Davidson wants to bring back, improve on one of Boehner’s ideas

EARLY VOTING

In-office early voting at the Butler County Board of Elections is under way and runs through June 6. Here are the times:

Anyone wishing to vote by mail must submit application requests by noon on Saturday, June 4. Applications may be picked up at the Butler County Board of Elections or downloaded from the elections office website, www.butlercountyelections.org.

POLL WORKERS NEEDED

The Butler County Board of Elections needs about 100 poll workers to work the polling locations for the June 7 special election. Butler County elections Deputy Director Jocelyn Bucaro said poll workers are especially needed in the Oxford and Middletown areas, and more Democrats than Republicans are needed.

Call 513-887-3700 for information.

Warren Davidson wants to continue, and expand, on an idea former House Speaker John Boehner started after he was elected to Congress: develop topical forums to hear from constituents.

While Davidson is not elected to the position yet — he’s facing Democrat Corey Foister and Green Party candidate Jim Condit, Jr. in the June 7 special election — he’s reaching out to those in the 8th Congressional District that may or may not have supported him. In Middletown last week, a pastors’ forum was held where the Miami County Republican met with district pastors to talk about issues they feel impact their congregations and communities.

“It’s just a way to engage them,” said Davidson. “Those guys have a pretty good pulse on their congregations.”

If elected, Davidson said he hopes to develop other forums, such on health care, education, veterans and military, and agriculture, all similar to the farm forums Boehner had started out holding when he was first elected.

“It always seemed pretty popular,” said Davidson, 46, who was a part of some of those farm forums in his younger years.

But it seemed Boehner personally became less involved in these forums, though they continued, as he became more involved on the national stage, taking on leadership roles within Congress and eventually becoming Speaker of the House.

“While it was an honor to have the Speaker be our representative, one of the things that came across was people missed the ‘our representative’ part (as he rose within the party’s leadership),” said Davidson.

The pastors’ forum is giving a voice, Davidson said, to a part of the district’s population that feels “their voices aren’t being heard.”

And the Rev. Johnathan Newman echoed that sentiment. He said those 20 or so pastors that attended the Middletown forum realized the input from the faith community in the national discussion won’t be heard if they didn’t speak up.

“Our representatives can’t speak for us if they don’t hear from us,” said the pastor of the Troy-based Koinos Christian Fellowship. “I see an awakening among pastors because recognizing substantial issues taking place in our cultures, and those leaders needing to step and take a leadership role in the process.”

Some of those issues include the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage, abortion and some issues like covering birth control in the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.

As pastors often reflect the moral conscience of their communities, Newman said pastors “really have a concern” about the future of the country, the district and the communities within the district.

“Pastors see themselves having a very important role in working to create communities that is wholesome and good for all the families,” he said.

There may not be many of these forums before the June 7 election said Davidson, adding “we’ve got to win” but he’s looking to do more, especially on health care. He said the political rhetoric among Republicans has been “repeal and replace” Obamacare. And while he disagrees with Obamacare, he asks, “Replace it with what?”

Davidson said there hasn’t been any options by Republicans to replace the health care law, and a plan needs to be formulated. He wants to hear from doctors, nurses and health care providers.