The Associated Press is reporting that U.S. Representative Bob Ney, who has been under scrutiny over gifts he was alleged to have received from a lobbyist, has decided not to seek reelection this November, and has asked state Senator Joy Padgett to run in his place.

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[On] Monday, Ohio state Sen. Joy Padgett told The Associated Press that Ney called her Saturday and asked the fellow Republican to run in his place, saying defending himself has been a strain on his family.

"It's a very sad time," Padgett said of Ney's decision, first reported by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on its Web site.

Ney told her "just that there's only so much he can take. He said, 'I have to do this,'" Padgett said.

Padgett, from Coshocton, said she would run for Ney's seat in the 18th district, a conservative, 16-county region of farms, working and abandoned mines, Appalachian hills and Rust Belt cities.

Joy Padgett, a two-time Buckeye Firearms Association endorsee who ran for lieutenant governor this spring on a ticket with Attorney General Jim Petro, has been a strong friend to gun owners in the Ohio Senate. Although we are excited about the prospect of having another strong pro-gun legislator in Congress, should she win, the firearms movement in Ohio will miss the strong leadership Joy Padgett has exhibited in the Ohio Senate.

Contributed by a Buckeye Firearms Columbus volunteer

The area surrounding The Ohio State University is one of the most dangerous areas in the city and state, and there is very little the students can do to counteract it. Additionally students engage in vary risky practices that pre-select many of them for victimization, often without realizing it.

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By Jim Irvine

General election day is Tuesday, November 7. Today we are three months away.

Buckeye Firearms endorsements are being completed with many new endorsements posted to the web site today. We will continue to make endorsements throughout the month of August.

We are also starting the job of putting each of you who volunteered in touch with your endorsed local candidates. Because of the number of volunteers and campaigns involved, this is a large project and takes considerable time to coordinate. We are starting early this year to ensure we contact each of you in time to give find a campaign task that is enjoyable and fits with your busy schedule.

Volunteering on a local campaign is one of the best ways to show your elected representative how important the gun community is to the election process. Each hour we spend working on a campaign reinforces that we are about more than shooting guns – we are members of the community who are willing to work to improve the laws of our state. We will show up and work with those candidates that have committed to working with us. We are more than rhetoric – we are action.

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