OH-5: Weirauch (D) and Buehrer (R) Declare Candidacy

Robin Weirauch (D-Napoleon) and State Sen. Steve Buehrer (R-Delta) have officially announced that they are running in the special election in the 5th Ohio Congressional District. From Weirauch's campaign site:



Here's coverage on Buehrer from the Toledo Blade:

Pledging to uphold conservative values, State Sen. Steve Buehrer launched a congressional campaign for Ohio's Fifth District this morning at the Fulton County Courthouse.

"The solutions to our problems are not far away in marble buildings in Washington," Mr. Buehrer said. "They are here in the common sense wisdom of the heartland."

On the issue of Iraq, Mr. Buehrer said Congress should not attempt to "armchair quarterback" the war but allow the generals on the ground to implement their strategies.

UPDATE: For the record, Buehrer is an extreme fiscal and social conservative. He enjoys enthusiastic support from the virulently anti-tax Club for Growth along with right-to-life and gun groups. He defeated then-State Rep. Jim Hoops (R) in a bitter primary in 2006, with each candidate accusing the other of being insufficiently anti-tax based on a single Taft-sponsored bill that one supported and the other opposed (whether the complicated legislation was a tax increase or a tax reduction was a matter of interpretation).

Buehrer's extreme conservatism is highly suitable to the 1st Ohio Senate District, in the western part of the 5th Congressional District, but not so much to the east. He may in fact be too conservative for the 5th district, or at least much more conservative than a Republican candidate needs to be to win there. State Rep. Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) presumably has much more name recognition than Buehrer across the entire district, due to his father's long tenure in Congress as well as Latta's career as a county commissioner, state representative and state senator.