Oxford man shares memories of run against Boehner

A new book by local author Tom Poetter gives an inside look at an election campaign by a neophyte candidate who learns on the fly how to court votes — and dollars — in order to be seen as a viable option.

“Losing to Boehner, Winning America: A Campaign Memoir” recounts Poetter’s 2014 campaign in the 8th Congressional District against then-Speaker of the House John Boehner.

The book recounts Poetter’s decision to run in 2013 after the long-term Republican had won re-election in 2012 with no opposition. He tells the story of his early struggles to put together a band of volunteers and donors and the eventual necessity of hiring a campaign manager. The book is easily readable in short chapters, which he said he tried to keep to about a thousand words each.

He admits he struggled to edit some of the chapters down to that length but it was important to keep the journal-like flow to the story. Most chapters are built around events on specific dates but a few cover longer periods of time.

“This is the best writing I’ve done,” he said of weaving his personal and campaign lives into the story. “How many times in your life will you have so many people pecking away at you?”

Poetter was selected as one of the authors to participate in the 10th annual “Books By The Banks” Cincinnati Regional Book Festival at the Duke Energy Center, Saturday Oct. 15, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free and there will be panels hosted by authors and book signing.

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With one son already in college, part of his personal story centers on his younger son’s final year of high school and playing high school hockey and baseball. Poetter’s adamant refusal to pass up those games and family time rankles his campaign manager who wants him to spend more hours on “call time” phoning potential donors to raise money. He talks many times in the book about hating “call time.”

“Asking friends for money was brutal,” he said.

Poetter mingles personal-life experiences woven into the story of his campaign and his job as a professor of curriculum studies in Miami University’s Department of Educational Leadership.

“I really ran in ’13 because of the (federal government) shutdown. The results have been really horrible,” Poetter said. “In ’12, Boehner ran with no one opposing him. That is a bad thing with the seats in the state.”

He discovered a lack of support from donors—including relatives and friends—and even the Democratic Party because the race was seen as unwinnable. In the end, he and his team managed to raise close to $200,000 which paid the bills but did not leave much for television advertising, which is essential for a race in a district as vast as this one.

Looking back on his campaign, Poetter said he went to county fairs, community events and meet the candidate nights all over the sprawling 8th District to meet with residents, even while knowing he stood no chance of getting more than a handful of votes from many heavily Republican areas. He just thought it needed to be done to provide a contrast to his opponent.

“I wanted to do all the stuff Boehner doesn’t want to do,” he said.

The book’s title comes from a remark from the audience when Poetter spoke at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. in the spring of 2015.

“I started by saying, ‘I’m the guy who lost to Boehner,’ and somebody in the audience said, ‘Everybody’s losing to Boehner.’ The winning part is running. Running is a form of winning,” Poetter said. “He spent $17 million to beat me. That’s the second most (spent) in any Congressional campaign, ever.”

Then, pointing to Boehner’s resignation a year ago, Poetter added, “If you spend that money, you ought to finish your term.”

His final chapter is a list of suggestions he says he would like to see in Congressional races, although admitting they are not likely to ever be adopted.

Chief among them are limiting the amount of money permitted in such races, reducing the time frame for campaigns to declaring in January in the year of the election rather than 18 months ahead and reducing outside donations. The limit, he said, would level the playing field and require candidates to get out to the people and campaign for votes, rather than money.

Finally, he suggests term limits of 12 years for the House and the Senate to eliminate career officeholders.

Those ideas come in the final chapter of less than four pages following the memoir chapters.

“The book is political, but I’m not beating people over the head with it,” he said.

The most poignant scene in the book comes a month after the election when Poetter visits his campaign headquarters one last time to clear out the remaining detritus to close out the lease on the property.

He thinks back to all the thousands of hours of “call time,” the moments shared with several close volunteers, the jokes, the late nights, the plans and his own growth from neophyte candidate to seasoned campaigner. He looks at a counter top built by close friend Danny Sens when he first rented the property and thought about the loss of Sens who had died in the interim.

“Danny made a really cool counter top we all worked at,” Poetter said. “It was just a really activity-related place.”

Poetter had repeated throughout the campaign that would be his only campaign ever and he closed the door of his headquarters and walked away.

“Believe me, I was happy to return to civilian life. It was a great endeavor and worth doing but I definitely wanted to leave it behind,” Poetter said.

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