United States Senate Race 2010

So Senator George Voinovich is retiring at the end of his current term, after two terms serving in the Senate. While I haven't always agreed with how he's represented my state, one cannot argue the Senator has dedicated his life to working for the people of Ohio with integrity...something of a rarity in today's day and age, or even any age.

That said, now we need to pick a new United States Senator from Ohio to join Sherrod Brown. Neither party has a clear candidate yet...and I haven't heard about any third party candidates throwing their hats in the ring yet. Here's what we have on the platter so far.

Democrats:

Lee Fisher, currently the Lieutenant Governor.

Jennifer Brunner, currently the Secretary of State.

Republicans:

Rob Portman, not currently holding a government position but well experienced at the federal level

Tom Ganley, President and CEO of the Ganley Automotive Group and has never held public office.

I'm not personally seeing any clear leaders...Rob Portman has more experience, but it was all with the Bush Adminstration...and that may very well hurt him if the party is trying to distance itself from those philosophies. Brunner has a higher profile than Fisher, but I'm not sure if that's a help or a hindrance just yet. The primary races should be quite interesting :-)

Rest assured, I'll be watching for developments and doing some looking around!

Congressional Race 2010

So currently, Pat Tiberi represents the 12th Congressional District here in Ohio. It's a wide ranging district, from the Northwest of Delaware all the way down to the East of Reynoldsburg. Rep. Tiberi is in his 5th term serving the district, which means he's been in office for nine years or so now.

According to his reelection website, Tiberi hopes to use his new position on the Ways and Means to promote his agenda on retirement security, making healthcare affordable, and tax reform. Before, Tiberi was on the Financial Services panel, and played a role in drafting legislation that made it easier for people to purchase homes.

Paula Brooks, Franklin County commissioner, has decided to challenge the incumbent. She's been a Franklin County commissioner since 2005, and before that served on the Upper Arlington city council for 8 years before being term-limited out.

According to Brooks' website, her strengths are a long history in the state (biographies I've read emphasize the fact her family is 10 generations American or so), fiscal responsibility (helped Franklin County maintain a AAA bond rating), expanding access to healthcare and good jobs, and promoting green policies.

Over the next year, I'll be keeping an eye out on these two and how their race is going. Digging into records, keeping up with news, all that fun stuff. So keep an eye out!