Tuesday, December 06, 2005

OH-13 Betty Sutton Is In

From today's BJ:

Former state Rep. Betty Sutton, a Democrat who for eight years represented the
Barberton area in Columbus, has announced her candidacy for Congress from the
13th District.
Sutton, 42, was in the Ohio House from 1993 through 2000. She
left office because of term limits.
She now lives in Geauga County's Munson
Township, in the 14th District. Congressional representatives are not required
to live in the districts they represent.
An attorney, Sutton has worked as a
labor lawyer since leaving office.
* * *
Sutton has been a member of
Summit County Council and Barberton City Council.
Betty Sutton has been out so long that she's almost impossible to research on the web. 2000 was about half a century ago in web years. She was in the Ohio House at a time that most of my political attention was concentrated on Stark County, so I don't know much about her.

Her labor lawyering has been on behalf of teachers' unions, which may steal Sawyer's one possible sector of labor support away.

This could get interesting.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

She doesn't have to live in the district she would represent? Why on earth?

Scott Piepho said...

News to me too. I haven't independently verified the BJ's info (always a crucial step). I found this Wikipedia article (only mildly more authoritative -- kind of like seeing the same piece of gossip in two tabloids) from which we learn that it is a matter of state law and that Ohio is in the minority.

We shouldn't get too bent out of shape about this. After all, the voters elect and not living in the district is something any voter can understand. For this reason I think that Capri Cafaro would have a tough time here. Betty Sutton less so, since her political roots are in Summit.

Anonymous said...

Here's a website for John Wolfe. He's a candidate for the same seat, and he lives in Akron.

Wolfe2006.org