4 Dems on the ballot to run against Mike Turner

Today, the Montgomery County Board of Elections certified 5 candidates for the district previously known as Ohio 10, currently held by Republican Mike Turner.

      • Kirk Benjamin 1480 Springhill Ave Kettering 45409 D
      • David Esrati 113 Bonner St. Dayton 45410 D
      • Jeff Hardenbrook 312 Briarcliff Rd. Dayton 45415 D
      • Baxter Stapleton 113 E. Third St. Apt 202 Dayton 45402 D
      • Mike Turner 109 N Main St Apt 1103 Dayton 45402 Incumbent R

Turner, first elected in 2003, shortly after his loss in his third bid for Mayor to Rhine McLin by 1000 votes, has been challenged by a string of relatively unknown candidates, with about the same results- at best, a 14 point spread in the vote. The district has always been gerrymandered to skew Republican, but has become easier to reach with conventional media since Turner first took office. Early versions spread out of the Dayton media reach down into Highland County. Now, it’s just Montgomery, Greene and a cherrypicked part of Clark, all of which can be reached with Dayton TV and radio.

Turner has faced, in order, Rick Carne, Jane Mitakides, Richard Chema, Jane Mitakides, Joe Roberts, Sharen Neuhardt, Robert Klepinger x2, Theresa Gasper, Desiree Tims. The local Montgomery County Democratic Party has been totally ineffectual in producing candidates or supporting them.

Baxter Stapleton "website"

Nothing to see here…

Esrati, author of this post and blog, has run previously as has Hardenbrook. Benjamin and Stapleton are first time candidates. Stapleton announced in September, but as of certification day still doesn’t do much more than ask for donation on his site, www.baxterstapleton.com

The search for information on Hardenbrook brings one archived page, from his 2002 run for congress. No information is available on Benjamin. Esrati has reactivated his ElectEsrati.com site which includes links to all the other candidates as well as his platform- which is totally small business centered.

Esrati believes that small business is the largest untapped resource in America- yet, our government continually creates additional difficulty for small businesses and startups. As a small businessman, he owns an award winning ad agency, The Next Wave, he has worked with small business for the last 32 years. One of his main initiatives is to simplify the collection of payroll taxes in America. “When I started in business, you entered in the rates for payroll deductions for your employees and your accounting software generated how much your taxes and your paychecks should be- now, you have to pay a third party to pay each employee- a tax on paying taxes.”

David Esrati for Congress Head shot

David Esrati, Democratic Candidate for OH-10 Congress

Along the same lines, he wants to spread out tax filing dates from April 15 and the extension dates- to having taxes due much like your auto tags- spread out monthly based on the name of your business. January is for business names starting with A and B, February C through E etc. This makes tax accountants able to have year round work- and balances the  work for the IRS. He also wants small businesses to be able to buy into Medicare coverage for employees without penalty to people who have coverage through spouses. The only non-small business proposal is his real-time campaign finance reporting system, complete with verification of donors. It’s part of the platform of Esrati’s 501c3 non-profit, “The Modern Policy Institute” – he figures that with real time reporting, small business will be able to tell who bought their congressman next time a tax abatement or “economic development” deal gets pushed through. As to those incentive programs, Esrati plans to outlaw any incentives to private business that aren’t open to all sizes of business with equal and fair standards. There is no reason that Intel should get billions from small businesses in Ohio- while small businesses in Ohio can’t get simple small business loans.

Since the boundaries of the district have yet to be set by the redistricting commission, it’s an even shorter primary window. Reconstructing Dayton, Esrati’s 501(c)(4) will offer to organize debates to livestream, create candidate videos for any of the Dem’s that are interested. Esrati believes the number one problem is a lack of a true “Voter Information System” in the country- and has ideas to make elections, candidates and our political process more transparent and accessible, although that isn’t the objective of his campaign for Congress.

The primary is currently scheduled for Tuesday May 3, 2022.

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