Michael Wolfe

Recently, nearly all the candidates for Ohio’s 15^th congressional district were invited to participate in a “meet the candidate night.” Of these, Dave Ryon, Steve Stivers and John Adams filled out the questionnaire and participated in the Q & A. There was apparently one other candidate who showed up, but had not filled out the questionnaire, or have knowledge of what 9/12 was (The Union County 9/12 and Central Ohio 9/12 groups were hosting the event). Mary Jo Kilroy, the current representative, ignored the invitation, though her presence was made known throughout the night as candidates explained how they would strive to bring responsive, constitutional representation back to the 15th congressional district.

All of the candidates were asked if they would sign a “fiscal responsibility pledge.” All candidates were then provided with one, and all appeared to sign it. There was an addendum on the pledge about “ear mark reform transparency and up or down votes.

NOTE: If a candidate, agreed with another candidate on an answer, go to the same number under that candidate’s responses. I have added some notes following certain questions. I have done a minimal amount of editing to the following transcribed answers to make it more readable. If you see any errors, please contact me.

The questions were as follows:

1. What does the oath of office mean to you?
2. What type of tax system do you think would be ideal?
3. What is wrong with our current healthcare system. And how would you fix it?
4. Earmarks (that you are against) in a bill you and your constituents are in favor of, how would you vote on that bill and why – best interests of the country, or your special interest?
5. “Putting the axe to government” What are to 2 steps to shrink deficit
6. What do you plan to do to beat [Kilroy] in the general election. How’s your war chest (Campaign cash)
7. How would you handle unemployment: what role does the fed government actually have?
8. What is your solution to illegal immigration? (Est 20 Million illegals burdens infrastructure).
9. How do you feel about gun rights and the second amendment, and… (two part)
10. who do each of you turn to for advice and favorite person. “you admire” (alluding to the statement Anita Dunn made about who she turns to for political wisdom, Mother Teresa and Mao Tse Tung).

Dave Ryon

1. “The oath of office … is to listen” “if you listen to the people you have more answers” I will listen to article 1 section 8” “You can take that to the bank. PLEDGE: No vacations if I am elected, will be on call” “You will here back from me right away”
2. “Wouldn’t mind seeing it a lot flatter, 0%, repeal 16^th amendment. 1.2 trillion over seas every year, Feds collect 1.2 trillion dollars from individuals like your self. “Have you pay the state revenue department to decide how to distribute federal tax dollars.” “Can hold back the dollars those federal programs are spending now, and giving the power back to the states”
3. Agrees with Stivers, health care tax deductions. “Steve gave a good answer”
4. “Is it moral, is it constitutional, do we need it, and can we afford it” If the answer is no to any of these 4 questions, then I will vote no. If I vote yes, “I have read the entire thing”
5. Would not support increasing debt ceiling. Next move is a balanced budget amendment.”Federal Government should too”
6. “I am offering you a constitutional conservative that is running. Pro life, pro 10^th amendment. Pledge to follow Art 1 sec 8. “if women have a right to an abortion, what we are saying is that the children in their womb are property.” “That is slavery… was abolished long ago.”
7. Go back to the fundamental promise. “we need to deregulate” “Forcing companies to put out so much money… they have to drop jobs” Monetary policy is terrible in this country” -Fed Reserve. Devalued $ = job loss. “once we have a strong dollar, you will see a boost in employment”
8. Agree with Steve. “There was talk of outsourcing port security” If you are here illegally, you should be sent back immediately.
9. “Against any legislation that would diminish right to bear arms.” “the man who inspired me to run for office was congressman Ron Paul.” [Paul] has a finger on the “constitutional pulse” “He’s my inspiration to be running today.”

Steve Stivers

1. “Very Seriously” “Privilege” “Stand up for the folks that sent you there” “I take that pledge very seriously as a member of the armed forces…very seriously…”
2. What kind of tax reform would be appropriate. “I support a flatter, more simple tax system than we have now.” “Close loopholes” “Won’t have to pay as many people to work for”
3. “First, scrap the bill in front of Washington right now” “Start from scratch” “best health care in the world” first problem- “healthcare not portable, no one knows what anything costs.” 5 stitches: $1750. give incentive to healthy living – Defensive medicine, tort reform “Insurance across state lines” There are “billions dollars of waste in Medicare and Medicaid we have to go after”
4. “I like the way David answered it.” “the public needs to have time to understand them”
5. 1^st balanced budget law immediately. 2^nd balanced budget amendment. LINE ITEM VETO. Performance based budgeting. And move to a 2 year budget cycle from a 1 yr budget cycle. “congress only made it through 2 of their budget bills” NOTE: A line item veto is unconstitutional, as it would transfer legislative power from Congress to the president. Congress already ignores laws, they would almost certainly ignore any sort of balanced budget law.
6. He is a “Battle tested candidate” My focus is to beat Mary Jo Kilroy. I will make sure that happens” “I will make sure MJK not in congress. His war chest is over 600,000 by end of December. 515,000 on hand. Raised 2.3 Million last time. About 3K volunteers. MJK is on record on “cap & trade” HK bonuses, GM, “I’ll have the money and resources and the man power” Like John said, Mary JO must Go. NOTE: Was the only candidate that appeared to answer the question about their financial status.
7. “Government’s role is to provide a sound climate for business. Government doesn’t create jobs” “Role of government is to keep taxes low.” NOTE: This is great.
8. what “we absolutely have to NOT do is give amnesty. we can’t allow people to commit illegal acts and not have there be no consequences.” “you don’t have a border unless you secure your border.” “active and passive measures” “if someone is here illegally and we capture them, they should go home.” “Eventually, we need to do immigration reform” “Should be based on what our economy needs” “help, not hurt the country.” “We cannot continue to thrive and prosper unless we deal with this issue…its costing trillions in additional resources
9. Co-sponsored concealed carry, castle doctrine. Endorsed by NRA in 2008 and is a member. “I have been and will always be a supporter of the 2^nd amendment of the constitution.”
10. My wife and James Madison, “one of the smartest men that set up our constitutional framework.

John Adams

Note: At the beginning, when candidates were supposed to introduce themselves, John launched into an attack on Steve that took him well past the 10 minutes allotted to each candidate to introduce themselves. He jibed Steve: “We can not defeat her [Mary Jo Kilroy] with a [sorry Steve] moderate.” and used some of Kilroy’s attack ad points to attack Steve Stivers. While there are appropriate venues to do so, this was setup to introduce the candidates and get them to answer questions submitted to the Union County 9/12.

1. “So help me I do, I would take that oath… Solemn oath…There to serve the people” “all politics is local. take that seriously” “Trying to find the word here, I’m 64…”
2. “You reduce taxes at same time (you) reduce the size of the federal government.” “hundreds of thousands more employees [Feds]. “Reduce it, make it work smarter”
3. “The first thing we have to do is stop government run healthcare.” “That’s not America” “Encourage free market system” Insurance should be allowed to sell “anywhere in the United States” “Tort reform “vast amounts of money for insurance [doctors]” “Real tort reform” “millions of people out of work…how do you buy health insurance if you don’t have a job?”
4. “No way.” “They [issues] should be separated out”
5. First step. “fire Obama.” [shrink it “in a gradual way” “realistically we could bring it down with a new congress -10%” Cut congress pay 10%. 10% per year. “not wasting the people's money
6. “Focused on Mr Stivers right now. I go no where after may 4^th if I don't win” Kilroy is a “socialist progressive” “She's a rubber stamp for that crowd [obama-reid-pelosi]” would address abortion issue with Kilroy. Roe V Wade “one of the worst decisions we have made in our country.” “abortion must come to a stop”
7. “we start working on our own energy sources” We have vast amounts of oil reserves nationwide. Coal oil natural gas. “2000 years of our own resources.” “energy = your economy” Work on domestic energy to put people back to work. “we could become a net exporter [of energy]”
8. We need to seal our border “still porous” “Free transportation back to where they came from” Should have to come like “every other immigrant.
9. “Absolutely support 2^nd amendment.
10. “My wife – she is my inspiration…”

Final thoughts: I felt Steve and David performed quite well. Both behaved respectably and followed the rules and for the most part answered the questions. I felt that John, despite his newness to the area, handled himself most like a traditional politician, launching into attacks and providing formula answers. David Ryon appeared to have the strongest grasp of constitutional limitations, in the rapid fire questions, he was the only one not tripped up by the hypothetical “national right to work” law, which would go beyond the article 1, section 8 limitations on congress. Steve Stivers also responded very professionally to the attacks unexpectedly launched by Adams. Adams, apparently dissatisfied with the forum, has removed all references to tea parties and 9/12 from his website. A Google cache from February 23^rd still shows the sections referring to Tea Parties and 9/12. If this is not the case, I invite comment.

The candidates’ websites are listed below:

Dave Ryon: http://www.ryonforcongress.com/

Steve Stivers: http://www.stivers4congress.com/

John Adams: http://www.johnadams2010.com/

The Union County 912′s homepage:

http://912unioncounty.org/

The Union County 912 meetup:

http://www.meetup.com/We-Surround-Them-ULC/

Disclaimer: This review and commentary is not endorsed by the Union County 9/12 and contains the work and opinions of Americana83.com.