting the mayoral race.
He also hopes to advance other issues through the campaign, he said, such as what he called the “current city administration’s arbitrary refusal to adhere to city code whenever it wants.”
He specifically noted two incidents: a case in which the city did not pursue action against a landlord who apparently violated its ban on source of income discrimination, and the city’s failure to act against Artifacts Gallery owner Amy Mangano’s transphobic signage despite complaints from residents.
Krane said he has yet to submit his nominating petition to the Athens County Board of Elections but is confident he will garner enough signatures to appear on the ballot.
The deadline for independent candidates to submit nominating petitions for races in which a primary election may be held is May 1, which is Monday.
The 2023 general election will take place Nov. 7.
