Up jumps a blogger

Once upon a time, I was taking part in a discussion about Ohio politics on a big national blog that shall remain nameless. A commenter claimed that Deborah Pryce was more vulnerable than Pat Tiberi in part because Pryce had liberal suburbs like UA in her district, and Tiberi had conservative suburbs like Bexley in his. At the time, I was living in the Short North, but I had been quite the student of The (enormous) Official Abstract of Votes, and I had to respond.

All six Arlington wards went Bush in '04, despite all those UA for Kerry signs that made national news. All four Bexley wards (11/12 precincts) went Kerry, despite all that square footage people typically associate with Republican voters.

When my wife and I recently decided to take the home ownership plunge, we bought a house in Bexley. This was not entirely a coincidence.

So now, even though I'm a newcomer, I'd like to increase awareness of Bexley as a progressive stronghold in central Ohio, and start by highlighting two races where Democrats are trying to defeat incumbent Republicans that currently "represent" Bexley: Democrat Bob Shamansky vs. Pat Tiberi for Congress in OH-12, and Emily Kreider vs. David Goodman for Ohio State Senate in the 3rd district.

Bob Shamansky is, in fact, a Bexley resident. He is also a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives. If you've gotten this far, you probably already have some background on this race. If not, head over to his website, or go to the OH-12 Blog or Plunderbund, both of whom have a big head start in pushing this race.

Emily Kreider is an entrepeneur and has worked professionally as a Social Worker. I would advise you to check out her website, linked over there in the margin. This is really the type of race I'd like to bring attention to. Remember how I said that Kerry won every Bexley Precinct in 2004? Well, all told, 1270 more Bexley voters chose Kerry than Bush. Not all of the Democrats were as lucky. Michael Murdoch, running in the 20th OH-house district, only won by 309 in Bexley. In a race that was decided by 5000 votes overall, almost 20% of the margin could be explained as Bexley voters who voted for Kerry for POTUS, but did not vote for Murdoch, the Democratic candidate for State Rep.

So Bexley, go check out Ms. Kreider. And Ms. Kreider, if you read this, take a swing through Bexley. You might end up being glad you did.