Buckeye State Blog - District 3

My Big Fat Greek Fundraiser

PollVaulter — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 14:32:03 -0700

Anyone near Dayton should check out Jane Mitakides' Big Fat Greek Fundraiser. It is being held at two bars downtown, and it is a toga party! The cover charge goes to a very important and close race where a democrat is going to take a republican seat. This is an awesome and fun way for young people to support a great candidate. Everything gets kicked off at 6:00 at Therapy Cafe then the party moves to Aquarius at 9:00. More info is on Jane's website jane08.com, or I have seen a lot of flyers going around UD. See you there.

Jane Mitakides

Ross1985 — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 11:49:11 -0700

Has anybody heard about this campaign? she apparently has raised three times more than the incumbent. I saw her speak a few years back and was certaintly impressed. Antbody know anything about her campaign?

OH-03: Mitakides Campaign Goes Carbon Neutral

Chris Kelly — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 08:20:42 -0700

(Cross-posted from http://www.jane08.com)

Many politicians use Earth Day for their own purposes, focusing on environmental issues for one day a year. However, global warming doesn’t take a vacation for the other 364 days a year - and neither can we.

That’s why Jane Mitakides has decided to walk the talk of green solutions by making her campaign carbon neutral, and committing to work for renewable energy and green jobs when elected to Congress.

By underwriting carbon offsets from CarbonFund.org, an organization that helps individuals, businesses, and organizations to eliminate their carbon footprints, the Mitakides campaign becomes the first one of the first congressional campaigns in the nation (and the first in Ohio) to take responsibility for their own greenhouse gas emissions.

Jane sees investing in renewable energy as the first step in a process that will create jobs and protect the environment. The fossil fuels that cause climate change and keep us beholden to foreign dictatorships can no longer be at the foundation of our economy.

Creating tax incentives for clean energy sources will allow these industries to flourish, and instead of supporting unnecessary tax subsidies for Big Oil, she will work to pass such incentives when in Congress.

Greening our economy is a no-brainer: between fighting global warming, creating green jobs, and saving consumers across the board, this should be a priority in Congress.

Jane Mitakides intends to be a leader in Congress, and that starts now by having a campaign that takes responsibility and utilizes real solutions for our challenges.

OH-03: Turner makes up controversy, Rangel fires back

Chris Kelly — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:15:11 -0700

Promoted from the forums because I love catching GOP'ers lying, especially in Jerid's hometown -DrTruth

Cross-posted from Jane Mitakides for Congress

What’s a Congressman to do, when the only legislation he’s passed during five years on the job renamed a Dayton park, when he votes as a right-wing partisan 87% of the time, and if he has a 30% rating with veterans groups? Especially when he’s being challenged by a strong candidate, in a now-blue district that went 55% for Ted Strickland?

Well, he could just make something up. Unless of course, the Chairman of Ways and Means catches him!

Turner accused of causing needless worry
Democrats say questions he raised about Delphi worker eligibility for tax rebates were unfounded.
By Lynn Hulsey Staff Writer Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Democrats are accusing U.S. Rep. Mike Turner of needlessly worrying former Delphi workers.
At issue are questions Turner raised about the workers' eligibility for economic stimulus rebates after he'd already voted for the bill that ensured the workers would get the money.
On Monday, March 31, Turner, R-Centerville, denied he misled anyone. He said he was responding to concerns from constituents and trying to change the bill to get rebate checks into workers' hands more quickly.
However, J. Jioni Palmer, spokesman for the House Ways and Means committee, said Turner sent no legislative language to the committee prior to final approval by Congress.
Turner's Third District Democratic opponent, Washington Twp. businesswoman Jane Mitakides, accused Turner of trying to create the "illusion of working for the people of this district."
"The notion that these rebates were at risk and then somehow salvaged was absolutely misleading," said Mitakides. "It's the legislative equivalent of turning in someone else's homework and taking credit for it."
[...]
On Feb. 1, a day after Turner voted for the House bill, he announced he'd sent a letter to House Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., and three other House and Senate leaders in response to concerns by former Delphi workers.
"I am writing to request that clarifying language be added to the Economic Stimulus package that ensures tax rebates will be given to workers" displaced by foreign trade, wrote Turner. He said workers' buyout payments should not count as income.
[...]
The next day Rangel wrote to Turner and said Turner's Feb. 1 letter was unnecessary because the problem "did not exist in the legislation that passed the House" with Turner's support.
"I'm hopeful that the misunderstanding did not cause alarm among Delphi workers who may have questioned their rebate eligibility," Rangel wrote.
[...]

Mike Turner did nothing but try to gain political points from a controversy he created. He voted for the bill before he had problems with it, yet offered no legislative language – because none was necessary. Maybe the Congressman from the Ohio 3rd needs a little lesson in the legislative process? May I suggest the following?

DEMOCRATS - Peace, not War.

ClarkDem — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 15:23:42 -0700

That is the wife of the man who gave us the mess in Iraq, a wrecked economy, and a divided nation.

Next to her is a U.S. Senator who brought dirty campaigning to Ohio to a fevered pitch in 1992 when he smeared a great American - John Glenn. He does not deserve to hold this Senate seat that Glenn once held, but U.S. Congressman Sherrod Brown does!

Next to him is the man who has helped to create loss of jobs for the 3rd Congressional District. A man who has spoken out time and time again that peace cannot be achieved in Iraq without the loss of too many American lives. A man who tries to block the advancement of science and improvements in medical care by blocking more funding of Stem Cells.

THOSE two men are the enemy....not us. We are Americans first and we should not be divided in our mutual effort to kick these bums out of office. They would appreciate it no better than for us to turn in and fight amongst ourselves.

Words like troll, Rovian, smear, attack, underperformed, etc. These all have been bantied about by all sides, me included. We all have taken personal attack instead of focusing on what matters, throwing the bums above and their cohorts out of office.

SO....Jerid, Staff, SusanD, ModernEsquire, etc., I apologize. I lay down my gauntlet and refuse to attack you any further. Lets discuss what should be discussed. Lets let Jane Mitakides, Dick Chema, Roosevelt Chapman, and Charlie Sanders set the beat. Lets discuss issues from this moment out. By issues, lets deflect character comparisons of any qualified Democrat and all four have earned the right to that distinction.

Our anger should be directed at the two village idiots above and these three :

Memo To OH-03 Candidates (And Everyone Else)

Ohio2nd — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 18:05:49 -0700

Try to make it to the Warren County Democratic Party's summer dinner tomorrow night. Last years was great and this years looks to be even better.

��

"Media Bias Against Withdrawal from the Iraq War" or "Why I Hate Channel 2 News"

Jerid — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 16:23:38 -0700

In about 3 weeks I start law school up in Cleveland at Case Western Reserve University. Now that I'm no longer working on a campaign, I look forward to posting on the blogs in my free time.

The other day I became an unpaid��observer in the political process again for the first time in 6 months. During the course of the day I was able to make it out to the good Dr. Studebaker's "Rally for America" where she came out strongly in support of protecting our veterans and bringing out troops home from the war in Iraq as swiftly and honorably as possible. The campaign was able to draw out some local veterans, State Representative Fred Strahorn, the Dayton Daily News, close to 100 people...heck, even a documentary crew showed up to tape Stephanie.

Local News Channel 2 showed up as well. However, they weren't there for Stephanie. Instead, they were there to tape some footage of the river. Yeah, you heard me right. Taping the damn river.

Don't just read about it, I got footage...

Watch the video

President Bush and Congressman Mike Turner block Stem Cell Research

Jerid Kurtz — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 13:29:04 -0700

Today President Bush issued the first legislative veto of his administration, blocking a bill that would have expanded funding for stem cell research. Prior to the President��s veto, Congressman Mike Turner voted against the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act that was ultimately approved by Congress. ��I passionately disagree with the President and Congressman Turner on this issue. Denying the possibility of a longer, fuller life to anyone crosses a moral boundary that I know is wrong,�� said Stephanie Studebaker, candidate for Congress from the Third District.

Religious leaders across the country supported this bill because of their deep respect for life. Groups as diverse as the United Church of Christ, the Union for Reform Judaism, the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church USA, and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America all support this bill. Even prominent Republicans, such as Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, have given their bi-partisan support to expanding stem cell research.

In the United States, millions of Americans live everyday with diseases like diabetes, cancer, muscular dystrophy, and Parkinson��s; all of which have the potential to be cured through expanded stem cell research. Denying these Americans the right to the hope of a cure through safe, ethical stem cell research places more Americans in harm��s way.

Most importantly, stem cell research is a tool that could be used to prolong and save the lives of our children. ��As a mother, I know that if my children were sick I would do anything - anything - to help them get well. Along with millions of other Americans, I can't understand why President Bush and Mike Turner feel differently.��

I...Need...The Bus.

TtheGiraffe — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 20:58:37 -0700

Remember back in the good ole' days when you could hope and dream that The Bus might come rollin' down your street.

��

Well, it got stripped. And I'm in Hackett withdraw. So I searched around and found the next best thing:

The Studebaker Truck.�� Keep it rollin'.�� Go vote.��Go get your��second cousin to vote.

Stephanie Studebaker Re-loaded

Jerid Kurtz — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 06:56:51 -0700

You know what to do - Go Vote ! You can use the "email this page" feature to pass it along to friends- staff

Voting starts at 9am, don't forget to vote:
http://tools.democracyforamerica.com/housevote/

I got the email late last night. Chris Warshaw, Political Director for Democracy for America (DFA), confirmed that Stephanie Studebaker has made it into the national instant run-off round in DFA's "Grassroot's All-Star Competition"!!

What's that mean? Haven't been paying complete attention? Need a quick refresher on what this means for Ohio?

For the past week and a half Stephanie Studebaker has been competing for DFA's national endorsement against 32 other Congressional candidates. Superstars like Betty Sutton (OH-13),Eric Massa (NY-29), and others were in the first round. After a week and a half of grassroots voting the field has been narrowed to 5 candidates:

Jerry McNerney (CA-11)
Nancy Skinner (MI-09)
Stephanie Studebaker (OH-03)
Patrick Murphy (PA-08)
Phil Avillo (PA-19)

Now Stephanie has 5 days to prove herself. Ohio has 5 days to prove that it's more than just a swing state, that we're a player capable of sitting at the big boy's table with the likes of California and others. It's going to take a lot of work. But in the end, if we can all help Stephanie Studebaker win this competition it means more resources, more attention, and more respect for Ohio and the Ohio blogosphere.

First things first, starting this morning at 9am please logon and vote:
http://tools.democracyforamerica.com/housevote/

Second:
Please pass this link on to as many people as you know...co-workers, email lists, friends, enemies, whoever...it doesn't matter. To win this for Stephanie and Ohio will take a lot of work, more than just simply voting.

Third:
If you have the time, get onto the national big box blogs and help us create some energy for Steph. This round of voting is going to take a lot to win. I think the winner will ultimately have around 20,000 to 30,000 votes. Ohio's strong, but we're going to need some help to pull this off. Luckily, the Ohio blogosphere has a little experience creating national attention...case in point OH-2. It's time to get it going again...

And to everyone out there helping us, thank you again.

Jerid Kurtz
cell: (216)392-8198
Communications Director
Studebaker for Congress

Thanks from Team Studebaker

Jerid Kurtz — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 18:23:45 -0700

Stephanie plans to jump on BSB this weekend and give her own thanks, but she wanted to make sure that I posted something asap. The entire Studebaker campaign wanted to throw out our thanks and appreciation to Staff, BSB, OH-2, Plunderbund, Blogesque, Ohio 2006 Elections, Brewed Fresh Daily and everyone else out there��in the Ohio blogosphere that helped us come in 4th today... or has given us help in the past (sorry if I left anyone out by name).

It's a real testament to the Ohio blogosphere that you all were able to help us compete against over 33 candidates from all over America, including the big boys out in California and PA. Starting Monday Stephanie enters the final round against four other well-funded, big name candidates from across the country. Thanks for helping us get this far, and hopefully you'll help us show DFA and the country that big things are happening in Ohio.

��All the best,

Jerid Kurtz
Cell: (216)392-8198
Communications Director
Studebaker for Congress

Stephanie Studebaker's Campaign hummin' along!

scurrvydog — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 19:51:54 -0700

There's something happening in OH-3. I think I am going to have to go down myself and check it out. Also don't forget to go vote right here. She's currently holding her own at #3 despite the big box blogs pushing their big 3. Let's show 'em what we can do. Great field report follows - staff

I meant to post this earlier, but have been having too good a time with Stephanie Studebaker's��campaign!�� My wife and I started Monday afternoon at Steph's headquarters and my first surprise was the number of volunteers already hard at work.�� With so many people in the office we had to wait for some of the morning shifters to leave so that we could take up their duties.�� There were several people stuffing and stamping direct mail at the tables��with production line efficiency.�� There were��volunteers working the computers, scanning in stacks of voter contacts�� While I was waiting for my assignment I could hear the different phone bankers talking to the voters, asking about issues and their concerns.�� They were working the��landlines in their low conversational tones, frequently raising their voices in excitment��with a rendition of " Stephanie would love to have you as a ��volunteer!" followed by high fives all the way around as they marked the caller as a "will volunteer".�� It reminded me of Bob Barkers "Come on down!" with all the energy of��a gameshow!��

Finally, I was able to convince one of the guys at a computer to call it a��day so that I could start to work.�� Jerid came in and gave me a quick tutorial on what needed to be done and handed me a LARGE stack of contacts��to scan.�� Being the coordinated individual that I am (NOT!) it took me a little while to get used to the ergonomic mouse.�� Too many buttons for me, but soon��I had mastered it and was zipping right along.�� Every once in awhile one of the staff; Joe, Scot, Jerid, or even Andrew, would come in and ask a question or two or see if we needed anything.�� The whole operation was clicking on all eight cylinders.�� I was impressed.

The next day��we returned in the evening to Studebaker��for Congress Headquarters��with 2 new volunteers in tow.�� We immedialey recognized that we needed to relocate the direct mail operation upstairs in the Union's large hall.�� Stephanie Studebaker's Campaign had already out grown it's offices!�� With the extra space the phone bankers were able to add extra lines and the scanners could set up more��laptops.�� The operation really kicked into high gear then.�� Every time we heard another "will volunteer" the energy level went up another notch.�� The time just flew by and before we knew it, it was Miller Time!�� I think all of us were quite proud of the Stephanie Studebaker Campaign and the energy it is generating.

And oh ya, someone had to go back and tell Steph to call it a night!

Tuesdays in June

Jerid Kurtz — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 19:51:34 -0700

Ah, those early days in June on the campaign trail. For the smaller Congressional and local races, most campaigns don��t hit their groove this early on. Candidates are still busy learning the ropes, finally understanding what it really means to run for office. Rookie mistakes happen often, and staffers are truly tested for the first time (explaining the release of 5 million voters�� Social Security numbers only makes you stronger, eh?). Early June is generally still a period of preparation... In fact if you call most Congressional campaign offices this early out, most campaigns don't have a lot for volunteers to do just yet, aside from attend a parade or two...

That is, unless you call Stephanie Studebaker's Campaign for Congress. Tonight our all-star volunteers made yet another impressive showing. Folks, this is a picture of a regular night at Studebaker HQ.

Count them. 1,2,3...10. Not to mention yours truly taking the picture and Stephanie Studebaker in another room approaching her 9th hour of call time for the day (I don't think I've met a candidate out there working harder than Stephanie yet). My only question is, do you think the Congressman hears it yet?

Woo Woo!

And in case you happen to reside in one of those districts out there where they don't have anything for volunteers to do just yet... (937) 424-2593
Give us a call.

Jerid Kurtz
(216)392-8198
Communications Director
Studebaker for Congress

Great Volunteer Meeting at the Studebaker Campaign

Jerid Kurtz — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 15:52:04 -0700

Tonight we had a great showing, with lots of excited volunteers coming out to show their support for Stephanie Studebaker. Coincidentally, this is a test blog because we're showing them how to post online.

Studebaker's "Watchdog Team" energized for combat!

scurrvydog — Sat, 20 May 2006 06:44:21 -0700

They kept arriving Thurs. night, in groups of 2's and 3's, until the crowd reached 40+. You could feel the energy in the hall and see the electricity flow between individual groups as they discussed the upcoming battle for the OH-3 Congressional District. Newcomers became friends with the old campaigners, exchanging experiences and ideas from past election cycles. As I listened to the banter I was struck by the range of experience, knowledge, and enthusiasm of this seasoned cadre of campaign veterans. Steph's Watchdog Team was ready to "get it on"!

And then Steph's Campaign Staff strode into the room. The volunteers took their seats. All eyes and ears were focused intensly on Andrew Kayton, the commander of these tested troops. Flanked by his adjutants, Jerid Kurtz and Scot the Money Man, he laid out the strategy, and the plan to implement that strategy, for taking control of the OH-3 Congressional District. In a succinct manner he outlined the tactics we are going to use to wrest control from the professional, monied politicians that make up the "Culture of Corruption" in Washington and return power to the citizens of this Country. The intense concentration of the volunteers was broken midway thru when Stephanie and her spouse, Sam, arrived, evoking a loud round of applause and cheering from the members of the Watchdog Team! Quickly the focus and attention returned to the front of the hall as the Staff wrapped up their blueprint for Victory in Nov.

This will be a hard fought campaign against big money and professional politicians, but Stephanies Studebaker's volunteers have the right candidate, at the right time, in the right district; have the experience, heart, dedication, and the spirit of our citizen legislator Founding Fathers to deliver a Victory for justice, our great Country, and Stephanie Studebaker!