Wednesday, October 17, 2018

WILBURN (OELSLAGER, 48TH), FRIEDMAN (SCHURING, 29TH) MAKE NATIONAL POLITICAL NEWS


ARE THEY PART OF A DEMOCRATIC "BLUE WAVE" OR "LEFT WING ANGRY MOB?"


The Stark County Political Report spoke briefly with Democratic Ohio House (District 48) candidate Lorraine Wilburn (Republican Scott Oelslager, her opponent) at the Stark Democratic Party 1st Annual Chairman's Event last week which featured Michael "Fight Harder" Avenatti who is a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2020 against Republican incumbent Donald J. Trump.

Wilburn was enthusiastic about the reception she is getting from voters in the highly gerrymandered "Republican" 48th (Jackson Township and North Canton are the  core of the district) as she does door-to-door in the district.

One of Wilburn's motivation in running against Oelslager was that, she says, he totally blew off her request to meet with him in his capacity as state Senator for the 29th Ohio Senate District.

Oelslager (35 years in the Ohio General Assembly; OGA) and his fellow Stark County Republican Kirk Schuring (25 years in the OGA) have swapped back and forth between the 48th and the 29th (in prior configurations having different numbers but essentially the same as their current configuration) as a way to defeat the intention of Ohio's voters who approved term limits.

"Organized" Democrats are fostering the "Blue Wave" notion whereas their Republican counterparts are characterizing the likes of Wilburn and Friedman as being part of an "Angry Mob.

Monday's Washington Post (WP) does an outstanding journalistic job of framing in juxtaposing the "Blue Wave" and "Angry Mob" framework for the upcoming November election.

Here are some quotes from the Wilburn/Friedman perspective:

“He’s (Republican contacted door-to-door) with me on the cost of health care and preexisting conditions,” Lorraine Wilburn, a first-time Democratic candidate for the Ohio statehouse, told her 11-year-old son, Finn. “He said he would take a look at me.”

“We are fighting for the mortal soul of our country,” 

“Coming together is the antidote. It’s the antithesis of the divisiveness,” said Lauren Friedman, an Ohio state Senate candidate and mother of three, who started organizing with Wilburn in Canton days after Trump’s election. “Even us just going and canvassing — that is making a change.”

Wilburn still remembers her disbelief on election night in 2016. A liberal activist for years, she did not volunteer that year. “I used the excuse of being a busy mom for checking out of the process for a moment,” she said. “Even those of us who are involved had gotten too complacent.”After Wilburn decided to run for a local seat, she persuaded Friedman, who had served as a Navy intelligence specialist in the Persian Gulf, to run as well. Both women quit their jobs to run full time.

“I tell her, ‘You save the world, and I’ll make the tacos,’ ” said Wilburn’s husband, Jake, who wears his wife’s campaign shirt, which includes an image of Wonder Woman.

Is there a "Blue Wave" in the making in the country and in Stark County?

Or, as Republicans are asserting they are just a sampling of a continuing American political phenomenon of being an "Angry Mob?"

If it is the former rather than the latter, we could wake up on November 7th to hearing about state Representative-elect Lorraine Wilburn, state Senator-elect Lauren Friedman and, of course, Congressman-elect Ken Harbaugh!

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