OH-05: Nienberg Comments on the GOP Primary

I spoke on the phone this morning with investment advisor Ben Nienberg (D-Glandorf), who won 39.92% of the vote against State Sen. Steve Buehrer (R-Delta) in the 1st Ohio Senate District race in 2006. I asked him to comment on the GOP primary from his perspective in the western part of the 15th Congressional District.

Between Buehrer and State Rep. Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green), he said, it is a like a tragedy, or maybe a joke. It looks like Buehrer will be spending over half a million, or have that much spent on his behalf, and Latta has over $300,000, but "they've been calling each other liars and accusing each other of stealing money for the entire campaign." It seems to all being done in TV commercials, he said, he hasn't heard anything on the radio.

"I haven't learned a thing about them as to the issues," Nienberg said. "I have noticed that while they've been state legislators the haven't really passed any laws about things that the right-to-life people have given them endorsements for. Nothing. I don't know why they continue to get their support. Also nothing about immigration, although they campaign on those things a lot. They haven't made government smaller."

"To me," Nienberg continued, "I just wonder when the people in this district are going to get the message that it all seems to be about their personal political careers. Unfortunately, we haven't learned a thing. It is a disappointment that this seems to be knock-down, drag-out struggle in the dirt. It doesn't help anyone."

Asked whether votes seemed engaged or turned off, Niendorf said that he couldn't really say, and has no sense of who will win the primary. He travels the area quite a bit for business and hasn't detected a great deal of grassroots activity, although what he has seen is all for Bueherer. When I commented on the negative character of the campaigns, he said, "Well, that' show money fights money." He agreed with me that Buehrer is more of a fire-breathing hard-liner than Latta ("fire and brimstone," is how he put it), and said that he believes that Buehrer is that way because that is how one gets elected in the area.