OH-08: YDS Interview with Nick Von Stein

Continuing with the tradition of Yellow Dog Sammy interviews with exciting progressive candidates in Ohio, here is my interview with U.S. Air Force veteran, recent America Votes organizer, and political science graduate student Nick Von Stein (D-Mason), carrying the Democratic banner in the 8th Ohio Congressional District against the flawlessly suntanned House Minority Leader, Rep. John Boehner (R-West Chester).

YDS: So, talking to Nick Von Stein, who is the Democratic candidate in the 8th Ohio Congressional District. Nice to talk to you!

NVS: Sure, nice to talk to you too.

YDS: Can you talk for a bit about how you first became interested in politics.

NVS: That goes pretty far back! Probably one of the first things I remember about politics is that my mom bought me the picture book, "Life in Camelot." It depicts John and Jacqueline Kennedy and their family and a lot of their experiences. It had a pretty big impact on me. My mom was a big Kennedy fan and she was influenced by that era.

My dad - it's pretty funny, my parents are pretty much on opposite sides of the spectrum. My mom is a moderate Democrat, my father is fairly conservative, and also very opinionated as well. I remember I used to talk to him about who might run for president, and was he "fair tax" or "flat tax." He thought that Jack Kemp should run for president.

Politics always just stood out for me, and also I always felt that I had a call to do public service. It's kind of the reason that I joined the military, and why I'm seeking to do what I do.

YDS: Have you always identified yourself as a Democrat?

NVS: Yes. It was hard because, like I said, my parents were on opposite sides of the fence. But even when they had those student votes in high school I always voted for the Democrat.

I was in the military for four years. And that is a very different culture, it is fairly conservative. So it was hard, to be one of the only people, and to be constantly arguing with your supervisors about politics, and to be ganged up on.

I remember in 2000 that George Bush was offering a pay increase to the military. It was 8%, something like that. And I took a lot of hits for that. People would say, you're not going to vote for increased spending for the military, and more income for military folks? But when it came right down to it, there were more reasons to vote the other way. Against my own benefit, I guess, in the end.

Since I've been back in school -- I've finished my undergrad, and now I'm in graduate school -- I would actually consider myself fairly liberal.

YDS: Where did you grow up?

NVS: I grew up in Fairfield, Ohio. I split time between Fairfield and Hamilton because my parents were divorced when I was thirteen. I used to go back and forth. So Butler County. The Fairfield-Hamilton area.

YDS: When you served in the military for four years, where did you serve?

NVS: I did basic training in Texas, for about a year or so. I went to Pensacola, Florida, to do my training in aircraft structural maintenance. My permanent duty station was Yokota Air Force Base, which is on the outskirts of Tokyo. I was in Japan for two and a half years, with my wife.

YDS: What was your assignment?

NVS: I did structural repairs for C-130 aircraft, big cargo planes. They call them the trash haulers of the military. Kind of a big multi-purpose, multi-functional aircraft.

They are really the backbone of the United States Air Force. They carry everything you can think of, and they can land and take off on a football field.

So that is primarily what I did. I did a lot of refurbishment as well, which is basically make it look brand new. Take all the equipment off the plane and clean and paint it, make it look like it did when it came off the line in the first place.

YDS: What are you studying in graduate school?

NVS: Political science. My undergraduate degree was in political science, in Cincinnati. Now I'm in graduate school at the University of Miami. I am focusing on two areas, American politics and public administration.

YDS: What prompted you to jump into this race?

NVS: I'm from here, I still have family here. I've been gone because I was in the military, but I've obviously kept in touch with friends and family here.

Things just aren't going as well as they should, especially in areas like Hamilton and Middletown. Even in Dayton. There is just not a lot of growth, not a lot of jobs.

I did some research for a project I was working for in 2007, earlier in this school year. I was looking at why top congressional leaders lose, and obviously I was thinking about John Boehner in the background. But I was looking at Tom Foley, the Speaker of the House in 1994, and I looked at Tom Daschle, he was the Majority Leader of the Senate in 2004. Anyway, I was looking at all these articles, and key reasons why they lost their races. Because it was unprecedented for a Speaker of the House to lose a race for re-election, that hadn't happened over a hundred years. So that was kind of the beginning.

I was urged on by Greg Harris, who had run for Congress in 2004 in the 1st District -- I worked with him last year on his city council race -- and he just urged me to do it. He said that I shouldn't be afraid of running. And so I got into it, I've been hitting the ground running, and I've been going strong ever since.

YDS: Have you ever run for public office before?

NVS: No, I haven't.

Like I said, my education is in political science, I've worked on a couple of campaigns. I worked with David Pepper on his race for Mayor. That job led me to America Votes, as an organizer down here in Southwest Ohio in 2006.

So, I haven't been a candidate myself, but I've been involved in electoral politics. I don't know if you can learn by watching someone, but I tend to think that that's a way that I have learned quite a bit. I watched David Pepper and how he went about his campaign.

YDS: Yes, I think that one of our presidential candidates is arguing that she was able to learn by watching …

NVS: [Laughter] If you look at it, Obama has been quite successful because he runs his campaign quite a bit like an organizer. Granted it's quite a different role that he plays, but he's been very in touch with the grassroots and he has done very well in those caucus states, where turnout is low, it's on such an intimate, person-to-person level that he's been able to far exceed what Hillary Clinton has been able to do.

Plus, if you look at it, the Clinton campaign didn't really have a plan after February 5th. And Barack Obama did. That's why he has been able to succeed. That's my opinion.

YDS: Have you endorsed one or the other in the race?

NVS: I wouldn't say that I've endorsed anybody. I was a John Edwards supporter from the very beginning, since 2004. I actually went out to Iowa to work for John Edwards, in the caucus out there, because I think that times are tough right now, and people need someone who's ready to fight. I'm not saying that Barack Obama is not ready to fight, but it is not the message that he uses on a day-to-day basis. He's more conciliatory, he's more "let's work together." And I'm not saying that we can't work together, but I think that to a certain extent that just doesn't work.

You talk about corporate power, and things like that. Corporations are not going to just relent and let go of the power that they have, and give up the money that they get from folks on health care and things like that. To a certain extent you've just got to take that. So I think that John Edwards, his message just resonated more with me.

But at this point, I just really wish that they would consolidate, between themselves, and avoid some of the perils that could be down the road. If you talk about seating the delegates from Florida and Michigan, and some of the problems that could come with that. If you talk about what problems could come if the superdelegates were to decide this race. A good way to avoid those issues that could be detrimental to the Democratic Party and the ticket this year is to have those two consolidate and be on the same ticket.

I know that nobody can really say who would be on top, how would they really decide that. I think that they could work that out between themselves. But I think they basically both need to look at it and say, am I doing what's best for the Democratic Party? And I think that at this point, for them to continue the fight, I'm not so sure that they are.

So, back to the original question, I haven't really endorsed anyone. I kind of lean to Obama, but I really respect what Hillary has done, and the politician that she is, and the ideas that she has.

YDS: Two years ago the opponent to John Boehner was Morton Meier, and my understanding is that he filed petitions to run this year but then he withdrew in deference to your candidacy. Have you actually crossed paths with the gentleman?

NVS: Yes, I've run into him a couple of times. When I first decided to run the county chair in Butler County sat down with Mort and myself. Mort went over his background and what happened in 2006.

I was fairly familiar ... like I said, I was an organizer for America Votes, actually the organizer for Butler County. So I kind of knew what Mort had done. I had the opportunity to lay out my plan, my field plan, what I was trying to bring to the election this year. Once Mort had the opportunity to hear what I had to say, he ... well, he wasn't really planning to fund-raise, to canvass, to phone-bank, things like that. So, once he heard what my plans are, at least my initial plans, he, like you said, decided to withdraw, and to endorse me. I really have a lot of respect for people like Mort Meier. He's going to be a good part of this campaign.

YDS: What would you say are the issues that the people of the 8th District mostly care about?

NVS: Jobs are a big issue for folks around here. There are a lot of companies and factories that have closed up shop and left for good, and that has been kind of a continual pattern of this area for the last 20 or 30 years. So we need some kind of revitalization. People are looking for some kind of hope. I think that's something that I think that I can provide for them.

I think that a lot of ... it's kind of gone off from being the most important topic, but I think that a lot of people are still very concerned about the war, such as myself. I think it's far past time we bring home our troops from Iraq. We are really dropping the ball when it comes to what's going on in Afghanistan. If you look at a lot of the news reports, there has been a resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. It's really critical at this point that we don't let that go back to where it was originally. That's really what go us to the point we are in, that the Taliban had taken over in Afghanistan and Al Qaeda was able to set up bases there.

So, I think those two issues are critically important. I think that folks are also very concerned about health care costs. It's a big issue for folks. I think that if you look back in the past, thirty years ago, health care costs were 6% of people's income. Nowadays it's anywhere from 15% to 20%. Meanwhile, people's wages have remained fairly stagnant, at least within the working class population. So health care costs are a huge burden to a lot of folks. Even when they can afford to get health insurance, it's not that good a quality, a lot of people are getting excluded, and that's a real problem for a lot of folks around here.

YDS: I was just looking at the Secretary of State's web site and I was noticing that in the primary there were over 94,000 Democratic ballots voted in the 8th District and only 68,000 Republican ballots. What do you make of that?

NVS: Well, I think that people are finally coming home from being Reagan Democrats, in a sense. I think it is more involved than that, but I think that people are pretty tired of what is going on. If you just look at the past eight years, we've had scandal after scandal within the Bush administration, we have failing policy in Iraq, we have rising health care costs, we have right now over a hundred dollar a barrel oil, and that's causing rising inflation.

I think if you just look at it on the face of it, people are just ... The theme of the election is change, but it's because of a reason. People don't say change just to say change, but because they are tired of the status quo. I think that a lot of folks are ready to move forward, and hopefully see some new leadership here in this district.

YDS: Since you are aspiring to be a legislator, I'd like to ask you who your role model would be in that capacity. Who would you like to be like, as a lawmaker?

NVS: Some of the people I look up to are Robert Kennedy and his brother John Kennedy. They both sought to represent all populations of society, but especially those who don't necessarily have a voice. The poor, the working poor. It might get me into trouble with a lot of folks, but Franklin D. Roosevelt did quite a bit. He was very good at building coalitions. I know that he was not a legislator at the time, but John F. Kennedy passed monumental legislation, what he was able to get passed as President. The civil rights acts of 1964 and 1965, those enfranchised a whole population and really changed the landscape of American politics. Those are probably three pretty good people to name.

YDS: I don't imagine that you are going to be going toe-to-toe with John Boehner on television advertising, but what is your strategy? What activities and operations do you envision to get your message out?

NVS: I'm going to rely on my experience as an organizer to really utilize the most effective and efficient ways to get out and talk to voters. Getting in front of people face to face, whether it be by canvassing, town hall meetings, parades. But really doing stuff that you can see a measurable impact from.

A lot of people who run for office rely on standing on a corner and waving a sign, and that's great. Or getting yard signs out, and that's fine too. But what really wins elections is direct voter contact. So I will be on the ground, we will be holding phone-banks on probably a nightly basis, we will be out on the weekends going door to door and talking to people about important issues.

There's a lot of technology, but I'm not going to get too much into that because I don't want to give my strategy away. But I've had first-hand experience with some of the cutting technology that really Republicans have been using for years and years, and the Democrats are really just now starting to catch up on. It's vitally critical that not only I use that technology, but others around me, within the county and within the district. The only way we are going to win and be successful and build coalitions is if we work together, and we share information, and we share strategy. A lot of what I want to do is work with fellow Democrats within Butler County and within the district, to make this as successful a year as possible.

YDS: Do you expect to be raising money, enough money to trigger FEC reporting for example?

NVS: Oh, yes, I've already passed that threshold. I've already filed with the Federal Elections Commission. We will be raising funds quite vigorously.

Whether or not I am successful remains to be seen. I do intend to be successful. There hasn't been a big tradition of money raised within this district as far as money raised by a Democrat, but if I really work and use tactics that are successful, and talk to people about issues that matter to them, I definitely intend to raise enough money to make this competitive.