While Sherrod Brown runs for the Senate, it appears that the race for his seat shall produce an interesting primary.
The Akron Beacon Journal sez
Seventeen for the 13th. That's the official number of candidates running for the congressional seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown, D-Avon, who is stepping up to take on U.S. Sen. Mike Dewine.
Eight Republicans and nine Democrats -- a mixture of longtime party war horses, well-known names and political upstarts -- are eyeing the congressional district that includes parts of Summit, Cuyahoga, Lorain and Medina counties.
The actual candidates are named under the fold!
The Republican contenders are Ruth Nader Abboud, Hinckley; Paul S. Burtzlaff, Avon Lake; Anthony J. Cirino, Avon; C.J. Delorean, Medina; Craig Foltin, Lorain; Lawrence L. Jaycox Jr., Elyria; David McGrew, Akron; and Joe Ortega III, Strongsville.
The Democrats are Capri Cafaro, Sheffield Village; Norbert G. Dennerll Jr., Westlake; Daniel Goulder, Westlake; William Grace, Elyria; Gary Kucinich, Strongsville; Michael Lyons, Richfield; Thomas C. Sawyer, Akron; Betty Sutton, Chardon; and John L. Wolfe, Akron.
Politics1 has the following identifiers for the candidates
Public Relations Consultant, Ex-Congressional Aide, '04 Nominee in CD-14 (Cafaro)
Frequent Candidate (Dennerll)
Elyria Mayor (Grace)
Ex-Cleveland School Board Member & Congressman Kucinich's Brother (Kucinich)
Ex-Congressman, Ex-Akron Mayor, Ex-State Rep. & Ex-Teacher (Sawyer)
Ex-State Rep., Ex-Summit County Councilwoman & Attorney (Sutton)
Attorney, World War II Veteran & Community Activist (Wolfe)
Lorain Mayor, Ex-Lorain City Auditor & Accountant (Foltin)
Marketing Consultant (McGrew)
Businessman & Community Activist (Ortega)
Nothing (the rest)
Wowzers.
The short list of what I know here.
Cafaro is an heiress who spent a million against LaTourette, and lost by 26 points. Sorry Capri, I guess being endorsed by LaTourette's ex-wife didn't help you out. Capri does have a site. It has a pretty useful messege (for reasons i'll mention later). Cafaro has probably traveled the most to make this race, as her 2004 residence was Hubbard (Trumbull County) and her 2006 resident is Sheffield (Lorain County).
Sawyer is a former Congressman, serving from 1987 to 2003. The reason why he's a former Congressman is because Tim Ryan used Sawyer's votes on NAFTA and PNTR with China against him. Sawyer is running to replace another opponent of NAFTA (Brown). And did you notice the "Save America's Workers" thing on Cafaro's site? There's a pretty good reason why things like this are being said by her campaign:
2/9/06, Cleveland Plain Dealer
Cafaro favors withdrawing from The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and World Trade Organization. She also supports giving consumers tax credits for buying American-made automobiles and other domestically produced durable goods.
I'm sure my opinion might differ from others, but that's a really extreme way to "correct" problems.
Emily's List is supporting Sutton over Cafaro, mainly because Cafaro is considered to be a bit of a liability. Cafaro would be a much better candidate if she established some credibility.
As for the rest of the Democrats, I don't know much about them. But in a primary where the winner could get even 1/4th of the vote, it's anybody's ball game.
As for the GOP, the favorite is Foltin. Foltin is also boosted by some in the GOP who are probably hoping for a really weak candidate.
Anybody else (such as an Ohioan) want to talk about this campaign?