Jim Jordan and other candidates celebrate the opening of a republican headquarters

By Matt Echelberry

Inquirer Reporter

The repub­li­can head­quar­ters in Craw­ford County offi­cially opened on Sept. 6. Sev­eral repub­li­can can­di­dates stopped by that morn­ing to cel­e­brate, includ­ing U.S. Con­gress­man Jim Jor­dan, Ohio Sen­a­tor Dave Burke and Ohio Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jeff McClain.

The leg­is­la­tors had a meet and greet with local repub­li­can can­di­dates and vot­ers at the head­quar­ters, located at 129 South Wal­nut Street in Bucyrus (the for­mer build­ing for People’s Sav­ings and Loan bank). It is dec­o­rated inside and out with Amer­i­can flags and polit­i­cal signs say­ing “vote for [insert repub­li­can candidate’s name here].”

The party had a rib­bon cut­ting, per­formed in front of the build­ing by Jor­dan, who rep­re­sents Ohio’s fourth dis­trict in the U.S. House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, before he and the other can­di­dates spoke briefly.

“This elec­tion is about one sim­ple ques­tion: which econ­omy is going to be sub­servient to the other—the pub­lic econ­omy or the pri­vate econ­omy?” Jor­dan stated, in ref­er­ence to Pres­i­dent Bar­rack Obama’s plan ver­sus Repub­li­can Pres­i­den­tial Nom­i­nee Mitt Romney’s.

He empha­sized that Ohio is a very impor­tant state for the Novem­ber elec­tion and peo­ple need to get out and vote.

Jim Black­ford, who attended that day, said, “Jor­dan fights for just about every­body. I like him, you can’t find too many peo­ple like that anymore.”

Burke, who rep­re­sents the 26th dis­trict (which includes Craw­ford County) in the Ohio Sen­ate, spoke after Jor­dan. He com­mented that momen­tum is on the Repub­li­can party’s side for the 2012 elec­tion and thanked the sup­port­ers in atten­dance for help­ing him con­tinue to move things for­ward in Craw­ford County.

Rose Teets and Mary Ann Baker, both from Bucyrus and cousins of Burke, attended the event as well. They both felt the can­di­dates were good, although they were not that famil­iar with some of them. Of Burke, they com­mented that he has done a great job in the state sen­ate dur­ing his first term and is a great fam­ily man.

McClain is cur­rently serv­ing his sec­ond term in the Ohio House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives for the 82nd dis­trict (Craw­ford, Wyan­dot and part of Mar­ion coun­ties). He said the Repub­li­can ticket has a great slate all the way down.

County Com­mis­sioner Doug Weisen­hauer is up for reelec­tion for a sec­ond term this year and Steve Rein­hard, a for­mer state rep­re­sen­ta­tive, hopes to be elected to a first term as a com­mis­sioner. The other cur­rent com­mis­sion­ers, Mo Ressal­lat and Jenny Ver­mil­lion, also attended to show their support.

Bucyrus Law Direc­tor Matthew Crall, who is run­ning for county pros­e­cu­tor, spoke later and ref­er­enced the reli­gious val­ues that have been a sig­nif­i­cant aspect to Repub­li­cans. “I’m proud to be a part of a party that doesn’t need to REINSERT God into the party,” he concluded.

Deputy Engi­neer Mark Baker is run­ning unop­posed for county engi­neer and spoke briefly as well.

All of the speeches took less than ten min­utes. Jor­dan and Burke had to leave to con­tinue cam­paign­ing, bound for Tif­fin after their stop in Bucyrus that morn­ing. The oth­ers in atten­dance stuck around to con­verse and ask the can­di­dates questions.

Galion res­i­dent Dave Dayne was another sup­porter in atten­dance. “I like Jor­dan because he is a fis­cal and social con­ser­v­a­tive,” Dayne said after the can­di­dates spoke.

He said he has been a repub­li­can since Richard Nixon was in office. “I sup­port smaller gov­ern­ment because that’s how it was intended when the Con­sti­tu­tion was writ­ten.” In his opin­ion, Jor­dan and other repub­li­can can­di­dates have pushed for a smaller government.

Less than 60 days remain until the 2012 elec­tion on Nov. 6. For infor­ma­tion about Repub­li­can or Demo­c­ra­tic can­di­dates, visit: www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS, www.2012-election.org, or www.2012electioncontent.com.