There is a local election for Congress, where 9 citizens are challenging the incumbent. These 9 people have been attending events, speaking, campaigning for almost 2 months. We’ve not seen a TV camera yet.

The incumbent, Mike Turner, pops into town to sign something, to announce something- he always gets a TV camera or a quote in the paper. From an unauthorized blood draw at the VA, to weighing in on where the Aviation Hall of Fame is going to have its induction dinner (and, no, the government has no official part in the HOF – it’s an independent non-profit)

But, 4 geekers decide to go on the roof of a church- The Dayton United Christian Center (the correct name of the church) and not only are all the TV stations here, but so is Channel 7’s sister company, the Dayton Daily News (with a TV camera). The “reporters” didn’t even recognize a potential congressman or former Dayton City Commission candidate who was discussing the arrests with his friend and supporter Larry Sizer, who was the real hero in this- spotting the crooks and calling it in.

They did manage to have this story online, complete with the mug shots of the geekers:

Four people were arrested for attempting to steal copper from a church Wednesday afternoon.

Police responding to calls from neighbors about suspicious activity at Oak Street United Methodist Church, in the city’s South Park neighborhood, found two suspects trying to hide on the roof of the church at Oak and Bonner streets….

“It’s pretty brazen, but when it comes to metal theft, right now they don’t care. They are going into vacant houses, taking air conditioning units right out of windows,” Wolford said.

via Suspected copper thieves caught on church roof | www.whiotv.com.

They did manage to get our neighborhood name right- despite not knowing the proper church name (it was a Methodist church until about 15 years ago when the Methodists consolidated their urban ministries and sold the building to Pastor Doris Swartz and her congregation).

If you are wondering why voters just 5 days away from the primary are still a bit miffed on who the candidates are, we could blame the candidates for not selling out to Corporate America so we can buy expensive air time on their stations and expensive newspaper ads in their paper- or, we could blame the media for showing a bias for “if it bleeds it leads.”

Maybe instead of candidates’ forums, we should have fist fights in the street (the first time my campaign hit the first page was when then Mayor Clay Dixon took me outside to “school me” about talking about his campaign finances- might have been the last time I made the front page too- other than as part of a wrap up of an election).

Our system of informing voters is very undemocratic and very broken. Is it any wonder that Dayton has such a low self-esteem as a community? Our media covers our dirt bags like they are more important than our congressmen- unless he happens to be one too- and has sold out to the highest bidder.

If you want to know about the candidates for congress in OH-10 in 2012, you have to depend on candidate David Esrati for keeping you informed at www.esrati.com/primary not on the “news media” in Dayton.

Of course, my readers knew all about the copper thefts in my neighborhood- it was the focus of my first campaign video, Foreclosure. It even won a Silver award from the local American Advertising Federation chapter.