Mary Jo Kilroy
Encyclopedia
Mary Jo Kilroy is the former U.S. Representative
for , serving from 2009 until 2011. She is a member of the Democratic Party
from Ohio
. In her first term she introduced a bill to lend $20 million per year to small businesses (HR5322) and an amendment to assign liability to credit reporting agencies. She also contributed to legislation on executive pay. She was defeated in her November 2, 2010 re-election bid. However, she is going to run in the newly redrawn, Columbus-based Ohio's 3rd congressional district
in 2012.
She is an American
attorney and a former two-term County Commissioner of Franklin County, Ohio
, which includes the capital city of Columbus
and some of its surrounding suburban and rural areas. Previously, she served two four-year terms on the Columbus School Board after working in private practice.
In both the 2008 and 2006 United States House of Representatives elections, Kilroy was involved in close elections for Ohio's 15th congressional district
. She lost in 2006 after an election that required the counting of absentee ballot
s and election recount
s. However, after the incumbent retired, she won a similarly close election in 2008. In both cases, she was behind after the Election Day
vote tabulations, but made up significant ground with belated absentee ballot voting results. The 2010 election
race was widely followed in the mainstream press as a race that the Republicans were targeting.
, Kilroy grew up in Cleveland. The daughter of a pipe fitter, she paid her way through college by working at hospitals, as a waitress and as a counselor. She earned her bachelor's degree in political science
from Cleveland State University
in 1977 and her J.D.
from The Ohio State University in 1980.
Prior to practicing law as a partner
with her husband at the plaintiffs law firm
of Handelman and Kilroy, Kilroy was a social worker, hospital technician and tutor. In 1988, as chairman of her local branch of the National Lawyers Guild, Kilroy signed a letter urging Columbus Mayor Dana G. Rinehart to support an order in favor of creating an equal employment opportunity chief to handle race relations issues in the Columbus Division of Police
.
By her second year on the seven member board, she was a unanimous selection to be second in command as Columbus School Board Vice President. She was unanimously re-elected the following year. In her fourth year of service on the board beginning on January 3, 1995, she lost a 4–3 election for Columbus School Board President when the incumbent, Robert W. Teater, cast a tie-breaking vote for himself. She subsequently declined the vice presidency. During her fourth year, she unsuccessfully attempted to include a sexual orientation
policy in the school district's nondiscrimination policy that would protect homosexuals. She was reelected in 1995. In 1996, she contested Ohio's 16th district seat in the Ohio State Senate with Eugene Watts, but she lost by a 51.80–37.46% margin in a five-way contest.
Still on the school board, she resumed her vice presidency on January 5, 1998. She ascended to the Columbus School Board President position for her eighth year of service to the board on January 4, 1999. During this eighth year, she decided not to run for re-election to a third term in order to spend more time with her family.
On January 6, 2000, she won one of the Franklin County Democratic Party's two nominations for one of two seats to the three member Board of County Commissioners. The board oversees the Franklin County government's $1.3 billion budget and programs that range from child welfare to job training to minor league baseball. On November 7, 2000, she became the first Democrat elected as a Franklin County Commissioner in eight years. She won by a 48–47% margin by capturing 55 of 74 wards and 90% of the vote in six inner-city wards. She served as the Board's lone Democrat until she was re-elected to a second four-year term and Paula Brooks
was elected on November 2, 2004, to give Democrats the majority for the first time in twenty years. In her re-election she won by a 28,500 vote margin, which was substantially more than the 4,300 vote margin in 2000. During both elections, she won despite being widely outspent. She assumed the role of Board President on January 10, 2005.
Governing magazine named Franklin County as being among the five best-managed counties in the country during Kilroy's tenure. Also, Kilroy was named the Public Official of the Year by the Central Ohio Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers as a result of her role in creating the Columbus/Franklin County Affordable Housing Trust. Her term as commissioner was not without controversy, however. Kilroy came under fire during the awarding of contracts for the construction of Huntington Park
because the lowest bid for the concrete was rejected in favor of a higher bid by a union shop
. Eventually, the issue went to court and the commissioners decided to award the contract to the low bidder. She lost the 2006 race for U.S. Representative from to Deborah Pryce, 50.2%–49.7%.
, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, the cap and trade carbon emissions legislation
, and the federal health insurance reform legislation
.
Kilroy helped shape the Congressional Bill on executive pay that eventually became law by proposing an amendment requiring large institutional investor
s to reveal how they vote the shares that they own on pay proposals affecting companies that issued those shares. While serving her first term, she felt attached to the cause of health care reform because it had been an emphasis in her electoral platform.
Franklin County, which has elected Kilroy twice, makes up 87% of the 15th Congressional district. The 2006 race in Ohio's 15th district gained significant national attention as it was seen as one of a handful of seats that Democrats had an opportunity to gain from Republicans. As of mid-October, the race was generally considered to be a toss-up largely due to incumbent Representative Pryce's leadership in the Republican Party. Pryce had not had a close contest since her first election in 1992 and had garnered 10% more of the vote than George W. Bush
in 2004. However, Pryce was vulnerable due to Ohio Republican Party (Bob Taft
and Bob Ney
) scandals, the lagging Ohio economy, her association with controversial Dennis Hastert
and Mark Foley
, and backlash to Republican support of the Iraq War. Another Ohio Republican scandal in the minds of Ohio voters during the 2006 campaign was the Coingate scandal. Pryce and the Republicans had to keep conservative independent, Charles Morrison, off the ballot to have their best shot at success. A month before the election, Pryce was 12 points behind Kilroy. On the eve of the election, some experts, such as Time
, considered Pryce the underdog. Kilroy was expected to be the beneficiary of the decade-long migration of conservative voters to suburbs outside of the district.
Kilroy made an issue of Pryce's knowledge of the Foley scandal and the need for Hastert to resign. Kilroy also linked her opponent to the unpopular Republican administration and congressional majority. After Foley resigned following the page
scandal, Kilroy attacked Pryce with the conservative religious voters. Kilroy ran radio commercial
s on Christian and conservative radio station
s in an attempt to appeal to family-values-oriented listeners.
Two debates were held for this race during the 2006 election cycle. The first took place September 18, and the second was on October 12. In the first debate Kilroy and incumbent U.S. Representative, Pryce discussed the war in Iraq, the War on Terror, taxes, social security, the federal deficit and President Bush. In the final week before the election, Pryce attempted to demand another debate.
The second debate was marked by a more heated exchange on behalf of both participants. Kilroy referred to Pryce as a "right-wing apologist" and said that "Deborah Pryce continues to distort my record." Meanwhile Pryce described her opponent as a "far left fringe Democrat" and said that Kilroy "spews lies and misinformation." The debate was attended by 400 people at the Ohio State University
Fawcett Center and reporters from as far away as Ireland.
After regular ballots were counted, Pryce led Kilroy by over 3,500 votes with about 19,000 provisional ballots outstanding. The Franklin county absentee and provisional ballots were not counted until approximately two weeks after the election. On Monday November 27, nearly three weeks after Election Day, Pryce was declared the winner by a 1,054 vote margin that mandated a recount. After two recounts and all of the votes were counted, Congresswoman Deborah Pryce (R) prevailed over Democratic challenger Mary Jo Kilroy. The Franklin County Board of Elections announced the results Monday morning December 11, 2006. Pryce (R) gained 25 votes and Kilroy (D) gained 18 votes in the recount of votes in Franklin, Union, and Madison Counties in Ohio. Pryce won with 50.20% of the vote by a 110,739–109,677 margin. Kilroy felt her campaign was slowed by the early candidacy of fellow Franklin County Commissioner Paula Brooks, who eventually withdrew. Immediately after losing in 2006, she announced she would recontest the seat in 2008.
Ohio's 15th congressional district
In August 2007, incumbent Pryce announced her retirement at the end of her elected term. The Democrats felt that the seat continued to be vulnerable. Kilroy announced her intention to again seek the 15th District seat in 2008. She ran against Republican Steve StiversUnited States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
for , serving from 2009 until 2011. She is a member of the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
from Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. In her first term she introduced a bill to lend $20 million per year to small businesses (HR5322) and an amendment to assign liability to credit reporting agencies. She also contributed to legislation on executive pay. She was defeated in her November 2, 2010 re-election bid. However, she is going to run in the newly redrawn, Columbus-based Ohio's 3rd congressional district
Ohio's 3rd congressional district
Ohio's 3rd congressional district includes most of the city of Dayton and its surrounding suburbs and exurbs. It is currently represented by Representative Mike Turner.-List of representatives:-Selected election results:...
in 2012.
She is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
attorney and a former two-term County Commissioner of Franklin County, Ohio
Franklin County, Ohio
Franklin County is a county located in the state of Ohio, United States. In 2010 the population was 1,163,414, making it the second largest county in Ohio and the 34th largest county in population in the United States. Franklin County is also the largest in the eight-county Columbus, Ohio...
, which includes the capital city of Columbus
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
and some of its surrounding suburban and rural areas. Previously, she served two four-year terms on the Columbus School Board after working in private practice.
In both the 2008 and 2006 United States House of Representatives elections, Kilroy was involved in close elections for Ohio's 15th congressional district
Ohio's 15th congressional district
The 15th congressional district of Ohio is currently represented by Republican Steve Stivers.Union County and Madison County are entirely within the district's boundaries as is approximately half of Franklin County...
. She lost in 2006 after an election that required the counting of absentee ballot
Absentee ballot
An absentee ballot is a vote cast by someone who is unable or unwilling to attend the official polling station. Numerous methods have been devised to facilitate this...
s and election recount
Election recount
An election recount is essentially a repeat tabulation of votes that is used to determine the correctness of an initial count. Recounts will often take place in the event that the initial vote tally during an election is extremely close....
s. However, after the incumbent retired, she won a similarly close election in 2008. In both cases, she was behind after the Election Day
Election Day (United States)
Election Day in the United States is the day set by law for the general elections of public officials. It occurs on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The earliest possible date is November 2 and the latest possible date is November 8...
vote tabulations, but made up significant ground with belated absentee ballot voting results. The 2010 election
United States House of Representatives elections in Ohio, 2010
The 2010 congressional elections in Ohio will be held on November 2, 2010. Ohio has eighteen seats in the United States House of Representatives, and all eighteen incumbent Representatives will be seeking re-election in 2010...
race was widely followed in the mainstream press as a race that the Republicans were targeting.
Early life, education, and legal career
Born in Euclid, OhioEuclid, Ohio
Euclid is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. It is part of the Greater Cleveland Metropolitan Area, and borders Cleveland. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 48,920...
, Kilroy grew up in Cleveland. The daughter of a pipe fitter, she paid her way through college by working at hospitals, as a waitress and as a counselor. She earned her bachelor's degree in political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
from Cleveland State University
Cleveland State University
Cleveland State University is a public university located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. It was established in 1964 when the state of Ohio assumed control of Fenn College, and it absorbed the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1969...
in 1977 and her J.D.
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
from The Ohio State University in 1980.
Prior to practicing law as a partner
Partnership
A partnership is an arrangement where parties agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests.Since humans are social beings, partnerships between individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments, and varied combinations thereof, have always been and remain commonplace...
with her husband at the plaintiffs law firm
Law firm
A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to represent clients in civil or criminal cases, business transactions, and other...
of Handelman and Kilroy, Kilroy was a social worker, hospital technician and tutor. In 1988, as chairman of her local branch of the National Lawyers Guild, Kilroy signed a letter urging Columbus Mayor Dana G. Rinehart to support an order in favor of creating an equal employment opportunity chief to handle race relations issues in the Columbus Division of Police
Columbus Division of Police
The Columbus Division of Police is the main policing unit for the city of Columbus, Ohio. It is composed of 20 precincts, and the Chief of Police is Walter Distelzweig. Columbus is ranked the 8th most dangerous city in the United States of the 15 cities with a population of 700,000 or more,...
.
Local politics
In 1991, she ran for an eighteen-person contest for four Columbus School Board seats on a platform that included proposing to lengthen the scholastic day from six and a half hours to eight. Kilroy was one of four candidates to receive the endorsement of the Franklin County Democratic Party. On November 5, 1991, she placed behind incumbent Columbus School Board President, Sharlene Morgan, natural resources expert Robert Teater, past board member Bill Moss, which made her the fourth among the eighteen candidates and the final elected member.By her second year on the seven member board, she was a unanimous selection to be second in command as Columbus School Board Vice President. She was unanimously re-elected the following year. In her fourth year of service on the board beginning on January 3, 1995, she lost a 4–3 election for Columbus School Board President when the incumbent, Robert W. Teater, cast a tie-breaking vote for himself. She subsequently declined the vice presidency. During her fourth year, she unsuccessfully attempted to include a sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
policy in the school district's nondiscrimination policy that would protect homosexuals. She was reelected in 1995. In 1996, she contested Ohio's 16th district seat in the Ohio State Senate with Eugene Watts, but she lost by a 51.80–37.46% margin in a five-way contest.
Still on the school board, she resumed her vice presidency on January 5, 1998. She ascended to the Columbus School Board President position for her eighth year of service to the board on January 4, 1999. During this eighth year, she decided not to run for re-election to a third term in order to spend more time with her family.
On January 6, 2000, she won one of the Franklin County Democratic Party's two nominations for one of two seats to the three member Board of County Commissioners. The board oversees the Franklin County government's $1.3 billion budget and programs that range from child welfare to job training to minor league baseball. On November 7, 2000, she became the first Democrat elected as a Franklin County Commissioner in eight years. She won by a 48–47% margin by capturing 55 of 74 wards and 90% of the vote in six inner-city wards. She served as the Board's lone Democrat until she was re-elected to a second four-year term and Paula Brooks
Paula Brooks (politician)
Paula Brooks is currently serving her second term on the Franklin County Board of Commissioners. She is a member of the Democratic Party. In 2010, Brooks ran unsuccessfully for United States Representative in Ohio's 12th congressional district.-Early life, education and career:Brooks was born and...
was elected on November 2, 2004, to give Democrats the majority for the first time in twenty years. In her re-election she won by a 28,500 vote margin, which was substantially more than the 4,300 vote margin in 2000. During both elections, she won despite being widely outspent. She assumed the role of Board President on January 10, 2005.
Governing magazine named Franklin County as being among the five best-managed counties in the country during Kilroy's tenure. Also, Kilroy was named the Public Official of the Year by the Central Ohio Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers as a result of her role in creating the Columbus/Franklin County Affordable Housing Trust. Her term as commissioner was not without controversy, however. Kilroy came under fire during the awarding of contracts for the construction of Huntington Park
Huntington Park (Columbus, Ohio)
Huntington Park is the home of the Columbus Clippers, a Triple-A minor league baseball team in the International League currently affiliated with the Cleveland Indians. Groundbreaking for the new ballpark took place on August 2, 2007, with construction being completed in April 2009. Designed by 360...
because the lowest bid for the concrete was rejected in favor of a higher bid by a union shop
Union shop
A union shop is a form of a union security clause under which the employer agrees to hire either labor union members or nonmembers but all non-union employees must become union members within a specified period of time or lose their jobs...
. Eventually, the issue went to court and the commissioners decided to award the contract to the low bidder. She lost the 2006 race for U.S. Representative from to Deborah Pryce, 50.2%–49.7%.
Tenure
Congresswoman Kilroy introduced legislation including a bill to start a three year pilot program to lend $20 million per year to small businesses (HR5322) and introducted an amendment to assign liability to credit reporting agencies which passed. She voted with the Democratic majority for the federal stimulus packageAmerican Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, abbreviated ARRA and commonly referred to as the Stimulus or The Recovery Act, is an economic stimulus package enacted by the 111th United States Congress in February 2009 and signed into law on February 17, 2009, by President Barack Obama.To...
, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, the cap and trade carbon emissions legislation
American Clean Energy and Security Act
The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 was an energy bill in the 111th United States Congress that would have established a variant of an emissions trading plan similar to the European Union Emission Trading Scheme...
, and the federal health insurance reform legislation
Affordable Health Care for America Act
The Affordable Health Care for America Act was a bill that was crafted by the United States House of Representatives in November 2009. At the encouragement of the Obama administration, the 111th Congress devoted much of its time to enacting reform of the United States' health care system...
.
Kilroy helped shape the Congressional Bill on executive pay that eventually became law by proposing an amendment requiring large institutional investor
Institutional investor
Institutional investors are organizations which pool large sums of money and invest those sums in securities, real property and other investment assets...
s to reveal how they vote the shares that they own on pay proposals affecting companies that issued those shares. While serving her first term, she felt attached to the cause of health care reform because it had been an emphasis in her electoral platform.
Committee assignments
- Committee on Financial ServicesUnited States House Committee on Financial ServicesThe United States House Committee on Financial Services is the committee of the United States House of Representatives that oversees the entire financial services industry, including the securities, insurance, banking, and housing industries...
- Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government-Sponsored Enterprises
- Subcommittee on Housing and Community OpportunityUnited States House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Community OpportunityThe U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity is a subcommittee of the House Committee on Financial Services.-Jurisdiction:...
- Subcommittee on Oversight and InvestigationsUnited States House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and InvestigationsThe U.S. House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations is a subcommittee of the House Committee on Financial Services.-Jurisdiction:The Subcommittee conducts oversight of the agencies, departments, and programs under the Committee’s jurisdiction...
- Committee on Homeland SecurityUnited States House Committee on Homeland SecurityThe U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives, the lower house of Congress. Its responsibilities include U.S...
- Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity, and Science and Technology
- Subcommittee on Management, Investigations, and OversightUnited States House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Management, Investigations, and OversightThe U.S. House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Management is a standing subcommittee within the House Homeland Security Committee....
2006
- See also United States House elections, 2006United States House elections, 2006- House of Representatives prior to the election :As of November 7, 2006, the U.S. House of the 109th Congress was composed of 229 Republicans, 201 Democrats and 1 Independent . There were also four vacancies...
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
in 2004. However, Pryce was vulnerable due to Ohio Republican Party (Bob Taft
Bob Taft
Robert Alphonso "Bob" Taft II is an Ohio Republican Party politician. He was elected to two terms of office as the 67th Governor of the U.S. state of Ohio between 1999-2007. After leaving office, Taft started working for the University of Dayton beginning August 15, 2007.-Personal background:Taft...
and Bob Ney
Bob Ney
Robert William Ney is an American politician from the U.S. state of Ohio. A Republican, Ney represented Ohio's 18th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 until November 3, 2006, when he resigned...
) scandals, the lagging Ohio economy, her association with controversial Dennis Hastert
Dennis Hastert
John Dennis "Denny" Hastert was the 59th Speaker of the House serving from 1999 to 2007. He represented as a Republican for twenty years, 1987 to 2007.He is the longest-serving Republican Speaker in history...
and Mark Foley
Mark Foley
Mark Adam Foley is a former member of the United States House of Representatives. He served from 1995 until 2006, representing the 16th District of Florida as a member of the Republican Party....
, and backlash to Republican support of the Iraq War. Another Ohio Republican scandal in the minds of Ohio voters during the 2006 campaign was the Coingate scandal. Pryce and the Republicans had to keep conservative independent, Charles Morrison, off the ballot to have their best shot at success. A month before the election, Pryce was 12 points behind Kilroy. On the eve of the election, some experts, such as Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
, considered Pryce the underdog. Kilroy was expected to be the beneficiary of the decade-long migration of conservative voters to suburbs outside of the district.
Kilroy made an issue of Pryce's knowledge of the Foley scandal and the need for Hastert to resign. Kilroy also linked her opponent to the unpopular Republican administration and congressional majority. After Foley resigned following the page
Page (servant)
A page or page boy is a traditionally young male servant, a messenger at the service of a nobleman or royal.-The medieval page:In medieval times, a page was an attendant to a knight; an apprentice squire...
scandal, Kilroy attacked Pryce with the conservative religious voters. Kilroy ran radio commercial
Radio commercial
Commercial radio stations make most of their revenue selling “airtime” to advertisers. Of total media expenditures, radio accounts for 6.9%. Radio advertisements or “spots” are available when a business or service provides valuable consideration, usually cash, in exchange for the station airing...
s on Christian and conservative radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
s in an attempt to appeal to family-values-oriented listeners.
Two debates were held for this race during the 2006 election cycle. The first took place September 18, and the second was on October 12. In the first debate Kilroy and incumbent U.S. Representative, Pryce discussed the war in Iraq, the War on Terror, taxes, social security, the federal deficit and President Bush. In the final week before the election, Pryce attempted to demand another debate.
The second debate was marked by a more heated exchange on behalf of both participants. Kilroy referred to Pryce as a "right-wing apologist" and said that "Deborah Pryce continues to distort my record." Meanwhile Pryce described her opponent as a "far left fringe Democrat" and said that Kilroy "spews lies and misinformation." The debate was attended by 400 people at the Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
Fawcett Center and reporters from as far away as Ireland.
After regular ballots were counted, Pryce led Kilroy by over 3,500 votes with about 19,000 provisional ballots outstanding. The Franklin county absentee and provisional ballots were not counted until approximately two weeks after the election. On Monday November 27, nearly three weeks after Election Day, Pryce was declared the winner by a 1,054 vote margin that mandated a recount. After two recounts and all of the votes were counted, Congresswoman Deborah Pryce (R) prevailed over Democratic challenger Mary Jo Kilroy. The Franklin County Board of Elections announced the results Monday morning December 11, 2006. Pryce (R) gained 25 votes and Kilroy (D) gained 18 votes in the recount of votes in Franklin, Union, and Madison Counties in Ohio. Pryce won with 50.20% of the vote by a 110,739–109,677 margin. Kilroy felt her campaign was slowed by the early candidacy of fellow Franklin County Commissioner Paula Brooks, who eventually withdrew. Immediately after losing in 2006, she announced she would recontest the seat in 2008.
2008
Ohio's 15th congressional district
The 15th congressional district of Ohio is currently represented by Republican Steve Stivers.Union County and Madison County are entirely within the district's boundaries as is approximately half of Franklin County...
| Candidate | Votes | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Kilroy | 139,582 | 45.94 |
| Stivers Steve Stivers Steve Stivers is the U.S. Representative for He is a member of the Republican Party. Stivers previously served in the Ohio Senate, representing the 16th district... |
137,271 | 45.18 |
| Noble Mark M. Noble Mark Michael Noble is a computer engineer and Libertarian Party politician in Ohio.-Early life and education:Noble was born in Columbus, Ohio. He is a graduate of Ohio State University.-Political career:... |
14,061 | 4.63 |
| Eckhart | 12,915 | 4.25 |
| Write-in | 6 | 0 |
Steve Stivers
Steve Stivers is the U.S. Representative for He is a member of the Republican Party. Stivers previously served in the Ohio Senate, representing the 16th district...
, a State Senator from the 16th District, Libertarian
Libertarian Party (United States)
The Libertarian Party is the third largest and fastest growing political party in the United States. The political platform of the Libertarian Party reflects its brand of libertarianism, favoring minimally regulated, laissez-faire markets, strong civil liberties, minimally regulated migration...
Mark M. Noble
Mark M. Noble
Mark Michael Noble is a computer engineer and Libertarian Party politician in Ohio.-Early life and education:Noble was born in Columbus, Ohio. He is a graduate of Ohio State University.-Political career:...
, and Independent candidate Don Elijah Eckhart. The race was considered to be one of the most important U.S. House of Representatives races to watch in the country. The last Democrat to hold the 15th district was Robert T. Secrest
Robert T. Secrest
Robert Thompson Secrest was an American Democratic representative to the United States Congress from the state of Ohio. He served in Congress three separate times: 1933 to 1942, 1949 to 1954, and 1963 to 1966, resigning each time prior to the end of his term.-External links:*...
in the mid 1960s, but with Republican voters moving out of the district into the northern suburbs of Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
since the 1990s, the district became more evenly matched.
In April 2008, the Sierra Club again endorsed Kilroy's candidacy due to her history of environmental advocacy and Stivers' contributions from energy and tobacco companies. During the campaign, Kilroy linked Stivers to big business
Big Business
Big business is a term used to describe large corporations, in either an individual or collective sense. The term first came into use in a symbolic sense subsequent to the American Civil War, particularly after 1880, in connection with the combination movement that began in American business at...
, bank lobbyists, predatory lending
Predatory lending
Predatory lending describes unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent practices of some lenders during the loan origination process. While there are no legal definitions in the United States for predatory lending, an audit report on predatory lending from the office of inspector general of the FDIC broadly...
and the financial crisis. Stivers countered by linking Kilroy to liberal media and influence peddling
Influence peddling
Influence peddling is the illegal practice of using one's influence in government or connections with persons in authority to obtain favors or preferential treatment for another, usually in return for payment. Also called traffic of influence or trading in influence ...
.
Stivers led Kilroy by a 129,852–129,703 margin with 100% of the Election Day precincts counted, but before the provisional ballots were counted. On November 25, 2008, Madison
Madison County, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 40,213 people, 13,672 households, and 10,035 families residing in the county. The population density was 86 people per square mile . There were 14,399 housing units at an average density of 31 per square mile...
and Union
Union County, Ohio
Union County is a county located in the US state of Ohio. As of the 2010 census, the population was 52,300. Increasingly becoming more of a suburban county, the population was estimated at 47,234 in 2007 by the U.S. Census Bureau...
counties concluded their absentee, military, and provisional ballot counting and Stivers claimed a net gain resulting in a 594 vote lead. On December 5, 2008, Stivers' supporters won a ruling in the Ohio Supreme Court that the 1,000 provisional ballots that lacked signatures or had names and signatures in the wrong places be thrown out. On December 7, 2008, Franklin County Election Canvassers completed their final ballot count, which included absentee, military, and provisional ballots received within ten days of Election Day, giving Kilroy a victory margin of 2,311 votes over Stivers. This margin exceeds the automatic recount margin of 0.5%. Stivers conceded the race to Kilroy later on Sunday. The late ballots that weighed on the election were of three types: military and overseas absentee ballots postmarked by the time the polls closed Tuesday November 4 and received by November 14; domestic absentee ballots postmarked by Monday November 3 that are received by November 14; absentee ballots with errors that voters correct by November 14.
Kilroy became the first Democrat to represent the district in 42 years (since Secrest). She is only the second Democrat to represent a significant portion of Columbus since 1967. The last Democrat to represent the city, Bob Shamansky
Bob Shamansky
Robert Norton Shamansky was an American Democratic politician and attorney from the state of Ohio. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives for a single term from 1981 until 1983.-Early Life:...
, represented the neighboring 12th District from 1981 to 1983.
2010
In June 2009, Stivers announced his candidacy for a rematch in 2010. According to an op-edOp-ed
An op-ed, abbreviated from opposite the editorial page , is a newspaper article that expresses the opinions of a named writer who is usually unaffiliated with the newspaper's editorial board...
article in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, one issue that Stivers and Kilroy have both been vocal about is the prospective repeal of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution established direct election of United States Senators by popular vote. The amendment supersedes Article I, § 3, Clauses 1 and 2 of the Constitution, under which senators were elected by state legislatures...
, which provides direct election of United States Senators. Stivers had backpedaled on his support of the repeal after Kilroy made an issue of his stance. The race is one of the most closely watched in the United States House of Representatives elections, 2010
United States House of Representatives elections, 2010
The 2010 United States House of Representatives elections, also known as the 2010 midterm elections, were held on November 2, 2010, at the midpoint of President Barack Obama's first term in office. Voters of the 50 U.S. states chose 435 U.S. Representatives. Voters of the U.S...
, and it will include a third party
Third party (politics)
In a two-party system of politics, the term third party is sometimes applied to a party other than the two dominant ones. While technically the term is limited to the third largest party or third oldest party, it is common, though innumerate, shorthand for any smaller party.For instance, in the...
candidate. The Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
has marked it as one of their targeted races according a U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
article. Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
notes that she may have trouble in her historically Republican district if there is an electoral backlash to spending by the Obama Administration because of her short history of voting along party lines. On November 2, Stivers won the rematch.
2012
She is running in the newly redrawn, Columbus-based Ohio's 3rd congressional districtOhio's 3rd congressional district
Ohio's 3rd congressional district includes most of the city of Dayton and its surrounding suburbs and exurbs. It is currently represented by Representative Mike Turner.-List of representatives:-Selected election results:...
in 2012.
Personal life
Mary Jo Kilroy currently resides in the ClintonvilleClintonville
Clintonville is an unincorporated neighborhood in north-central Columbus, Ohio, USA with around 30,000 residents. Clintonville is an informal neighborhood. The southern border is loosely defined as Arcadia Avenue or the Glen Echo Ravine. To the east, either I-71 or the adjacent railroad tracks are...
neighborhood of Columbus
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
. She and her husband have two college-aged daughters, Julia, a graduate student at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
who attended Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
, and Rosa, an undergraduate at Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
. The Kilroys owned three dogs from animal rescue organizations at the time of the 2006 election.
External links
- Mary Jo Kilroy for Congress official campaign site
- Profile at SourceWatchSourceWatchSourceWatch is an internet wiki site that is a collaborative project of the liberal Center for Media and Democracy...
- Mary Jo Kilroy at U.S. News & World ReportU.S. News & World ReportU.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...