In 1980, Bob Shamansky became the first Democrat since 1937 to win election to Ohio's 12th Congressional District. In the year that the Reagan Revolution rocked American politics Shamansky, a Columbus area Lawyer and Korean War veteran, was the only Democratic congressional candidate to beat an incumbent Republican.
This year, he's back. After 24 years, at age 78, Bob Shamansky is again running for election in the 12th district, and he says he'll fight the same fight that won him the seat in the first place.
Shamansky held the seat for just two years - losing his bid for re-election to a young Republican named John Kasich. Kasich ran a smart campaign, knocking on doors, and talking to voters - but more than anything else, he benefited from the obstinacy of Bob Shamansky's own Ohio Democratic Party. After a disagreement with then Ohio Speaker of the House and head of the Ohio Machine, Vernal G. Riffe Jr., Shamansky was redistricted out - and Central Ohio's 12th district ended up with 24 years of Republican representation.
In those two years, Shamansky racked up a remarkable record. Rather than resting on the laurels of his win, and curbing his fight to ensure a easy reelection, Bob took on the special interests that had made him angry enough to take on the fight in the first place.
He took on big tobacco, challenging the subsidies that amounted to little more than corporate welfare and which underwrote a business whose product was detrimental to the health of millions of Americans.
He took on the oil companies and auto industry, pursuing funding for the development of fuel-efficient vehicles at a time when the energy crisis was still a fresh memory, and when Americans had just seen the effects of our reliance on foreign oil.
He took on special interests then, and he'll take them on again. After 24 years out of politics, it was the sheer irresponsibility of this administrations policies that drove Bob back into politics.
Fake reforms that only benefit the industries they're meant to reform, an unprecedednted erosion of our Civil Liberties, and the irresponsible forign policy, and incompetant management that have left us in a quagmire in Iraq all drove Bob back to politics - but perhaps it was the attitude of the administration that push him, so-to-say, over the edge and back into the public eye.
"The R in Republican stands for Royalist!" Bob will tell almost anyone who'll listen.
It's the attitude of conceit that angers him the most, and it's an attitude held close by the 12th current representative.
Pat Tiberri was John Kasich's anointed heir - a former aide who earned his political knocks and chops in the Ohio Statehouse, and under Kasich's leadership as a staffer. Since taking office in 2001, after his former boss launched a quixotic bid for the presidency, Tiberi has pretty much played it as close to the vest as possible. His voting record looks so much like the president's legislative agenda that a quick change of letterhead and you'd never know the difference. Tiberi's sat back, effectively unchallenged, for the past five years.
Now, that's going to change. Bob's fired up, he's got the experience, and he's ready to take on the GOP establishment here in Ohio, and nationwide.
As for his age? Is it going to be an issue? Well, Bob's got an answer for that as well. "Someone asked me, 'Is your age going to be an issue?' And my answer is 'God, I hope so." Sure 78 is getting on in years for a former and future congressman . . . but as Bob likes to point out - he doesn't need the job. He's in this for all the right reasons, and for the first time in 24 years, Central Ohio progressive values have a real chance.
Drew Tappan is Campaign Director for Shamansky for Congress. Visit Bob at http://www.shamanskyforcongress.com