Invitation: Meet Candidate Luke & Lloyd HOuse ~ 12

Dear Friends,

Sue Ransohoff and Ellen Bierhorst are hosting a house party for Luke Brockmeier on Tuesday 24 January at the Lloyd House (Ellen's home) in Clifton.

Luke is hoping to win the Democratic primary on March 6 so that he can run for the Ohio House of Representatives.  (Also in the primary for our district is Denise Driehaus, who is currently in the Ohio House representing her West Side district.)  

We want you to meet Luke, who has impressed both of us so much.  Below, Ellen's interview last week with him, as published in the Virtual Salon weekly newsletter.  

You can request an absentee ballot for the March 6 primary here: ballot requests here

And you can make donations to Luke's campaign here: http://lukeforohio.com/contribute/ 

Luke has a facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Luke-for-Ohio/225400477527318 

and a website:  LukeforOhio.org

Please join us on Tuesday 24 January at the Lloyd House, 3901 Clifton Avenue at 5:00 PM.  Parking on Lafayette Avenue.  [Can you leave your shoes in the foyer?  We usually do.]  We'll have decaf coffee, wine, and snacks.  Luke will meet everyone and give his stump speech, then take questions.  All done at 7:00.  Come!

Ellen and Sue

ELLEN'S INTERVIEW WITH LUKE:

On Friday, January 6, candidate Luke Brockmeier (running for Ohio Statehouse Democrat nomination, primary March 6--absentee voting starts January 31, ballot requests here)  came to my house for coffee and stayed, talking passionately and intelligently for nearly two hours.  Luke is a highly pleasant 31 year-old graduate of Princeton H.S. and    from http://www.facebook.com/pages/Luke-for-Ohio/225400477527318?sk=photos

Miami U. who came to politics from his first career in theater.  Don't be alarmed by how skinny he is; this is a guy who LOVES to work.  At his present job as volunteer coordinator/recruiter for Planned Parenthood (Yay!) he works 60 hours a week.  As Ohio Statehouse rep. for our district, a newly Gerrymandered Democrat-dominated district (Clifton, Silverton, Norwood, Northside, St. Bernard, CUF - "the Heights", Walnut Hills, O'Bryanville, Evanston, Hyde Park, Oakley, Madisonville, Columbia Township , Silverton, Amberley) he would also work his butt off, literally I guess.  

After graduation from college in 3 years with 2 Bachelor's degrees (Philosophy and French) Luke got an apartment in Clifton and began working at The Know Theatre in Over-The-Rhine (OTR).  After three years in Oxford, OH, he was thrilled and relieved to be among other progressive people.  In 2005 Luke joined the campaign to repeal the heinous Article 12 (remember, that was the charter amendment prohibiting any ordinance protecting GLBT folks from discrimination) and learned that, "If you are right, and know how to convince people you are right, and go to every door, you can win."  From then on the fuse was lit.  He went to work for America Votes where he met our much-admired Lloyd House public policy consultant Bentley Davis (whose letter in support of Luke was published in the Virtual Salon 1/5/12).  

It's important that Luke receive the Democratic nomination at the March 6 primary.  In this district any Dem is bound to win.  Of course I asked him how much good he could do in Republican-run Columbus, and he convinced me, "quite a lot".  Not through legislation, at present, but through influence with administration department people who want to save money.  Luke has it figured out how we can cleverly implement the Affordable HealthCare Act (due to be fully implemented in 2014) so as to save money for both state and citizens.  Also, he has a vision of recapturing the governorship in 2014:  we have more Democratic voters in Ohio than the Republicans have, and this fall we saw a marvelous activation of this electorate in the "We Are Ohio" campaign that succeeded in quashing that dreadful Senate Bill 5 (that was the one that so badly crippled the whole labor movement in Ohio by restricting the public employees' right to collective bargaining.)  

"But, Luke," I said, "we won that fight this fall, and incidentally in the great liberal turn-out brought in a liberal city council with it, because there was a tremendous influx of money from the labor movement, not only in Ohio but from all across the country!"  

"Ah," he replied, "but now those voters have been awakened.  Mobilized.  All we have to do is to keep them awake and marching to the polls in 2012, and 2013, and then pow!  In 2014 we take back the governor's office."  He sees it as a lot of work, but so worth it and so winnable.  

Luke has two Democratic opponents: Denise Driehaus and some no-name whom I am not taking seriously.  Denise is the one to beat.  Denise is the sister of the recent US Rep Steve Driehaus, a West side family who are all anti-Choice.  She runs a private swim-club in Price Hill.  Denise moved out of her West Side neighborhood and relocated in our district in order to run for our representative.   She is currently serving as Statehouse rep for the old 31st district.  You can visit her page here: http://www.denisedriehaus.com/

Luke feels he is much more in line with the values of our new 31st District, for instance, his support for Choice (i.e. freedom to choose abortion).  He has researched the values of our communities and they are solidly pro-Choice and Progressive.  The most populous part of the district is Clifton/Northside, a known liberal bastion.  

Luke's philosophy is that government's purpose is to provide people the means to a life of dignity, including good education, healthcare, fair and safe working conditions, and the freedom to choose when and with whom to start a family.  With these things people can improve themselves and their society.  We talked about the critical need to safeguard democracy itself through campaign finance reform (he said we need public financing of elections) and through making it easy to register as a voter.  "We should digitize the registration process; we should have same-day registration, internet registration, and even cell-phone registration!"  He hopes that when we retake the Ohio governor's mansion we will get all those things.  

Luke will need a lot of help to get his vision to the district.  You can make a donation at http://lukeforohio.com/contribute/ and/or leave your comments at http://lukeforohio.com/endorsement/. 

 

Luke Brockmeier is an enlightened, people-centered public servant with boundless energy and the passion to pour it all into the job of representing us in Columbus.  The Lloyd House will be hosting campaign events in these next 2 months leading up to this important March 6 primary.  We'll be having phone bank parties here every week.  I hope you will join us (stay tuned here for announcements), and that you will give generously to this pivotal campaign!  

Ellen