Posted on 12/07/2008 4:49:59 PM PST by buccaneer81
Kilroy is headed to Congress Democrat defeats Stivers in 15th Congressional District Sunday, December 7, 2008 6:58 PM By James Nash THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy, left, won the seat by 2,311 votes, outside of the 0.5 percent margin to trigger a recount. FILE PHOTO Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy, left, won the seat by 2,311 votes, outside of the 0.5 percent margin to trigger a recount. Now it's official: Mary Jo Kilroy will be going to Washington as the first Democrat to represent any part of Franklin County in Congress in a generation.
Final vote tallies released this evening by the Franklin County Board of Elections show that Kilroy defeated Republican state Sen. Steve Stivers by 2,311 votes out of 304,053, outside of the 0.5 percent margin to trigger a recount.
Kilroy, a Franklin County commissioner who ran unsuccessfully for Congress two years ago, declared victory within an hour of the release of the vote tallies.
"In Washington, I will work together with Democrats, Republicans, and President-elect Obama to tackle the real problems that our community faces. Over the next few days I will be in contact with Rep. Deborah Pryce to begin a smooth transition so that no constituent services are delayed during these tough economic times."
Pryce defeated Kilroy by 1,062 votes after a recount in 2006.
Stivers is conceding the race and will not request a recount, spokesman Rob Nichols said.
Stivers issued a statement in which he thanked his wife, Karen, and volunteers for their support.
"While I am extremely proud of the race I ran, ultimately, is was not enough," Stivers said. "I have called Commissioner Kilroy to congratulate her for her hard-fought victory, and I wish her well in Washington."
Kilroy, a Franklin County commissioner, picked up a lopsided majority of provisional ballots counted by the Franklin County Board of Elections over the weekend after a court ruling Friday afternoon.
The counting was delayed by a legal dispute over about 1,000 provisional ballots that voters had failed to sign or where they had put their signatures in the wrong place. The Ohio Supreme Court sided with Stivers in ordering the ballots to be discarded.
Kilroy, however, got 52 percent of the provisional ballots that were counted, compared with 38 percent for Stivers. Provisional votes often are cast by first-time and transitory voters and generally skew Democratic.
Kilroy ended up with 45.91 percent of the overall vote compared to 45.15 percent for Stivers. Libertarian Mark Noble, independent Don Elijah Eckhart and write-in votes accounted for the rest.
Kilroy is scheduled to comment on the outcome at 8 p.m.
The 15 t h Congressional District covers western Franklin County and all of Madison and Union counties and hasn't been represented by a Democrat since the 1960s. No part of Franklin County has had a Democratic member of Congress since 1982.
jnash@dispatch.com
Ohio ping!
I hope that you are wrong. Those of us here in KS-2 put up with Nancy Boyda (D-KS) for two years, but managed to send her packing this time around - 2010 will not be a Democrat year.
I'm afraid we won't be so lucky. This is almost all of Columbus in this district. Heavily minority, white flight in full gear, tons of foreigners moving in, and a much more vocal gay bunch.
Kilroy is an avowed leftist. A BIG leftist. This is a bad loss.
There is hope if this district can be gerrymandered to include parts of Hobson’s old district, either in Champaign and/or Pickaway counties. I still think a solid Republican candidate can win this district in 2010. Stivers had that guy running as the pro-life candidate that pretty much did him in. Why was Stivers objectionable to many pro-life voters?
I never understood that myself.
Too bad Gene Watts is gone.
Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto,
Mata ah-oo hima de
Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto,
Himitsu wo shiri tai
You’re wondering who I am-machine or mannequin
With parts made in Japan, I am the modren man
I’ve got a secret I’ve been hiding under my skin
My heart is human, my blood is boiling, my brain I.B.M.
So if you see me acting strangely, don’t be surprised
I’m just a man who needed someone, and somewhere to hide
To keep me alive-just keep me alive
Somewhere to hide to keep me alive
I’m not a robot without emotions-I’m not what you see
I’ve come to help you with your problems, so we can be free
I’m not a hero, I’m not a saviour, forget what you know
I’m just a man whose circumstances went beyond his control
Beyond my control-we all need control
I need control-we all need control
I am the modren man, who hides behind a mask
So no one else can see my true identity
Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto, domo...domo
Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto, domo...domo
Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto, domo...domo
Thank you very much, Mr. Roboto
For doing the jobs that nobody wants to
And thank you very much, Mr. Roboto
For helping me escape just when I needed to
Thank you-thank you, thank you
I want to thank you, please, thank you
The problem’s plain to see: too much technology
Machines to save our lives. Machines dehumanize.
The time has come at last
To throw away this mask
So everyone can see
My true identity...
I’m Kilroy! Kilroy! Kilroy! Kilroy!
The libertarian candidate got 5% of the vote as well.
These provisionals now need to be accounted for and a determination if these voters are real or memorex. How many of these votes represent people with address that are park benches or YMCA's.
Republican's have a tendency to call enforcing the law "sour grapes" but to those who would break it.. it is called justice.
Brunner added 200,000+ voters to the roles that were identified as problems and then banned any attempt to use the States systems to cross reference these people's identities.
This could be done because the Democrat Attorney General has no interest in actually enforcing this law and thus no one else had "Standing" to do this.
The Ohio Republican party didn't use the horrific scandal that brought down the previous Attorney General to take back this critical office and thus, we are saddled with another Democrat Attorney General.
Ohio Officials who commit serious offenses or defy the will of the People cannot be recalled by election. This leaves Impeachment. Impeachment by the Ohio Legislature requires an impossibly high threshold so that only the previous Attorney General caught in several egregious and blatant sexual harrassment and malfeasance situations simultaneously were enough to get the legislature to start moving.
Alternatively, in Ohio, we can impeach by petition of the electorate. Odd.. but number of signatures is achievable, less than 700,000. In this situation, the charges stated in the petition are tried in the State's courts rather than the Legislature where rules of evidence matter and a conviction is not a political statement.
Nevertheless, I don't know if this procedure has ever actually been used, or what it takes to get a conviction and remove the office holder.
There are some who say Brunner will lose anyway in 2010, but they are not taking in account that She will be in control of that election too.
Oh, yeah. As a County Commissioner, she handed everything to labor. And I remember the BBC documentary from the late '70s that showed her kneeling before European commies visiting Columbus.
Sounds like another vote for union card check.
Great post. All true.
A done deal, IMHO. A few RINO senators will see to that.
Nope. Every single Republican voted against it last time. There will be even less of an incentive for them to vote for it this time around.
Wow. I had no idea. There is hope.
I’m actually not even sure every single Democrat will support it either. There are many Dem senators that hail from right-to-work states, I’d be willing to bet that one or two of them will not support card check.
S**t.
Total buzzkill. Back down to 178.
Damn glacial counting. I could have done it by myself in this time.
Fraud.
I don't think this district is solid dem, but the demos have changed. What has surprised me is democrat support in Upper Arlington. Most of those folks are self made wealthy, yet as they have aged, they have trended dem.
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