Then-Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and Hillary Clinton share a moment during the 2008 presidential campaign. Strickland, who lost his re-election bid in 2010, is now the party-endorsed insider running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in 2016.(Associated Press file photo)

The obvious goal of the Ohio Democratic Party's April 11 endorsement of ex-Gov. Ted Strickland to be its 2016 U.S. Senate nominee was to nudge another Democrat out of the race and give Strickland a clear shot against GOP Sen. Rob Portman of suburban Cincinnati.

But besides likely backfiring, the maneuver shows the extent to which narrow-minded self interest still guides Ohio Democratic Party insiders despite the party's poor electoral showing in recent statewide races.

What's more, Cincinnati City Council member P.G. Sittenfeld, 30, remains in the race for the Democratic Senate nomination. The timing of Democrats' early endorsement – 19 months before the November 2016 election – appeared more like a rush to judgment than a reasoned debate.

There's also such a thing as too much deference to party insiders. Given that former President Bill Clinton as well the (national) Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (that is, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's caucus) back the 73-year-old Strickland, Ohio Democrats -- by falling in step -- effectively turned their backs on the future in shunning a promising newcomer.

True, the 149-member Ohio Democratic Party State Executive Committee voted 82-20 to endorse Strickland. True also, any committee member could have nominated Sittenfeld -- and had he drawn at least 60 percent of the votes cast, he, too, could have been endorsed. That is, a joint endorsement was feasible. Party stalwarts point out, as a measure of Strickland's popularity, that no one at the meeting, though free to do so, moved to endorse Sittenfeld (who, himself a committee member, didn't attend).

As for Sittenfeld's absence, rare is the man or woman in any calling who wishes to attend his or her scripted execution.

Of course, rank-and-file Democrats will ultimately decide the Senate nomination next spring. The Senate seat itself is in the gift of all Ohio voters, regardless of party. But the last time Ted Strickland appeared on their ballots, in 2010, when he was running for re-election as governor, Ohioans instead opted for Republican John Kasich. And that seems to be the part that Democratic insiders, in Columbus and Washington, forget.