The Ohio House Races
Feb 06, 2012 - NEWS
Ohio is the first state to have primaries for the US House. Those competitions will take place on March 6, 2012, and there will be some significant changes due to the 2010 census which will drop Ohio from 18 congressional districts to only 16. Of these 16 districts, more than half will have no real competitions in the primary. These districts include numbers 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 11, 13, 14, and 16.
- District 1 - Congressman Steve Chabot is facing no primary challenger and a single Democratic candidate
- District 4 - Congressman Jim Jordan will be facing no primary and no general election candidate
- District 5 - Congressman Bob Lotta will have no primary challenge and his Democratic opponent will be Angela Zimmann as she is facing no competition
- District 6 - Congressman Bill Johnson facing no primary challenge,. but he will face former Congressman Charlie Wilson in the general election.
- District 8 - Speaker Boehner is facing one primary challenger, but the primary isn't expected to be competitive. There will be no general election competition as the Democrats are not fielding a challenger.
- District 11 - Congresswoman Marcia Fudge is facing no primary of general election competition.
- District 13 - Congressman Tim Ryan is not facing a primary challenge and will be facing Marisha Agana in the general as she has no competition either.
- District 14 - Congressman Steven LaTourette is facing no primary challenge and neither is his Democratic counterpart.
- District 16 - Sitting Congressman Jim Renacci and sitting Congresswoman Betty Sutton will each not be facing primary challengers, but will be facing each other in the newly redrawn district.
Of the remaining districts, District 10 has an incumbent Republican facing a single challenger that may pose some problems, but is not likely to mount a substantial opposition. On the Democratic side, three candidates will face off for the nomination. The same situation exists in CD 12 with a single Republican opponent to an incumbent Congressman and a two man primary in the Democratic primary. There are also two Democrats facing off for the primary to eventually face Republican incumbent Steven Stivers who is facing no challenger.
District 7 will also see a single primary challenger to incumbent Congressman Bobb Gibbs and a town woman competition on the Democratic side.
This leaves districts 2, 3, and 9 that have significant primary activity. We will profile each of these district next week in detail. District 2 has a single Democratic candidate seeking the nomination and 5 Republican candidates. These candidates include incumbent Congresswoman Jean Schmidt and four legitimate challengers.
District 3 is a mirror image of District 2. It has 5 Democrat candidates and a single Republican seeking the nomination. Among the Democrats is former Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy, a city councilwoman, and a former state representative that are all actively campaigning. There is no incumbent in this district due to redistricting and retirements.
Among all the districts, CD 9 is by far the most interesting. Due to the loss of districts, sitting Congressman Dennis Kucinich will go up against sitting Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur for the Democratic nomination. Add to this a third candidate named Graham Veysey that appears to be mounting a decent campaign and the race will be very interesting. On the Republican side, Samuel Wurzelbacher will be competing against Steve Kraus. Kraus is an auctioneer, and Wurzelbacher is better known as "Joe the Plumber" following a run-in with Senator Obama during the 2008 primaries that made him famous. The primary in this district will see the loss of at least one incument Democrat and the general will be competitive as well.
February the 6th is the last day to register for this primary so get to it if you live in Ohio.