A small group from the State of Ohio Blogger Alliance had an opportunity to meet with Eric Minamyer yesterday. Later that afternoon, Mark and I had a chat with John Rabenold. Both are pretty good candidates but for different reasons.Eric Minamyer's Strengths
He's a policy wonk, pure and simple. He has great command of the details of most issues and is pretty quick to fire off a statistic or three. He received high marks for vision and platform demonstrating a pretty clear agenda that he wants to accomplish if elected.
Minamyer has a solid resume with real political experience in elected office. As head of the Symmes Township Board of Trustees, Eric has directly made a significant contribution to his community. He also previously served on the local school board.
Eric Minamyer's Weaknesses
There are times when you can really tell that Mr. Minamyer has served in the United States Navy for 30+ years achieving high rank. A few times while answering questions from the committee, the atmosphere became a little adversarial (some "blame" for this can be placed on the nature of the inquisition). I would not characterize the session as being remotely hostile; maybe he had an "off day" because previous exposure to Minamyer has been very positive.
John Rabenold's Strengths
He's a smooth political operative. What Rabenold lacks in experience he has in polish. I found John to be very personable and likable. If electability becomes a factor in this race, John should do very well. [8/20 UPDATE:] The fundraising race appears in Rabenold's favor as well, at least at this point anyway.
John Rabenold's Weaknesses
Mr. Rabenold appears not to have given just a whole lot of thought in to what he'd like to accomplish if he won the election. While we appreciate that Team Rabenold is focused on the primary, the ultimate goal is to get a representative to the state legislature that has an agenda that rflects the will of the district.
This is Rabenold's first run for elected office. While he has sufficent experience with the Ohio Senate (he was an aide to a couple of key players), he has never had to face the electorate. Furthermore, Rabenold appeared to be more "in love" with the process rather than the actual results.
Recommendation
I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunity to engage both of these gentlemen again as this race heats up; but at the moment, I feel as if Eric Minamyer's ideas are more in line with what we need in the Ohio House of Representatives. However, should John Rabenold win the primary, the district will still be served very well. These are two very different candidates and either one of them would be acceptable at this point.
8/20 Update
NixGuy's post reminds me of an important issue that I failed to include in the discussion of Rabenold: Check'nGo. Rabenold has indicated that he would recuse himself from any legislation that would directly benefit the company for which he works. That position is fairly reassuring; but as we learn more and more about how the company is diversifying in to other issues, the list of legislative issues for which he would have to skip grows. I would have to include alternative energy, among others, on the list of subjects that I would expect Rabenold to consult with the ethics committee and the counsel's office on before voting.
