These are my notes of the candidates debate for the Ohio 2nd Congressional District Democratic primary that was held on Wednesday. (I’m sorry if they come off a bit scattered. They were written at 3 o’clock this morning.)

The format for the debate was for each candidate to give a two minute opening and closing statement with six questions for all of the candidates in the middle.

Dr. Wells Wulsin Dr. Wells Wulsin

It was obvious from listening to Dr. Wells Wulsin that her record as a physician, epidemiologist and citizen was very impressive. She cited several times during the night her work on the whooping cough epidemic from 10 years ago as an example of her ability to bring groups together. While highly critical of the actions of the Bush administration she emphasized her ability to reach common ground with people.

While many of her positions such as on Iraq, the environment, trade, Social Security, the deficit and education could be seen as virtual mirror images of John Kerry’s campaign it was when she talked about health care that Dr. Wells Wulsin really shined. When each candidate was asked what they would do about health care she instantly started defining the core aspects of the issue: access, affordability, taxes, the burden on small businesses and prevention. It was obvious that no matter what happens in the race Dr. Wells Wulsin will be a resource that any candidate would do well to listen to.

As a candidate it was obvious that this was something new to her. She would often walk out from behind the table and then loose her train of thought contorting herself around to read from her notes behind her. Often her enthusiasm would get the best of her. As someone who has done my fair share of public speaking the big problem is that your mind is racing much faster than your mouth moves. One really has to work to slow things down and focus on a few key points. Given the brilliance of Dr. Wells Wulsin it was clear that her mind was racing very very fast.

Charles Sanders Charles Sanders

Perpetual nominee Charles Sanders retired from GM with 30 years experience and has been the Mayor of Waynesville. He has run four times as the Democratic nominee for the seat. Adam T over at MyDD has indicated that the Democratic “establishment” will want to push away from Mr. Sanders and towards new blood in the race.

Mr. Sanders obviously had a lot to say last night. His opening speech was a rapid fire list of issues. So rapid that it was often hard to understand what he was saying. Again… many were standard fare Democratic issues straight out of the last years campaign.

The two areas in which Mr. Sanders really shined were Iraq and labor. He was very passionate when he talked about the importance of respecting the faith of people in Iraq. Obviously the stories of what has happened over there have affected him deeply. He called the invasion of Iraq the most atrocious thing in American history.

In talking about jobs he went right to the heart of it: health care, strengthening labor, tax loopholes, corporate welfare, the importance of small business… things that I’d like to hear more of from a candidate, and did from Mr. Hackett later on.

Of all the candidates there last night Mr. Sanders was the one that seemed the most engaged with the other candidates. While many seemed preoccupied with their next chance to speak he was in there cheering them on when he liked what they had to say.

As a speaker Mr. Sanders left much to be desired. He spoke way to fast to the point where it was sometimes hard to understand what he was saying. When asked about Democratic values instead of speaking from the heart he started reading his own campaign flyer.

Jim Parker Jim Parker

Health Care Administrator Jim Parker was the greenest of the candidates there last night. To be honest Mr. Parker had little to say beyond that fact that he believed in the American dream, God, family and Diversity. He spoke again and again about how he has talked to people all over the county. It would be good if he spent more time talking about what it was he talked about with them. He stressed many times how he would be someone who would work with Republicans.

Admittedly this was the first time he had ever spoken before an audience as a candidate. It showed. he would often wonder off into uncharted territories improvising ideas that he admitted to everyone he came up with right then and there, such as a $1 million prize to the first person who invents a car engine that gets one mile to the gallon.

Jeff Sinnard Jeff Sinnard

Engineer and stay at home dad Jeff Sinnard is a rarity in public life, running entirely as a 100% pro life candidate. That doesn’t just mean “pro-life” when it came to abortion, but also anti war, anti death penalty, etc… When the issue of Iraq came up he talked about his activities as a protester.

One thing interesting is that both himself and Mr. Parker described the race as a battle between David and Goliath. Mr. Sinnard went so far as to describe his key values (life, family, justice, responsibility, security) as five smooth stones… a message that you can see on his campaign site.

Mr. Sinnard is a good, relaxed speaker. It is refreshing to hear a pro-life candidate be intellectually consistent. Afterwards talking to Mr. Sinnard it was clear that we has being 100% pure in his pro life stance, no matter what effect that might have such as in the case of a girl impregnated by her own father. When he asked me my opinion I told him that I didn’t think that it was any of my business what anyone did when it came to making the difficult decisions over their own body. Mr. Sinnard nodded. As I told one of the candidate’s representatives after the event my one biggest regret was that no one else took about the chance to take Mr. Sinnard’s position head on and stand up for choice. It’s such a popular position I don’t understand why candidates are afraid to speak up for it.

Arthur Katz

Arthur Katz is a national treasure. An 82-year-old lawyer from Mason, Mr. Katz received the Bronze Star as well as being injured twice during his service in WWII with the 86th Cavalry under General Patton. He calls himself the shadow candidate since he’s running as a write in since he didn’t collect the signatures in time to get on the ballot.

A very very funny man it was a joy to hear him speak. He started off by assuring everyone that at 82 he has just had his cholesterol checked and it was very good. This drew cheers from Dr. Wells Wulsin.

Mr. Katz’s key point was that we were being conned by the Republicans. He was surprised how much more paranoid we are here in America over Israel because of President Bush’s fear mongering.

Mr. Katz’s speaking style centered around stories… WWII, meeting his German Lutheran Wife (he’s Jewish) and how he has been able to get along with her diverse family.

While he’s got an almost impossible climb in this race not being on the ballot, I’m still glad that he came and it was an honor meeting him.

Paul Hackett Paul L. Hackett

When it comes to young, up and coming politicians Paul Hackett is straight out of central casting. And as much as it pains me to say it, I liked what I saw.

From the first moment he spoke it was obvious that Mr. Hackett was a very experienced public speaker. What was really refreshing was that while the other candidates talked about problems with the Bush Administration and how they would solve them Mr. Hackett talked about organization… how he was building up his team… doing the organizational work needed to win the race. While everyone else was in the clouds Hackett’s feet were firmly on the ground. Being a champion of preparation and organization this was all music to my ears.

Mr. Hackett indicated that he has already gotten endorsements from the UAW, Teamsters and Pike County Democratic Party.

Afterwards, when I asked him about it he told me that since in this audience we all shared the same basic values he thought it was more important to talk about how we were going to win this thing.

Mr. Hackett had just returned from Iraq several months ago. Surprisingly enough he didn’t bite at the chance to slam the President over Iraq, instead talking about the importance of completing our mission and of the Iraqi soldiers that he served besides, including in the battle of Fallujah. The only chink in the armor was when the moderator talked about 1,200 American soldiers wounded in Iraq and he sharply corrected him that the figure was over 30,000. I’ve been hoping that veterans returning from Iraq would start steping into the political ring. There’s a lot to say for someone who has actually walked the walk as they say. I would think that it would be very surreal fighting in Iraq one day , the running for Congress the next. If he was effected by it you wouldn’t know it from looking at him. One hint of the show to come was when he said that he didn’t think that whichever candidate they chose to put up against him could match him when it came to his record on Iraq.

When it came to issues, Hackett kept things simple. For instance, when talking about Social Security he talked about how when he sets up a Christmas Fund for the kids he doesn’t take the money out and spend it in July. When it comes to solutions he thought that Warren Buffet had a good idea in raising the cap to $150,000. One thing that did spark some fire was on the issue of jobs as he went into how unamerican it was using our tax dollars to subsidize the outsourcing of American jobs.

Mr. Hackett was obviously playing to win. Staffers hired just days before were busy filming him so that they could critique his performance. When asked about their priorities they talked about one thing: raising money. I hate to say it but if you are playing to win, that is how the game is played.

Conclusions It’s real easy to talk about the strength of the American spirit and God and country, but it is real hard to talk about how you are actually going to get to the point where you can do anything about it. The big challenge of this race will be if any one candidate can unify the local Party and the candidates in such a way as to make a real stab at this seat. I know which candidate I thought was the best, but does that translate into building a coalition? The ball is in their courts.

Afterwards Afterwards there was a presentation by Mark Ditz from Educate Ohio. They are working on getting an initiative on the ballot to reform the way schools are funded in Ohio. I gave him my now common spiel on the power of content syndication. It’s good to see groups ratchetting up the ballot process in order to promote much needed change in Ohio. The fact that politicians have been in violation of multiple State Supreme Court rullings on school funding is a disgrace.

UPDATE: I should say that Adam T does say that this is pure speculation on his part. He did make a good call in any case.