14TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT Five Democrats vie for seat

Two of the Democratic candidates are residents of Trumbull County.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
Five Democrats -- only one who has ever held elected office -- will face off in the March 2 primary for the 14th Congressional District seat.
The winner moves on to the November general election to challenge U.S. Rep. Steven C. LaTourette, a five-term Republican incumbent.
Of the five Democrats, two are from Trumbull County: Capri Cafaro of Liberty and Charles L. Wolfe of Brookfield. Neither live in the 14th Congressional District. Ohio law doesn't require congressional candidates to live in a congressional district to seek that seat, but they must be residents of the state.
Cafaro is the daughter of J.J. Cafaro, an executive with the Cafaro Co., and is the former president of USAerospace Group, the Virginia technology company that was a part of the corruption trial of former U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr.
Considered 2002 run
Cafaro has worked on Capitol Hill and was an Ohio delegate to the 2000 Democratic National Convention. She considered a run for Congress in 2002 against Traficant before the corruption trial that also saw her father plead guilty to a felony.
Attempts to reach Cafaro for this article were unsuccessful.
This is also Wolfe's first run for political office.
For the past three years, Wolfe has served as the inspector-instructor at the Marine Reserve Center in Vienna, and as commanding officer of Landing Support Equipment Co., a Marine Reserve unit.
"I could not help but notice how flat the economy is within northeast Ohio, and how it seems many people of this area barely get by," Wolfe said.
Wolfe said that if elected, he would push for a foreign trade act that would limit and decrease services and goods being imported from foreign countries to allow the United States to revitalize its national job base.
His priorities
Among his priorities are improving benefits for military veterans, and focusing more attention on education.
The 14th Congressional District includes seven northern townships in Trumbull County as well as all of Ashtabula, Lake and Geauga counties and portions of Cuyahoga, Portage, and Summit counties.
Front-runner
Political observers say state Rep. Ed Jerse of Euclid, the Ohio House's senior Democrat and the only elected official running for this post in the Democratic primary, is the front-runner. Like Cafaro and Wolfe, he also doesn't live in the district.
Jerse said one-party rule is the biggest problem in Washington, D.C., as it is in Columbus. Jerse said he is running to restore balance.
"In Columbus and Washington, Democrats and even rank-and-file Republicans are excluded from the decision-making process, which is reserved to a leadership elite which seeks to preserve its power by catering to special interests," he said. "... The system plainly is broken and no longer serves the interests of ordinary Americans. It can only be changed by ending one-party rule and restoring checks and balances."
Jerse said Congress needs to re-evaluate free trade initiatives such as the North American Free Trade Agreement because they have negatively impacted the manufacturing industry. Also, the country needs to invest in infrastructure, technology, health care and education.
This is Dale Virgil Blanchard's fifth time running for Congress. The Solon resident has never won.
Economic focus
Blanchard, a revenue auditor for the Illinois Department of Revenue, says he will focus on the national economy, if elected, through tax incentives and credits that would stimulate business growth.
He also would support legislation to provide U.S. Housing and Urban Development funding for cities and towns to purchase and redevelop old, dilapidated neighborhoods.
Herb Hammer of Chagrin Falls is running for political office for the first time. Hammer, a business owner, has raised the most money of the five Democrats. But that is because he has given $140,000 of his own money to the campaign.
"Washington, D.C., is controlled by the privileged and powerful people, who are indifferent to the problems that working families have in getting good jobs and affordable health care," he said.
Hammer said his other priorities, if elected, are to balance the federal budget and to promote economic growth in Northeast Ohio.
skolnick@vindy.com