Ohio’s Schmidt Draws Primary Challenge
In Ohio, Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt has drawn a 2010 primary challenge from longtime county commissioner Mike Kilburn, in what will be a race that will pit one outspoken conservative against another in the strongly Republican-leaning 2nd District in and around Cincinnati.
“I don’t have anything against Jean Schmidt, but I think there’s a movement to elect more conservative politicians to Washington,” Kilburn, who serves in Warren County east of Cincinnati, told the Hamilton Journal-News late last week. “I have a burning desire to make sure this country won’t go broke.”
Kilburn, who is serving his seventh four-year term on the county commission, drew headlines this year when he opposed accepting some federal stimulus dollars for transportation projects on the grounds that it was “filthy money.”