OHD-55: Replacing Coley in the Ohio House

I had planned to write about this yesterday when the list came out in the Journal / DDN, but Blogger wanted to play games instead, so...y'all can stop speculating why I haven't said a word about this race yet!

Let's start with the list of potential fodder:

• Margy Conditt of Liberty Twp.
• Mark Haverkos of West Chester Twp.
• Bruce Jones of West Chester Twp.
• Candice Keller of Middletown
• Liberty Twp. Trustee Christine Matacic
• Doug Mink of West Chester Twp.
• George Nafziger of West Chester Twp.
• West Chester Twp. Trustee Lee Wong
• Burt Young of West Chester Twp.

That's right...nine people have thrown their names in to the hat.

Best Bets: Conditt and Matacic-- Experienced local politicians ready to move to the next level

Also Acceptable: Keller -- As far as I know, she's never held elected office outside of the party establishment.  She's ambitious and smart though.

Not Acceptable: Lee Wong is trouble waiting to happen.  I've heard enough stories that make me want to caution people against elevating him any higher than he already is...  No, I won't go in to them here...

Also Rans: Haverkos is always a candidate...and I've never heard of the rest of these guys.

Again, the Butler County GOP, and actually only those members in the 55th District, will make a recommendation to the Republican House conference and they make the final call. It is even possible that Columbus will pick somebody not even on this list, but that isn't likely.