12th District candidates show a different style

SUNBURY — For a quick six minutes Friday morning, about 100 voters in central Ohio’s 12th Congressional District took in a rare sight: Both candidates speaking from the same lectern.

But the three minutes apiece they got from GOP Congressman Troy Balderson and Democratic challenger Danny O’Connor was more than enough to display their contrasting styles.

O’Connor began with a loud “O-H” cheer — which brought the obligatory “I-O” response from the Sunbury/Big Walnut Area Chamber of Commerce breakfast gathering at North Star Golf Club — and wheeled into an issuesladen talk without notes.

He then returned to his seat at a front-row table, sat through the talks of several more candidates, and hung around afterward to chat with numerous audience members.

Balderson walked to the front from his backrow table and mostly read his speech before leaving immediately afterward.

Both men did take questions from journalists, but even there the contrast was glaring.

Balderson, who has turned down numerous requests (including one from The Dispatch and WOSU) to debate O’Connor, insisted that voters in the highly competitive race have seen them together enough times to make up their minds. Balderson O’Connor

“Danny and I have done forums and people know where we are,” Balderson said.

O’Connor said that though he appreciated the unusual chance for even 180 seconds at an event also attended by Balderson, voters would be better served by a formal debate in which both would have to answer questions and respond to each other.

“A three-minute stump speech without the chance to have a rebuttal or have follow-ups or have any further conversation is problematic. I mean, quite frankly, anyone could have said whatever the hell they wanted for three minutes up there and there would have been no accountability,” O’Connor said.

“I think if we’re going to have this dialogue about the future of our country, and our democracy, it needs to be robust, it needs to be a conversation that’s moderated, it needs to be about the issues that are keeping families up at night every single day.”

O’Connor, the Franklin County recorder, said Balderson’s quick speech and rapid exit show an aversion to being around people in the district.

“The contempt for voters … that he demonstrates needs to change on Nov. 6,” O’Connor said.

Balderson was asked about the prospect of winning without the massive outside financial support he received for the August special election that he won by 1 percentage point.

“I feel very confident in our campaign in what we have set up,” Balderson said. “I’m working hard. I want this. So if we get outside help, we get outside help.”

Both did agree that the 12th District electorate will be different than it was in the special election. But they disagreed in which direction.

Balderson said he will benefit from a more traditional GOP turnout in the Republican-oriented district, because many were distracted from voting this past summer by county fairs, vacations and getting their kids ready for school.

“I think the special election was a special time,” he said. “They had other things going on at that time and they just didn’t go out to vote.”

O’Connor said that students returning to college at Ohio State, Otterbein, Ohio Wesleyan and other institutions will bolster his chance of prevailing in the Nov. 6 rematch.

Green Party candidate Joe Manchik also spoke at the Chamber event, decrying both parties for taking in untold millions in corporate money.

“They use a lot of that money to silence thirdparty candidates all across the country,” he said.