Next week’s election for the 12th District is truly special

Casting an informed vote is a citizen’s responsibility in any election. Very rarely, though, is the responsibility so great and each vote so consequential as in next week’s special election in Ohio’s 12th Congressional District.

Money and noise are pouring in from Democratic and Republican groups determined to sway the outcome. But the decision belongs solely to the voters of the 12th district; we hope they’ll make it in record numbers.

The Dispatch endorses Democrat and Franklin County Recorder Danny O’Connor over Troy Balderson, a Republican state senator from Zanesville, because we believe O’Connor will help provide a desperately needed check on President Donald Trump’s destructive impulses.

But we urge all voters to participate. If ever anyone needed a reason to go to the polls for a special election, 12th District voters have it.

With control of Congress on the line in November, next Tuesday’s contest to temporarily fill the seat left vacant by former Rep. Pat Tiberi’s resignation is being watched nationwide. The 12th has been reliably Republican for decades, but the Balderson/O’Connor race has turned out to be tight.

An upset win by O’Connor would be seen as a significant sign that Democrats could regain the majority in the House of Representatives.

Hence we’ve got seemingly nonstop TV commercials and other attention courtesy of the Congressional Leadership Fund, which spent more than $100,000 just in July on phone calls, field canvassers and literaturedroppers, plus hundreds of thousands more on TV. The National Republican Congressional Committee plans to spend half a million dollars on TV.

On the Democrat side, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has pledged $238,000 on TV commercials and three other liberal groups — Priorities USA Action, For Our Future and the House Majority PAC — have joined to put up $140,000 on digital commercials and get-outthe-vote efforts.

The sense of urgency attending the race has sparked some unusual efforts, including a reprise of a tactic used by Republicans on behalf of Gov. John Kasich when he ran in the 2016 presidential primary in New Hampshire: voter shaming.

“Neighbors Talk… WHAT WILL YOUR NEIGHBORS SAY ABOUT YOU IF YOU DON’T VOTE?” shouts an 8- by 11-inch cardstock flyer paid for by the National Republican Committee. Then, what struck some critics as a threat: “Remember, Voting is Public Record.”

The tone is a bit creepy and dystopian for our taste. We don’t expect central Ohioans anytime soon to start checking who on the block voted and adjusting their social circles accordingly. (For the record, voter rolls in Ohio do show whether a person voted or not in each election and, in primaries, whether he or she chose a Republican or Democrat ballot. They don’t show how or for whom anyone voted.)

Still, we hope voters of the 12th will embrace this responsibility and opportunity. It’s not only big-money political pros who care; our Letters to the Editor inbox on Monday included one addressed “From a Concerned Clevelander, to the Voters of Ohio’s 12th Congressional District,” urging a vote for O’Connor and ending with, “You are not just voting for your district; you are voting on behalf of the entire country. I beg of you. Please take the time to vote.”

We can’t say it any better than that.