Since I did Seventh District

[ishte]

I know some of my friends actually live in the 8th, so... here's my take on these guys.. wow.. um.. and you guys only have three (3) candidates running?  One incumbent Republican and two democrats with no experience?

8th district is Mercer, Darke, Miami, Preble and Butler counties.

Edit: Please note, it was pointed out to me that part of Montgomery County is also 8th district. This is mostly north and east Dayton and Huber Heights. Also, having said that, only half of Mercer is represented by the 8th seat, and only three fourths of Butler.


Ok... guys, YOUR district also has not had a democrat elected since 1936 when T. Brooks Fletcher took the seat from Grant E. Mouser Jr.  He did hold the seat for 3 terms before loosing it back to to Frederick C. Smith.  Smith held the seat for 6 terms (12 years) and then it was taken over by Jackson E. Betts in 1950.  Betts held the seat for 11 consecutive terms (22 years) and then redistricting after the 1970 census caused the 8th district to be represented by Walter E Powell.  Powell only held the seat for that term, and then Thomas N. Kindness held it for 6 terms (12 years.)  He was followed by Buz Lukens, who had that sex scandal in 1988 and in 1990 John A. Boehner took over the 8th's seat.  Boehner has been there ever since, and is running to defent his seat again this year.  I think it's highly unlikely that either of these two can defeat an eighteen year incumbent Repbulican sitting in that chair and there are no republicans running against him. Sorry guys, I predict you're stuck with Boehner. But let's look at them anyway. 

8th District

Democrats
1. Nicholas Von Stein -  Worked for America Votes... is the Southwest Ohio Organizer.  Works in a restaurant, and is an Air Force Veteran. Really the only thing this guy has going for him is his B.A in Political Science.  It's pretty obvious to me that he's not USING his BA though, if he's running for US congress against an incumbent republican in a primarily republican district with NO PRIOR EXPERIENCE?  What's he thinking? why not run for city council first? Get some experience, spend a term in the Ohio House if he has money to waste on trying to get elected to public office.  Ok... the biggest loser move here though, is frankly, no website. I can't find his website. I know nothing of his platform and the election is in two months.

2. Mort Meier  - Ok.. this first guy was completely inexperienced. This guy is 76... and well he's been a nominee... Get this:  2006 nominee, 1990 Republican Congressional candidate for nomination.  Ok.. so he used to be a Republican... he wanted to be nominated once, but didn't get nominated... and was nominated in 2006 and didn't get elected.  Looks like he ran against Boehner and lost in 2006.  I think that's how I follow it. But actually Boehner had campaign funds exceeding $3,000,000, and Meier ran on less than $3000  Meier still managed to pull down 36% of the vote.  That says something.  It took some doing to find a link to his website... uh... and it's broken.. no website, nothing about his goals or views. 

Republicans
1. John Boehner - He's the incumbent.  That says a lot.  He will face one of the two guys above.  Well, let's look at his policies.  He supports lower taxes, but sorry, he doesn't mention the fair tax at all.   I'd have to email his office to find out his stand on it.  He also wants to work for what he terms "environmentally responsible energy exploration in America’s deep ocean outer-continental shelf and in ANWR."  And I will say that makes sense.  The thing is, the area of ANWR that they want to work in is so tiny compared tot he overall size and the whole "but it's an untouched nature areas" and all pristine and all that. um.. that crap is blown way out of proportion.  if the whole of ANWR were a 6X9 area rug... the amount of area actually effected by oil exploration and so on up there is about the size of a postage stamp.  And even the road in and out would be only semipermanent... made out of ice from the permafrost.  The caribou are not going to care.  Beyond that he also says he supports research into alternative sources of fuel, and recognises a need to look at the big picture in the long term.  Boehner also works for farming.  That's important. Farming is an important industry in the 8th district.  While in Congress, he helped write the 1996 Freedom to Farm Bill and has led the charge to eliminate "death taxes.”  That's important too.  You see ads that make it out like the death tax only effects the children of rich fat cats.. the fact of the matter is it doesn't hurt them any, but it does hurt John Boy inheriting the family farm, when he has to mortgage it just to pay the tax burden on it. It effects small businesses the same way, Johnny Jr. has to mortgage Johnny's Pizza House when he inherits it from his dad, and then Johnny's Pizza House goes under because the new expense of the mortgage raises the operating expenses too much for the business to pull a profit any more.  Anyway, lets move one to other issues. Boehner wants our immigration laws enforced, and opposes efforts to reward (with fast tracks to citizenship etc) immigrants who have entered our country illegally.  Supports the idea that immigrants should be learning to speak ENGLISH here.  Which is true.  Ok.. unfortunately he also thinks that the No Child Left Behind act is actually a good thing, instead of something that is actively destroying our once fine education system. Thankfully, he supports school choice, and expansion of the College Access & Opportunity Act... that's helpful.  He has this idea about health care that has to do with allowing small businesses to pool their small groups together into large groups to reduce costs. It's a good idea.  It won't work... but it's a good idea in theory.  As long as Big Pharm, Big Hospital and Big Insurance are in each other's pockets though, it'll never work.  He also foolishly supports the New Medicare drug plan that will cost everyone else ten times what it was supposed to, and only actually ever benefited about 4% of medicare recipients.  My dad would have had to pay MORE for his Medicare D than what he does for his regular coverage... that's most retired people too.  It looks like he thinks that he's a proponent of retired people, but he seems interested in passing more laws which are more of a burden than less.  He totally avoids any discussion of Women's health care rights.  Supports allowing individuals to privately invest some of their Social Security... IF they WANT to.  Anyway, here is his website.  I figure you can look for yourself too. http://www.fojb.com/Default.aspx

Honestly, I don't think either of those two guys stands a chance against Boehner.  And I also don't think that's a 100% bad thing... it's not a 100% good thing, but at least Boehner stands in the right place on a few of the issues and at least he has a clue what he's doing and how to do it.

Edit: at the end here, the first two lines of the last graph got repeated twice, and I don't know why, so I removed them becuase it looks stupid. I still don't think either of the two democrats stands a chance against Boehner whether anyone likes that fact or not.

Comments

NIck von Stein - Rebuttal to Remarks Made

[(Anonymous)]

First lets start with some corrections:

The Eighth District of Ohio contains (6) counties: Butler, Miami, Montgomery, Darke, Mercer, and Preble

And yeah, I know the history of the Eighth District. I go to Wikipedia too. But thanks for the history lesson.

I was an Organizer for America Votes (past tense), in 2006. And I haven't worked in a restaurant since early 2006. I worked as a server to help put myself through college, and that's something that I'm very proud of.

I'm currently working on my M.A. in Political Science at Miami University, and I also work as a Teacher's Assistant for the the Political Science Department.

I do have a website - www.votevonstein.com. Please feel free to visit. You can get a general sense of the issues that I support.

And I would urge you to take caution before you callously attack someone who is willing to stand up for what they believe in. Experience only takes people so far. John Boehner may have served 9 terms, but look at what has happened to the country during this time span. Income inequality in this country has not been greater since 1920, Heath Care costs are through the roof, and the war in Iraq is a mess. And that is a direct effect of the policies established by the Bush Administration with the cooperation of movement conservatives such as John Boehner.

I feel that it is every citizen duty to participate in our democracy. We need representatives that are looking out for what's best for our country as a whole, not what's best for the top 10%.

Re: NIck von Stein - Rebuttal to Remarks Made

[ishte.livejournal.com]

Well, so my lovely and well thought out remarks in reply to this did not go through because I was so verbose and stupidly using Internet Explorer which does NOT remember what I had in there if there is an error. Anyway.. so I'll have to try this again. and I'll have to use a couple of posts. Firstly:

I stand corrected on the counties included in the 8th.  I'm big enough to admit that I need new glasses and didn't see that little corner of Montgomery County though I should have seen Huber Heights on that part and realised that HH is in Mont.  Anyway, so since we're going to be particular about it I'll point out that while A small part of Montgomery county is include, a half of Mercer and a quarter of Butler are not.  Here it is plain:

HALF of Mercer County, Three Fourths of Butler County, all of Darke, Miami, and Preble Counties and about a sixth of Montgomery County.  Bear in mind that sixth does contain parts of Dayton east of the Miami, and south far enough on that side to include Riverside.. a tiny tab extends south of Linden and US 35 over there near some of my old neighborhoods.  I don't think it's far enough south to be called Belmont quite, but I'm not sure it's Riverside either.  But anyway.  The rest of Montgomery, including most of Greater Dayton belong to the 3rd seat.



Ok... first of all, don't accuse someone of callously attacking you just because I stated an opinion, which was addressed to my personal friends in the 8th district. I keep these posts public because not all my friends use LJ, and if I friend lock the post, they can't see it. My friends often ask my opinion on the candidates, and I provide them with my opinion. After which, they can ask me questions about why I feel a certain way.

Second... On initially searching for Mr. Von Stein's website the day I originally posted this. I was unable to find one. I gave each candidate equal opportunity on that search, by searching under their name, and "for Congress" NOW when I search, I turn up this website, so at the time of that posting, your website was not being returned in the search engine. That said, it's good that there is a website now... but if Mr. Von Stein is seriously running for US Congress, he needs to expand it to at least 5 pages. 1) intro page 2) personal information page 3) professional experience page. 4)detailed issues page and 5) campaign funding page A general synopsis of Mr. Von Stein's views is inadequate for the office to which he aspires.

Now that said, I'll move on to a separate post.

Re: NIck von Stein - Rebuttal to Remarks Made

[ishte.livejournal.com]

You may note that I mention Mr. Von Stein in the third person, because I have no way of corroborating that the anonymous poster is in fact Mr. Von Stein. I mean no disrespect.

I have the impression that the poster could have taken a little time learning about myself, before going on the defensive. If Mr. Von Stein worked his way through college, that's great. He SHOULD be proud. There is no need to be defensive about it by saying he has not worked in a restaurant since 2006.

See... the poster seems to have the impression that I am the top 10% or something. That's the feeling I get from his final statement, as if I am defending the top 10%. The problem is... that I'm at the bottom of the ladder looking up. I'm the working poor Mr. Von Stein purports to want to represent. I worked my way through college to obtain a worthless degree that will not earn me as much money as I am accustomed to making as a simple pizza hack. Now I have to figure out how, in my forties, I can manage to work my way through college again, and hope against hope that my degree isn't out of date before I graduate a second time.

I returned to Ohio in 2000 after a year way, and found our economy already beginning to alter dramatically. But I stayed firm, and worked hard, sometimes two or three jobs at a time. When I was descriminated against by my employer becuase of my religion, (i.e. not Xian but a person of high faith, clergy of a different religion.) and a boss who thought it was appropriate to bring that fact up, and then cut my hours when I protested it being made into an issue. Tthat was a difficult time until I could transfer to another store.

Despite that hardship, I managed to build my credit and get it strong, well into the 700s. I managed to buy my own house though, buying a lower cost house meant a smaller loan which in turn meant my interest rate would be a full point higher than that of a wealthier person buying in the six digits. At least I was smart enough to get a fixed rate. I managed to get a second car, so that I had a back up for when my work car was busy. I could afford to go and visit friends in other cities for weekends. I could afford to have houseguests come and visit me. I could afford to buy healthy food and no longer had to subsist on rice and noodles. I could go out to eat once in a while, and generally speaking considered myself to be a member of the middle class.

That's where I stood 5 years ago. I'll have to post another because I am verbose...

Re: NIck von Stein - Rebuttal to Remarks Made

[ishte.livejournal.com]

Now the cost of Gas has tripled. The cost of a dozen eggs is more than twice what it was. The company I worked for decided that they no longer wanted to keep their higher paid more exprienced long term drivers. So they systematically replaced them with cheaper minimum wage drivers. I (the highest paid driver in my store at the time) injured myself at work, and three days later was let go. You do the math. I could have gone to another company, but I decided I'd had enough of that kind of treatment and went to work in a doctor's office. The worst job experience ever, I was never paid what I was promised and ultimately only made about 2/3 what I had made as a pizza hack. I switched again, but went to courier work. That was pretty good until the fall of 2005 the bottom dropped out of our industry and pretty much all of us were sitting around with nothing to do, no cargo to haul, and then I was lucky to earn $200 a week, even if I was at the ready 16 or more hours per day. I could use $100 just in gasoline to earn that... then in January of 2006 a government vehicle caused and accident which destroyed my car, and laid me up for weeks with injuries which still trouble me, but which I can no longer seek treatment for. See... the government won't settle until medical treatment is over. So ultimately, what settlement I got did not cover broken glasses, lost wages... the accident cost me $40,000, and I got 11,000. $2000 of which I had to pay the lawyer to get it, and 5,000 of which went to the doctors, with whom I had to stop treatment in order to file my claim. My credit is ruined. I sold my only other vehicle to support myself while I couldn't work, and replaced it with a piece of junk. Now I'm forced to sell my house before I can't make the payments any more. Have one car parked on my driveway which can't be driven because it has a cracked head (sold to me that way with liquid glass in the engine by a dealer desperate to make a sale) and one that I paid $875 for which runs and looks like a car I paid $875 for.

Please note, I'm not complaining. This is life, and I can get out of this. But it irks me that the people across the street from me have their houseing paid for out of my taxes, their (obviously more than ample) food paid for out of my taxes, their medical care (remember, I have none) paid for out of my taxes, and somehow they don't need to or have to work--not the mother or the father of those two big healthy boys--though both are able bodied if obese... and somehow they can afford a nearly new Ford Expedition, while I'm driving little old Nissan Thom, who I paid $875 for (and just a reminder, he looks and runs like an $875 car, ok?) Yes. that irks me. It irked me too, when I was told by Support Enforcement in my county that I was 'not a priority' to get my child support case pursued. Why? you ask? Because *I* was not on welfare. Oh I'm sure I qualified, but I can't afford to take days off work to sit down there and watch a movie where a lady reads the document in front of me and explains how to get a job... or to sit for an hour or two waiting for an appointment that was supposed to be at 9 am along with twenty other people who are supposed to see the same person at 9 am... and anotehr hour watching that person type in the information on my application, or hear her ask me verbally to confirm what I have already written on the page for her. I don't have time for that. I have a job.

I think I have more to say here.

Re: NIck von Stein - Rebuttal to Remarks Made

[ishte.livejournal.com]

Oh that's right.. that whole defensive thing... See... for the moment, we still have freedom of speech. You are free not to listen, but you are not free to tell me not to speak because you are offended by my opinion. I think you are inexperienced. I think you should finish your masters and then run for public office at a more local office to gain experience. One does not normally run for US congress witn only experience at helping with campaigns and a raw unused PolSci degree. USE your degree for something helpful first. Help the people in your state at the state level, or the county level.

Don't become a politician. If you want to be a leader, be a leader. Become a Councilman, a Governor, a Legislator. Do not develop the idea that if someone disagrees wit you that they are attacking you. I think you need more experience. That's not an attack. Don't partake in a double standard adn tell me YOU stand up for what YOU believe in, but say I should think twice about stating what I believe in becuase it doesn't agree with you. I'm willing to stand up for what I believe in too.

I think Boehner is very wrong headed on some things, but he's right headed on some too. For the people he represents he is right on some things too. District 8 is largely conservative, largely republican. Are those people (whether we agree with them ourselves or not) honestly represented by a liberal? no they're not, and they have the right to expect that their VOICE in congress REPRESENT THEM and not a wholly different set of ideals.

What I want to see on your website is not a blurb of your issues... be clear... treat them fairly. PEople don't want to vote for someone because he's young and handsome and says he has some good ideas. WHere do you stand on the issues. Fair Tax? Border Security? Illegal Immigrants? Job Creation? Health Care? (and on HC, don't just tell me there's a problem. tell mem WHAT you're going to DO about it. Canada's plan is a mess. Tell me you've studied Japan's system and want to support that.) Well i talked about yoru website already, so I'll just leave it at that.

Just you remember, that I have the right to state my opinion about your viability as a candidate. That's not a personal attack, it's a personal opinion which I'm sharing with friends. I'm sorry if that puts you on the defensive, Mr. Von Stein, but welcome to politics. If a poor peon like me can upset you enough that you post anonymously to my LiveJournal to complain about it, I think you might want to give that some thought and toughen up your skin.