Meet the 2006 Buckeye Firearms Association endorsees

This year, Buckeye Firearms has profiled some of our endorsed candidates. We want you to understand who they are and why they are important to our efforts to restore our rights. They are as much a part of the “team” as any of us, for without their support, we could not have come this far. With your help, we will work with them in the future as we continue our quest to protect and preserve your rights.

Statewide Candidates:
Ken Blackwell, Ted Strickland, Bill Peirce - Governor.
In their showdown to outgun each other for Ohioans’ votes on Nov. 7, Strickland and Blackwell eagerly burnish their gun credentials. But with both boasting endorsements from pro-gun groups, the oft-contentious gun-owner rights debate appears headed for a draw in the governor’s race.

Tom Raga - Lt. Governor
Raga has a solid sportsmen gun owner record in the Ohio House. He co-sponsored the Ohio concealed carry legislation, HB 12 and current legislation HB 347. As noted above, he co-sponsored and voted for HB 296, the Apprentice Hunting License bill. Ohio was the second state in the nation to pass this legislation designed to make it easier to introduce young people to hunting and trapping.

Marc Dann - Attorney General for the State of Ohio
If you are a Republican who is happy with Governor Taft and Senator Mike DeWine, then you will probably like Marc Dann’s opponent. But if you are sick of your party selling you out to the highest bidder, or what ever else would make a person fight to kill good legislation for gun owners, than you need to support Marc. He is the only pro-gun candidate running for Attorney General, a crucial office for the gun owner.

Mary Taylor - Auditor of State
Mary Taylor is the only pro-gun person in this race. Her opponent served as a state representative voting against your second amendment rights, against sportsmen’s issues, against ending junk lawsuits attempting to bankrupt firearms manufacturers and against your right to self-defense. Her opponent offers nothing good for the law-abiding gun owner and has worked to trample your constitutional rights.

Sandy O’Brien - Treasurer for the State of Ohio
Talking to Sandy at the US Sportmen's candidate reception and the Buckeye Firearms meet and greet at Black Wing it is clear that she is much more than talk. She supports hunting and Second Amendment rights because she has enjoyed them her whole life. Her children have enjoyed them. She has a passion that matches ours in her desire to see Ohio pass real firearms reform.

Ohio House:
Diana Fessler - Ohio House – 79th district

During her tenure she has co-sponsored many pro-gun bills including: HB225 and HB113 the Vermont style concealed carry bills, HB12 the Shall Issue concealed carry bill that ultimately became law. HB91 the Alaska style concealed carry bill, and HB347 the pending CCW reform bill. Because of her consistent voting record on pro-gun / pro 2nd Amendment issues, Buckeye Firearms Association is proud to endorse Diana Fessler.

Jon Husted - Ohio House – 37th district

“We’ve not only protected our Second Amendment rights, we have advanced them. The House has passed HB 347. I support preemption; we just can not have different standards across the state for gun owners. Lots of people made dire predictions when HB 12 was passed. Of course none of that happened. We did things and stood for our beliefs with concealed carry. We’ve gone about changes in a responsible way.”

Lynn Wachtmann - Ohio House – 75th district

Because of his consistent voting record on pro-gun / pro-Second Amendment issues, as well as his willingness to lead by introducing Second Amendment/ Sportsmen-related legislation and work to see it made law, Buckeye Firearms Association is proud to endorse Lynn Wachtmann.

Ohio Senate:

Steve Buehrer - Ohio Senate – 1st district

Buehrer has sponsored numerous sportsmen’s related bills at the Ohio Statehouse. Most recently, the Governor signed his HB 296 that allows Apprentice Hunter’s Licenses. This law allows Ohio’s youth to try hunting with adult supervision before having to get a regular hunter’s license. He has also sponsored the "Castle Doctrine" that explicitly codifies that Ohioans can defend themselves against an intruder, and he also successfully fought provisions in the last biennial budget that diverted hunting fees into the general fund.

Emily Kreider - Ohio Senate – 3rd district
This contest highlights why it is important for each responsible pro-gun voter in Ohio to get to know the candidates, rather than simply voting straight ticket for one party, or blindly following any one groups' endorsement list. Even though certain other pro-gun groups have inexplicably endorsed the incumbent anti-gun Senator, we stand by our endorsement of his pro-gun challenger, Democrat Emily Kreider, and we would like your help in adding her to the pro-gun votes we can count on in the Senate. Consider this from the Columbus Dispatch:

    No Democrat in central Ohio has been more swamped by ads than Emily Kreider, a business consultant who is challenging Sen. David Goodman, R-New Albany, in the 3rd District, covering eastern and northern Franklin County.

    "It’s pretty much David and Goliath, although this time the Goliath is David," Kreider said.

    While she spent $15,000 on a cable television ad a few weeks ago, the Ohio Republican Senate Campaign Committee is expected to spend more than $1 million on Goodman’s ads.

U.S. Congress:
Jean Schmidt - U.S. Congress – 2nd district

Schmidt was in the Ohio House of Representatives when HB12 (concealed carry) passed in 2003. She not only voted for the bill, but she stood up and proclaimed why it was important to support it. Like us, she much preferred the House passed version (which did not allow media access or require “plain sight” carry in a car) but understood that restrictions were preferable to the prohibition against carrying a firearm we were living under at the time.

Jim Jordan - U.S. Congress – 4th district

Jordan understands that the Second Amendment is about more than “duck hunting”. It is about Freedom and our Constitutional right to protect ourselves and our families. Spend any time with him and you understand how much he cares about his family, your rights, and our country. He is not the politician you see on TV clamoring for votes on the topic of the day, he is like your best friend; the one person you’d count on when you need a big favor.

Joy Padgett - U.S. Congress – 18th district

Joy Padgett has spent years working to improve Ohio’s firearm laws from the perspective of a gun owner and active shooter. She understands us because she is one of us. While in years past she may have taken her city cousins “snipe hunting,” today she uses her charm and strong convictions to show her city bound colleagues why guns are just as important to today’s urban society as they where to her growing up rural Ohio.

Justice
John Willamowski - Third District Court of Appeals
It’s not important that a judge be “pro-gun” but rather that they correctly apply the law. As we have seen far too often, judges sometimes go to great lengths to write a twisted opinion to avoid doing what is clearly right; finding for the “pro-gun” side. John Willamowski will not do that. He will simply apply the law. Every law abiding citizen should be happy with that. Gun owners should be thrilled.

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Buckeye Firearms Association is a grassroots organization dedicated to defending and advancing the right of citizens to own and use firearms for all legal activities, including self-defense, hunting, competition, and recreation. Read more.

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