THE TOM POETTER FILE
Age: 51
Job: Professor at Miami University in Oxford in the Department of Educational Leadership, teaching curriculum studies and educational leadership at the undergraduate, graduate and doctorate levels.
Family: Married and two sons in college at Miami University
Online: Website — www.poetterforcongress.com, Twitter — @Poetter4House; Facebook — Tom Poetter for Congress
House Speaker John Boehner’s opponent this November says he’s learned a lot from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s shocking loss last month to a tea party challenger.
Tom Poetter, a Miami University professor and Democrat, said he believes the same reasons why Cantor, a Virginia Republican, lost his seat in Congress could be the key to defeating Boehner, who is seeking his 13th term and finishing up his 24th year in Washington, D.C.
“Everybody in the country is learning from that race,” said Poetter, who launched his summer canvassing efforts in Middletown this past Saturday. “Cantor lost in part because his job became a national job, not a regional job. He didn’t represent the people of District 7 in Virginia.
“They lost touch with him,” he said. “This is the exact same thing people are telling me about this race.”
Poetter (pronounced Pet-ter) recently spoke with the Journal-News in an exclusive interview about his bid for the 8th Ohio Congressional District seat. This newspaper has offered the same opportunity to Boehner, the incumbent and West Chester Twp. Republican.
The 8th Ohio Congressional District includes all of Butler, Clark, Darke, Miami and Preble counties, and the southern portion of Mercer County.
Poetter, 51, said people have told him that Boehner is not as visible in the district as he should be. He said it’s possible to have a national profile while serving your local consitutents.
“They do not have to be mutually exclusive,” he said. “I’ll show up at any single meeting in our district and talk about issues that people want to talk about… When you show up and are present, you show value to the people. That’s something the speaker can’t do anymore, or won’t do anymore.”
In Butler County, critics of Boehner, who has long touted his opposition to earmarks and pork-barrel spending, argue that he has brought few dollars, projects or jobs back to the area during his time in Congress.
But in an exclusive interview with this newspaper in February, Boehner defended his track record in his home district, saying he’s helped cities cut through bureaucratic red tape to deliver major projects, retain large employers and help key job providers with their pension obligations.
Poetter said, if elected, he wants to have “a substantive and comprehensive discussion” about welfare, work on funding the Highway Trust Fund, funding long-term unemployment benefits, and ensuring publicly funded entities are funded, among other things.
“This is a great nation, but any great nation can falter if it doesn’t invest. It has to continually make itself great,” Poetter said. “I think we’re great because we do things. We don’t stop doing things … we don’t stop doing things because of ideology.”
Poetter announced his candidacy for the 8th District seat this past October following the 16-day partial government shutdown that many reports say cost the taxpayers $24 billion. He said the shutdown jeopardized the country’s economic security and Boehner “had a huge role in that.”
“The shutdown was important to the nation because it showed exactly what the speaker was willing to do, which is use tactics that he would follow that were other people’s tactics that resulted catastrophic losses to the country,” Poetter said. “(Losing $24 billion in tax dollars) is not something to take lightly because that would pay for almost three times the amount of money to extend long-term unemployment to the nation’s hurting long-term unemployed.”
Kara Hauck, Boehner’s Ohio spokeswoman, said the speaker believes the best way to get Americans back to work is to create more jobs, and the Republican-controlled House has passed dozen of jobs bills “currently stuck in the Democratic-controlled Senate.”
“Far too many Americans are still unemployed in President (Barack) Obama’s economy, which is why the House will continue to focus on the American people’s priorities – jobs and the economy,” Hauck said.
Boehner has previously said he’d consider extending unemployment benefits if Democrats come up with what he would consider a fiscally responsible plan, which he says House Republicans have yet to see.
But Poetter said Democrats and Republicans “have worked out a deal,” and Boehner “still won’t bring it to the House floor for a vote.”
Poetter said during his campaign he will speak of “the democratic arts,” and how they are lost upon many politicians who serve in Washington, D.C.
“These are the things that people don’t talk enough about: collaboration, negotiation, consensus building, compromise, deliberation. These are the five hallmarks of the work that you do in democratic life,” Poetter said. “They’re trying to make things better for the American people. You don’t come full circle and wind up thinking and saying that suing the president is a real good example of executive leadership.”
The lawsuit, Poetter said, is “a complete and total waste” of time and resources and is really a matter of a “lack of leadership.” He called the lawsuit “ironic for someone who represents a party who really, really is for controls on frivolous lawsuits.”
On Saturday, Boehner released a column about “protecting the Constitution” and defended the lawsuit, saying: “This is not a stunt or joke.”
“Over the past five years, President Obama has circumvented the American people and their elected representatives through executive action, changing and creating his own laws, and excusing himself from enforcing statutes he is sworn to uphold,” Boehner wrote. “We’re not going to sit idly by while this president chips away at the very foundation of our democracy, which is why the House is now initiating legal action to compel the president to follow his oath of office and faithfully execute the laws of our country.”
Poetter said the May primary, where Boehner won with 71.5 percent of the vote, showed the speaker’s vulnerability. Since his first re-election bid in 1992 (he was elected in 1990), Boehner has never lost a primary election without garnering at least 85 percent of the vote.
“We’re going into this with eyes wide open. We know what the numbers are, we know what the numbers have been and we’re hopeful,” said Poetter. “We’re hopeful people are thinking about doing something different in the voting booth.”
He said this is done by giving voters a viable option and running “a real campaign based on ideas and based on content.”
Poetter will have to find a way to win despite a sizeable financial disadvantage. Boehner’s campaign committe spent more than $2.5 million on his GOP primary win over his two challengers, while Poetter spent $7,400 in his Democratic primary win. And according to the pre-election campaign finance report, Boehner had nearly $2.2 million on hand in May, and Poetter had more than $30,000.
Poetter said he hopes the November election in Ohio will be more like Virginia’s primary.
David Brat, who upset Cantor, “had $200,000 (in campaign finance money), and he spent it on the ground talking to people,” Poetter said. “ However much money we raise, we’re going to spend it on the ground talking to people. We know the speaker has an almost unlimited amount of money, but at some point … it doesn’t always matter who has the most money.”
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