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Senator beats Schuring to become the first Democrat to represent the 16th District in 60 years
By Stephanie Warsmith
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Thursday, Nov 06, 2008
U.S. Rep. Ralph Regula was known to his constituents simply as ''Ralph.''
State Sen. John Boccieri, who was elected Tuesday to succeed Regula, is hoping people will simply call him ''John.''
''That's the kind of congressman I want to be,'' Boccieri said Wednesday. ''I want people comfortable calling me, writing to me and having my staff solve problems.''
Boccieri, D-Alliance, defeated state Sen. Kirk Schuring, R-Jackson Township, in a hard-fought battle for the 16th Congressional District seat that wasn't officially decided until about 8:10 p.m. Wednesday.
That was when the elections board in Stark County, the largest county in the district, finally reported the last of its unofficial results.
Boccieri won 55 percent of the votes in the four counties.
This will be the first time in 60 years that a Democrat has represented the 16th District. Regula, R-Navarre, who is retiring, held the seat for 36 years.
The race was one of the mostly hotly contested in the country, including being identified as a must-win by the Democratic Party, negative radio ads and automated phone calls by a national conservative group targeting Boccieri and big money flowing to both candidates from across the country.
Together the two raised
nearly $2.7 million and spent all but about $365,000, according to the most recent Federal Election Commission reports.
The earliest results in the race showed Boccieri winning in Medina and Wayne counties and Schuring narrowly clinching the heavily Republican Ashland County. But as the returns began to be reported in Stark County, they favored Boccieri.
Schuring said his campaign focused on the outlying counties, hoping to make up for Stark. He said when he saw he hadn't done as well as he'd hoped in Medina and Wayne, and the early Stark results weren't going his way, he figured Boccieri had won. He called him shortly after midnight, congratulating him and offering to work with him on issues in the district.
''I was up against some pretty strong political head winds, and I accept it for what it is,'' said Schuring, 56.
As for his political future, Schuring said he plans to focus on serving his senate district, which includes most of Stark County. He is midway in serving the four-year senate term.
Boccieri, 39, referred to Schuring as ''an honorable man'' and said he looks forward to working with him. He said senate colleagues remained cordial throughout the campaign, despite the race's high stakes.
Boccieri said his top priority will be to ''stem the loss of jobs'' in the district and throughout the country. He said trade agreements need to be renegotiated and companies must be rewarded for creating new jobs here — rather than shipping them overseas.
''We need to make sure we are not subsidizing our own demise,'' he said.
Boccieri's victory was one of several pickups for the Democratic Party in the House and Senate and the second consecutive election in which the party made gains. Boccieri noted the party's numbers in the Senate aren't high enough to be ''filibuster proof.''
''[President-elect Barack] Obama will have his work cut out for him,'' Boccieri said.
Boccieri said he is looking forward to working with Obama. He said he met Obama at a campaign event in Canton in late October, during which Boccieri helped introduce him and lead the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance. He was struck by how calm Obama was.
''As president, you have to have a steady hand,'' he said. ''He certainly has shown that.''
Boccieri must now officially resign his Senate seat and his Democratic colleagues will pick his replacement.
For now, though, Boccieri is enjoying his new title of congressman and the high-powered contacts that go with it. His well-wishers have included Gov. Ted Strickland, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who called Wednesday morning while he was speaking to a Beacon Journal reporter. (He called the reporter back.)
Boccieri, a pilot in the 910th Airlift Wing, reminded Clinton about how he once flew her out of Baghdad. He recalled that she told him, ''Seize every opportunity. Life is too short.''
He said he thanked her for the advice and told her he has tried to live up to it.
Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705 or swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com.
U.S. Rep. Ralph Regula was known to his constituents simply as ''Ralph.''
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Posted 09:15 AM, 11/06/2008
I'd like to know why my comment was deleted by ohio.com. It was on the site for a while. Was there a technical issue or is someone filtering comments based on content?
My comment was that out-of-state money won another election.
Green, OH
Posted 11:31 AM, 11/06/2008
If Mr. Boccieri thinks Mr. Schuring is such an honorable man, why did he not speak out about the low-down, dirty campaign ads run on his behalf by "outside interests" ?
