8th District seat drawing plenty of interest

FROM THE POLITICAL PARTY CHAIRS

“John Boehner is a great leader, patriot and American. His departure as speaker will emphasize his great capacity to lead. His resignation as our congressman will create a void that will be very difficult to fill. John has been tremendous for our district, our party and our nation. We will move forward with our conservative cause because our mission is critically important, and because, as John has represented well, the conservative cause is very much worth fighting for. As for our district’s next representative, I am sure that person will feel John’s shadow and would do well to seek his wisdom and guidance. The voters of the 8th district will decide it, but our local party will work hard to continue the successful path we have blazed by electing a hard working, solid conservative from Butler County.”

— Butler County GOP Executive Chairman Todd Hall

“We welcome Speaker Boehner back to Butler County and wish him well. We anticipate a very competitive campaign to succeed him in the House of Representatives and the Democratic Party and our candidate will be definitely be a part of the conversation in 2016. Speaker Boehner’s resignation is just another example of the Republican Party allowing its most extreme members to block progress, create chaos and refuse to govern. Evidently, Speaker Boehner was not considered extreme enough for the radical right. We’re disappointed, however, the Speaker chose to walk away rather than lead through appealing to the reasonable members of both parties to unite, end the partisan impasse and get back to work on the issues that really matter. Sadly, the dysfunction in the Republican Party didn’t allow that to happen.”

— Butler County Democratic Party Executive Chairwoman Jocelyn Bucaro

Multiple people, including Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones, say they may be interested in running for the 8th Congressional District seat that will become vacant when House Speaker John Boehner resigns Oct. 30.

And a confident Jones, who does not mince words, said, “If I decide to run, none of them can beat me.”

“This is one of these districts that I would do well in. It was made for a guy like me,” he said. “I’m an outsider, I’m very conservative and I don’t have to prove how conservative I am in this district. I’m well known and I don’t ride the train with everybody just because they’re on the train.”

Others who have expressed interest in running for the 8th Congressional District seat include:

Boehner, R-West Chester Twp., made his surprise resignation announcement Friday, saying the prolonged inter-party turmoil over his leadership of the Republican-controlled House could cause “irreparable damage to the institution.” He said it caused him to move up his plan to retire at the end of this year.

His announcement set off a flurry of speculation about who would run for his seat in a special election. Members of the U.S. House of Representatives will choose Boehner’s replacement as speaker.

Gov. John Kasich will pick the date of the primary and general elections and is consulting with Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted’s office on those dates, said Husted spokesman Joshua Eck. The state will pay for the election.

The special election will not be held during the upcoming Nov. 3 General Election because military voters need to have 45 days to vote absentee and that deadline has passed, Eck said.

The winner of the special election would serve through the end of 2016, but to keep the seat for another term would need to win again in the March 2016 primary and November 2016 General Election. Three Republicans and one Democrat have already taken out petitions for the 2016 regular election, two of them on Friday, according to the Butler County Board of Elections.

Boehner’s district includes all of Butler, Clark, Miami, Preble, and Darke counties and the southern portion of Mercer County. Members of congress do not have to live in the district they serve, according to the U.S. Constitution.

The district is heavily Republican and Matt Borges, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, said he is “confident we will elect a Republican” and so the primary will be the deciding race.

Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper said party officials will talk with county party chairs in the district about who would have a realistic shot at winning a seat in a district Pepper calls gerrymandered.

Mark Caleb Smith, director of Cedarville University’s Center for Political Studies, said Boehner has been so powerful that he’s not had stiff opposition in his re-election bids and so that makes it hard to determine who might be best prepared to run for his seat.

“You’ll probably see some people coming out of the woodwork. We may also see some established politicians try,” Smith said.

Winteregg, and Condit Jr., said they both had already planned to challenge Boehner in 2016.

Derickson said he is “seriously considering” seeking Ohio’s 8th Congressional District seat, but will need to talk it over with his family this weekend. He’ll make a decision next week, he said.

“This provides me an opportunity to continue my service to my constitutions in Southwest Ohio,” he said. “Being term-limited (at the end of 2016), I’ve thoroughly enjoyed serving my constituents these past seven years and I sincerely was not looking forward to the end of my service.”

Jones “is weighing his options” and still deciding if he will run for a fourth term as sheriff or Congress.

The outspoken sheriff, who has taken a hard line stance on immigration — he had a sign erected that says “Illegal Aliens Here” with an arrow pointed to the county jail — had once consider a run against Boehner in the 2010 Republican Primary, but decided against it.

If he runs for Congress, this time it will be without a political juggernaut in his way.

“I’m weighing my options at this moment. My phone lit up 15 minutes after he made his announcement,” Jones said.

Options Jones will weigh are the affects he could have in the county as sheriff and on the country as a congressman.

“We need a person in this position who can make a difference and will stand up and fight and won’t always go with the status quo,” he said. “I’m that person if I choose to do it, I have a history of that.”

And if he runs for Congress, Jones made this promise: he will only serve three two-year terms.

Other names tossed around as possible candidates are State Sen. Bill Coley, R-Liberty Twp. , who could not be reached for comment, and former State Sen. Gary Cates, of West Chester Twp., who left the senate in 2011 to become Ohio Board of Regents senior vice chancellor. Cates declined to comment on if he would run.

“Today is John’s day. I think we ought to treat that as a somber occasion,” Cates said.

He believes people who will throw their hat in the ring for the job will make their announcements in the days and weeks to come.

“But whoever becomes the next congressman for the 8th District will have a very difficult time filling his shoes, but today is John’s day,” Cates said.

Butler County Auditor Roger Reynolds said he was “shocked” when he heard of Boehner’s resignation announcement.

“I want to thank him for his service and leadership in these challenging times for our country,” he said. “I wish him well as he transitions back to private life after a long and distinguished career in public service.”

Reynolds did not say if he had plans to seek the congressional seat but there has been speculation by some political insiders within the Butler County Republican Party that he may consider the job.

He has easily won election and re-election as county auditor since being appointed in April 2008, and has built a six-figure campaign finance war chest.

West Chester Twp. Trustee George Lang, a longtime friend of John Boehner, said he “served the township and the country well, and West Chester is truly blessed to have a sitting speaker of the house.”

He said Boehner “is just a dude.”

“You can tell a politically incorrect joke and he won’t take it the wrong way,” Lang said.

Lang said he knows the job was “getting frustrating” for Boehner, “but he has to be feeling so good that he’s leaving the day after the Pope spoke. He’s tried for 20 years to get a pope to come (to speak to Congress).”

“I think the speaker’s job was so demanding, and I think he wanted to get out before Washington truly changed him,” Lang said.

Lang said hasn’t planned to run for any particular office, saying “anyone who tries to plan a political career is pretty foolish.” But he would consider the office.

“If the opportunity presents itself and I have a chance of winning, it’s something I would consider,” Lang said.

Boehner has represented his district since the early 1990s after rising through local politics in his Southwest Ohio home community of West Chester Twp. His office can remain open and staff can continue to respond to constituent issues, but there will be no voting representative until a new one is chosen.