By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com
The Crawford County Democrats gathered together for their annual Ox Roast Saturday night. Held at the Crawford County Conservation League, this event is a meet-and-greet for Democratic candidates at all levels leading up to November’s election.
A dinner of shredded beef and pork sandwiches was served after some mingling between candidates and voters, followed by a series of speeches from the candidates and featured speaker Nan Whaley.
Whaley is the mayor of Dayton where she is in her first term. She served as a City Commissioner for eight years after getting elected in 2005. Her victory in that race saw her as the youngest woman ever elected to the city commission at the age of 29. Her efforts in the city had focused on a regional manufacturing task force and improving livability in Dayton’s downtown district.
This portion of her work has seen some rousing successes. Many of the downtown apartment complexes are experiencing wait lists and for the first time in 25 years there was an increase in downtown retail space.
Whaley’s talk focused on the subject of why she’s a Democrat. She recalled her earliest memory of her parents being upset when it became apparent that Reagan was going to defeat Carter in the 1980 election.
She expanded on this idea with further anecdotes from her youth and how her parents constantly tied life events to political activity.
“We owe everything we’ve got to organized labor,” Whaley recalled her father saying.
It was this childhood that spurred Whaley into a political career and she encouraged everyone in attendance to not just vote themselves, but to get out and encourage other people to vote.
“These elections have consequences,” Whaley said.
Candidates who spoke were Judge Steve Eckstein for Juvenile and Probate courts, Leanna Hershey for Crawford County auditor, Rob Neff for Common Pleas Court judge, and Janet Garrett who is running for Ohio’s 4th congressional district. Jeff Lehart, who is running for the 87th district in the State House, was unable to attend but had his campaign manager, Bryce Coder, speak in his stead.