Last night, the Brown County Central Committee had a meeting. I was 10 minutes late, due to some prior commitments. However, I was delighted to see several luminaries and unfamiliar faces in the crowd. The meeting was held at Lake Manor Restaurant in Mt. Orab Ohio, with over 40 people attending. There were several candidates for office there, which I will get to in a moment. First, the news:Committee and County Election News
one current county officeholder let it be known that he/she would not be seeking reelection, and offered to help whomever might seek the nomination for his/her office. I am not revealing the person or office per their wishes that it not be made totally public yet. This person even said he/she would allow multiple candidates for the nomination to work with them at the Brown County fair on his/her scheduled day to work the GOP booth.
Our vicechair will be leaving the central committee very soon, due to a move, and will not be running in his new precinct, as it is already filled by our CC treasurer.
Our current chair, Paul Hall encouraged us to seek out a retiring member of the county government and get her to run for Central Committee as she would be and has been a great asset to the party.
Now, back to the luminaries.
General Assembly Report
State Rep. of my 88th district, and a great American, Danny Bubp, was in attendance. He offered us greeting from state Senator and another great American, Tom Niehaus, who was tied up in meetings. Mr. Bubp, the rep with a landing strip for a haircut (just kidding!) offered us a picture of what is going on in Columbus. He talked about how Strickland is popular right now, but he contrasted that with Bob Taft's popularity ratings at this same point in Taft's admin. Taft's ratings were higher. He discussed how important this next election cycle would be, not just for Ohio, with control of the General Assembly at stake, but also for our nation's security. He encouraged all Republicans to work together for whomever is the nominee for President to get them elected, as we don't want to see Hillary and Nancy at the helm of our nation. Just so you know, Mr. Bubp is not a RINO, as some might say he would be because of this cooperation stance. In fact, he ran on a platform of "God, Guns, and Good government." He has conservative credentials, and he is a fine man. He is talking sense here. If we Republicans don't come together, then we can pretty much write in Hillary as our next President. And God knows we don't want that to happen.
Primary Office Seekers
Next were some candidates for county office: Mariah Votel, who is running for recorder and has a website in the making votevotel.com, Jessica Little, who is running for County Prosecutor, as well as Connie Patrick, who is seeking to succeed Gail DeClaire as our county treasurer. Also in attendance was Randy Fulton of the Ripley area, who is considering a run for County Commissioner.
2nd District Congressional Candidates
Next came the big prize: 2nd district Congress. Before we heard from candidate Phil "The Manuever" Heimlich, sitting Congresswoman Jean Schmidt joined us at the table with her husband, Mr. Schmidt. Mr. Heimlich began his speech to us by saying he did not have a big speech prepared. He discussed why he did not run last time, in that two years ago he has a young child and another on the way. This however, leads me to question why he is running now, if that is the only reason. His family is still young. Doesn't he want to see the baby grow up, without working in DC five days a week? Anyway, he discussed how he has a relationship with Brown County elder statesman Bill Herdmann, a mentor of mine. This won him points. He then dropped some other names, as well as continually evoking Rob Portman as some archetype for what a rep should be.
Mr. Heimlich declared he had "a passion to run nationally." he said he believed in the Biblical principle of stewardship. He discussed this in religious terms in the Bible and applied it to government. He slammed Republicans and Democrats alike for not being good stewards. He took a few swipes at Jean without mentioning her specifically. He referred to Jesus over and over again. I know Matt would have had a conniption fit. He closed his speech with discussing his three qualities of a good rep: independence, vision, and integrity.
Congresswoman Schmidt then took the scene, and she appeared lively and dynamic. Mr. Heimlich was such as well, but sometimes his hand gestures stole the show over the substance of his speech. Jean worked the room well, and began by apologizing for not being here more, citing that "Miss Nancy (Pelosi) keeps us in DC 5 days a week." She discussed how proud she was that her husband took care of her constituents in Brown County by coming out and talking to people and getting that back to her.
The big sound byte that all Brown County needs to hear came next. She admitted to mistakes in her campaign vs. Tom Niehaus for State Senate. She admitted that there were things she would like to do differently and missteps. She was very candid in owning up to her mistakes. She then discussed how honored she felt to serve such a diverse district as the 2nd, and discussed how she loved to meet all the different people out there that she served. She then focused on a few issues that got my attention.
First, she discussed some recent budget appropriations she had gotten, one for an extension of water line in Perry Township, and the other some funds for the preservation of Historic Ripley's Signal House, Rankin House, and Parker House, all key stops on the Underground Railroad. She discussed the duty of maintaining our heritage and how it was a way also for tourism and economic growth.
Next, she turned to national issues. She began with discusssing why she voted against the farm bill and SCHIP. he discussed that the farm bill had too many earmarks from the one her committee had moved on, and that the Dems threw out an amendment that said they would not raise taxes to fund. She also discussed the underhanded way they are paying for this by creating trade issues with other countries that may destroy reciprocity agreements with Europe and ruin our trade. Nice job Dems!
Next, she discussed about SCHIp and how she saw it as the Dems pitting people against each other. She talked about how people who make $80000 a year are considered working poor under SCHIP, as well as the 25 year olds considered to be children under health care coverage. The key thing was in how it is being paid for. They have eliminated medicare advantage for seniors. Schmidt serves 16000 people who have medicare advantage in the district. She discussed this bill and the other ways that the dems have expanded programs, and how that spending is far worse than what the GOP did when in power. She said SCHIP will create, basically conflict between young and poor, and may lead to some ethics issues in how seniors are treated.
Finally, she discussed foreign policy, and how Iraq is getting better militarily. She discussed how Petraeus is on the right track. She also discussed meeting with Fayez in Gaza and how he was a liar. How he lied to us about giving Hamas money, and how she was putting pressure on the State department in dealing with these terror supporters.
In a lighter note, she discussed how there are protestors at her office trying to make her join the surrender caucus. She said she might bake cookies for them. That despite their meanness, she would not bend. I admired that.
Finally, as she handed in her request for endorsement, she promised t work hard, and to ask for God's guidance in making decisions, and asked for our prayers and our vote for Congress.
Other News and Business
We discussed our endorsement policy, as well as the fact that requests for endorsements had to be in by Dec 4, and that we would meet to decide on endorsements Dec 27.
We also discussed policy regarding letting people put signs on our fair float. This discussion took way too long. It had to do with the thought of not letting primary challengers to incumbents put signs on the float/truck. I said this was wrong and more like the Dems. We agreed that as long as you are a Republican and running for county parisan office or above, then you can put signs on the float/truck. However, we said the best way to show support/seriousness was to get a group of people walking around the float with shirts and signs. Chairman Hall hearkened back to 04 when Republicans in Brown County darn near filled the fair parade center ring with supporters.
Our Republican County Election Board members have worked hard and gotten some things accomplished. Starting Oct. 1, the Board of election office will be opening at noon instead of the old restrictive hours. Also, there will be quicker access to election results at each precinct. Well done.
The other issues had to do with fair building. So, we moved to make improvements to our fair building. We also had our senior elected official Gary Himes see about apportioning which day our elected officials would work the building at the Brown County fair.
Finally, Michelle Jowers and I have been tapped to modernize our website for the CC. I am hoping to announce the relaunch soon, and to make the site something for all of Brown County's Republicans to be proud of. Stay tuned.
The meeting was adjourned.
