My name is Mark Losey and I'm running for US Congress in Ohio's 15th District. No, that last name is not a typo and yes, I probably already heard that one. The last name is pronounced "LOW sea" and, once you get the obvious name jokes out of the way, it has good slogan potential (think "I Love Losey").
Unlike the incumbent, I'm not a career politician. Until now, I never posted to a blog or created a podcast. But I have been following blogs for awhile now, at least long enough to know that "Internet" is a singular noun. I'll begin by introducing our district.
The 15th district is in the heart of Central Ohio. It includes Union and Madison counties as well as the western half of Franklin County. Our district is all-American. It's an almost perfect slice of all of America, rural and urban, black and white, Asian and Latino, traditional and modern, poor and affluent, white-collar and blue-collar and everything in between. Our district faces the same challenges that Americans all over face.
This race will be a tough one. The incumbent is Deborah Pryce, the House's number four Republican and Republican Conference Chair. This race will share a piece of the national stage.
We can win this race in 2006. Despite the GOP's gerrymandering, our district refuses to go quietly. John Kerry carried our district in 2004, and Ms. Pryce's share of the vote keeps shrinking despite the lack of any serious opposition (from 67% in 2002 to 60% in 2004),
The reason we'll win is plain and simple: It's the right time for a new voice. It's true for the U.S. Congress and it's particularly true in Ohio, where over a decade of one-party rule has left decay, incompetence and corruption in its wake.
Ohioans and Americans in general feel anxious and adrift. It's easy to see how we got here. One-party rule has arrived by way of slash-and-burn politics and huge money. It has never offered any real solutions. Instead, one-party rule has seized control of government by dividing ordinary Ohioans against each other: faith against faith, race against race, rural against urban, and so on. Having divided regular Ohioans, the special interests have conquered. The rest of us are left voiceless, ignored and adrift. Ohioans are fed up and our campaign offers a new voice, at the right time, for ordinary Ohioans.
I've been told we have a remarkably vital campaign for a first-time candidate this far out from the 2006 general election. I don't really know, and it doesn't really matter. I've already seen the hope rising in the faces of all the folks I've met so far. It's a spark of hope I haven't seen since last November. With so much hope at stake, and with such a tremendous opportunity to fulfill it, I just know we have to keep moving forward!
So I'm here to introduce myself with the hope that this moves us forward. I invite you to check out our very first podcast. (
http://www.loseyforcongress.com/NetRoots/index.php) This was recorded at my kitchen table, so we're calling it the "Kitchen Table" series. We had a lot of fun recording it. It's low-tech, frank, unpolished, sometimes awkward, and occasionally cheesy. Mostly, I hope you'll find that it's an engaging introduction to a new voice for ordinary Ohioans. In the first podcast, you will meet my wife Tess and me, and hear from both of us about why I'm in this race and why we know I will win.
I invite you to visit our site often and to lend your support and feedback. I also hope you'll enjoy staying in touch with our journey as much as we enjoying taking it.
We will win this race because we have to and because it's time to. It's the right time for a new voice, our voice, in Ohio's 15th district.
Mark Losey
http://www.loseyforcongress.comQuestions? Contact Paul at
[email protected]