OH-16: John Boccieri - "Change is Coming!"

Dear Friends,

With just eight days before the November 4 election, we're faced with a choice about the direction we want our community, our state and our country to go.

With so much at stake, I want you to know why I am running for Congress and how I plan to work for what matters most to you: a job that pays enough to raise a family, affordable health care that's there whenever you need it, and middle class tax cuts to help send your children to college or care for an aging relative.

Take a look at this new video to see the core reasons why I am running for Congress...

Like you, I believe in the promise of America: that if you work hard, play by the rules and give back to your community you can realize the American Dream. But for far too many Ohio families, that dream is slipping out of reach.

I am committed to changing that. As a father, a veteran and a state legislator who has represented this area for eight years, I know that we need to put middle class families first. In Congress, I want to wake up every day and make it my job to fight for your job.

With so much at stake, I hope I can count on your support. If you want to learn more, you can visit my website at www.johnforcongress.com/, or feel free to contact me with any questions or ideas at the email address below.

Sincerely,

John Boccieri

john@johnforcongress.com

OH-16: Boccieri Stays Positive with Final TV Spot

Candidate for U.S. Congress John Boccieri has released a new television ad that will run across Ohio's 16th Congressional District in the final weeks of the campaign.

Like Boccieri's previous TV spot, the new spot is entirely positive and focused on the issues that matter to middle class families: job creation, health care coverage, affordable education and middle class tax relief. (The script is included below.)

Spot title: "Change"

VOICE OVER:

A voice for Ohio families - that's John Boccieri.

Raising his young family here, John Boccieri knows the challenges we face and will bring real change to Congress.

John Boccieri will make sure our children can see a doctor when they're sick, and seniors will have low-cost prescription drugs.

John Boccieri will work for middle class tax relief, affordable college tuition, and new jobs so our children can stay here.

John Boccieri: the change we need.

JOHN BOCCIERI:I'm John Boccieri and I approve this message.

Upcoming events...

What: Orrville at Wooster High School Football Game
Where: Wooster High School
When: Friday, October 24, 7:00 p.m.
Notes: It's the final week of regular season high school football. Come join us in Wooster or attend your local high school football. For details on distributing campaign materials, please email Chris at cccupples@yahoo.com

What: McKinley vs. Massillon Tailgate Parties
Where: Paul Brown Massillon Stadium
When: Saturday, October 25, 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Notes: Show your support for John and your local football team (whoever it might be!) as we enjoy the tailgate festivities before the 2 p.m. kick off. For details, email Chris at cccupples@yahoo.com

What: Ashland County Ox Roast Dinner Party
Where: Ashland
When: Saturday, October 25, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.
Notes: Join John for a fall cookout and and BBQ in Ashland County. For more details, please email Chris at cccupples@yahoo.com

OH-16: John Boccieri, Ted Strickland and Joe Biden Move The H.O.F.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Senator Joe Biden made a campaign stop at the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Thursday morning, addressing an estimated outdoor crowd of 2,500.

After an hour long tour of the Hall of Fame, Gov. Ted Strickland and state Sen. John Boccieri, D-Alliance, who is running for Congress, introduced him to the crowd.

With the three of them locking hands in a victory pose, Strickland called Boccieri one of his "closest personal friends."

Boccieri, D-Alliance, told the audience:

''It is time we elect change. That is why we need Barack Obama and Joe Biden.''

Boccieri added:

"Joe Biden is from a middle-class family and is a tough, smart and realistic leader."

Biden, spoke for about 32 minutes, and tied Republican presidential nominee John McCain to the current president.

"Well, we know how that story ended. Eight straight years of trouble. Eight months of unemployment rising every month. Nearly 46 million people in America without health insurance. Foreclosures skyrocketing more than anytime since the Great Depression."

"John McCain stands alone in saying the economy is strong. "He is totally out of touch with the problems of average people."

He recalled getting knocked out when he played football as a fourth-grader. He said his father told him:

"If nothing is broken, get up. It's time for America to get up!"

Biden briefly paused during his remarks as a person in the audience held up a sign that read, "Abstinence Only is Phony Baloney."

He asked security not to take the sign, adding, "I happen to agree," and told the sign-holder they'd talk later.

Biden said he and Obama would create 2 million jobs by rebuilding America's infrastructure and another 5 million jobs by investing in green technology, including solar and wind.

Dennis Brommer, a subdirector for the United Steelworkers District 2 based in Canton, said Biden has been a strong supporter of labor.

He said Biden is a "middle class guy who understands the problems of the middle class."

OH-16: (UPDATED) Joe Biden with Eric Mansfield in Wooster, OH

UPDATE: We now have the video of Senator Joe Biden on the stump in Wooster, OH.

Joe Biden spoke with Eric Mansfield during his stop in Wooster yesterday for about 10 minutes. They touch on keeping college graduates working in Ohio after school, home foreclosure, job loss from Ohio, and Ohio's National Guard. It is clear that Joe Biden has a sound understanding of the issues important in our state. ~ Kyle Kutuchief on The Point

Joe Biden is hitting Ohio hard this week. Today, he will campaign in hard hit Canton, where he will be introduced by Congressional Candidate John Boccieri.

(HT: Kyle)

OH-16: John Boccieri: A Fighter. For Us.

I was surfing blogs this morning and stumbled upon this great ad for Senator John Boccieri(D).

We have lost major employers and suffered through "Kirk Schuring's Gas Tax" increase while he gave himself a $9000 pay raise.

Senator Major John Boccieri(D) has served us in Iraq, Afghanastan, and 40 countries around the world. He has committed to stand up against Big Oil and help to bring down sky-rocketing gas prices. He stands with the middle class and organized labor. John Boccieri is the clear choice for Ohio's Fighting 16th District!

John Boccieri: A Fighter. For Us. (OH-16)

A veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, John Boccieri is the right candidate to represent Ohio's 16th Congressional District in Washington.

OH-16: Meet John Boccieri

Somedays the Campaign Team at John Boccieri for U.S. Congress makes this job a true pleasure. We've been out stumping, knocking on doors, and holding "Backyard Town Hall Meetings". It's a great thing when it all comes together. Check out "our" new video!



Visit John Boccieri for U.S. Congress or call 330-754-0534 to volunteer for Team Boccieri!

OH-16: John Boccieri Leads Schuring on Energy Issues

Schuring Follows Boccieri's Lead on Energy

Canton, OH - Months after U.S. Congressional Candidate John Boccieri first announced his energy plan, opponent Kirk Schuring has finally offered an energy proposal that endorses many of Boccieri's policies.

Senator Major John Boccieri said in a statement, today:

"I'm flattered that Sen. Schuring has finally embraced energy ideas I've been talking about for months, but I'm disappointed it took him this long to realize people are concerned about high gas prices. Unfortunately, his plan still doesn't provide enough short-term solutions to our high gas prices, and I think voters will wonder whether someone who raised their gas taxes and has taken $20,000 from oil executives is really serious about making the big energy policy changes we need."

Today Schuring adopted Boccieri's proposals to crack down on Wall Street speculation, build new refineries, encourage fuel conservation and fuel-efficient vehicle research, and invest in U.S.-based alternative energy technologies like clean coal, nuclear, wind, solar, and biofuels.

I wonder how that will play with the "independent swing-voters"?

However, Schuring's plan still does not include many measures Boccieri has proposed to provide short-term relief at the pump, such as releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve or pushing oil companies to drill first on the untapped U.S. leases they already hold, including 33.5 million acres off America's coasts.

Instead, Schuring continues to claim that opening up ANWR and more U.S. coastline to drilling is a "short-term solution" to high gas prices. This notion has been refuted by experts across the political spectrum, including George W. Bush's own Energy Department, which found that these steps would not have an impact for roughly 20 years.

Boccieri added:

"We need a lot more than drilling to get us out of this mess. We need to do what it takes to lower gas prices quickly and transition to home-grown alternative energy sources as soon as possible."

Boccieri recently released a new radio spot about his energy plan, which can be heard here.

You can read Boccieri's complete energy plan is available on his website.

One fact just isn't going away:

OH-16: John Boccieri(D) - A "Citizen Journalist's Take" on the Energy Issue

"We need to focus not on middle-east oil, but on mid-west innovation." ~ Senator Major John Boccieri(D-Alliance)

I spend an incredible amount of time at this keyboard writing about the Congressional Race that's brewing here in OH's 16th District. I can come across "gems" that make the whole process of reaching out to the netroots community a pleasure. "Citizen Journalism" is one of today's polical heroes in The Netroots Nation. Today, I happened to stumble upon one of those beauties in The Canton Repository's, "Letters to the Editor":

Boccieri offers short-, long-term solutions to America's energy problems
Thursday, July 31, 2008

The present energy crisis has become an important issue in the lives of all Americans and in the political debate. To see where each candidate for the 16th Congressional stands, I went to both state Sen. Kirk Schuring's and state Sen. John Boccieri's Web sites.

The Schuring sites reads: "Kirk believes we need to look at both long term and short-term solutions to our energy problems. … We need start immediately doing more to take advantage of the natural resources in our own backyard, as well as look to alternative energy solutions that won't put a burden on the economy and on the pocket book of citizens of our community."

Schuring has also publicly stated that opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and more of America's coastal waters to drilling is a "short-term" solution to high gas prices.

I guess that to him, short-term is 20 years because that's how long it will take to get oil from those two objectives.

The Boccieri energy plan includes the following: "Require oil companies to drill on the 68 million U.S. acres" they already hold leases to; "invest in next-generation biofuels that can be grown in the 16th District; build new local refineries to process biofuels and other next-generation fuel sources; create an Apollo program to revolutionize our energy sources": invest in cutting-edge technologies like wind, solar, clean coal and biomass power; and free us from oil dependence forever.

Between the two candidates, it is clear that only John Boccieri has "short-term" solutions to the oil crisis.

DAVID B. MCCOY, PERRY TOWNSHIP

To me there is nothing more awesome than when the voters see through the "noise and distractions" being thrown at them by the MSM and Potomac Villagers. Mr. McCoy receives a standing round of applause right her, right now! He gets it and I give him the video version of his observations:




You can read more about Senator Major John Boccieri's Energy Plan here.

OH-16: John Boccieri "Backyard Town Hall Meeting #1" V-Log

We felt like bringing you something different, today. The videos in this V-Log were shot LIVE! at Senator Major John Boccieri's(D-Alliance) first "Backyard Town Hall Meeting". We thank all of those that were present and especially those that participated in the discussions.

“I’m going to keep listening to stories like these, because every one of these hard-working people motivates me daily,” Boccieri told attendees. “We’re going to Washington to put America first again. I want to be a congressman who wakes up every day and makes it my job to fight for your job.”

Be sure to contact Bryan, at (330)754-0534, for details for the Massilon, OH, meeting on 26July08. Hope to see you there!

OH-16: John Boccieri: "A Real Plan for America's Energy Crisis"

Controlling Costs, Creating Jobs, Ending our Dependence on Oil

Since 2001, the price of gas in Ohio has doubled while progress toward energy independence has stalled in Washington. Oil companies have received billions in tax giveaways and quadrupled their profits under George W. Bush, but they haven't even begun to drill for oil on 68 million acres of U.S. land and coastal waters that are approved for drilling today. Americans are left just as dependent on foreign dictators and rogue regimes for our energy as we were seven years ago.

John believes that America's energy should come from Midwest innovation, not Middle East oil. To start relieving pain at the pump today, we should open the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, crack down on oil speculators, make oil companies drill on the U.S. lands and coastal waters they already have, and transition to alternative energy sources as soon as possible.

In the same 10-20 years it would take to develop new sources of oil, we could invest in cutting-edge technologies like wind, solar, biomass, biofuels, geothermal, clean coal and nuclear that will lead to home-grown, affordable, renewable energy while creating jobs and turning around the economy right here in the 16th District.


John's short-term and long-term energy solutions include:

Release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The Reserve was created in the 1970s to respond to a gas crisis just like this one. Today, it is 98% full. Releasing just 7% of the Reserve’s current oil supply would begin to lower our fuel costs immediately. When President Bush announced he was releasing oil from the Reserve after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, prices began dropping that same day.

Crack down on Wall Street speculators who are artificially inflating oil prices. Experts say that closing a loophole in federal law that exempts electronic energy futures trading from government regulation could immediately lower the price of oil by 25 to 50%. Today, these futures markets are not regulated like other commodities futures markets, because in 2000 the collapsed energy company Enron pushed through a law exempting them from regulation. (This exemption is often called the “Enron Loophole.”)

Require oil companies to drill on the 68 million U.S. acres they already have. The number of U.S. drilling permits held by oil companies has doubled in the past 5 years, yet oil companies are only drilling on one quarter of the leases they currently hold. That leaves 68 million leased acres undeveloped – including 33.5 million acres off U.S. coasts. In the western Gulf of Mexico alone, oil companies hold more than 4,000 undeveloped leases. They should drill on these areas – where they can start today – rather than stockpiling even more leases that will not yield oil for decades.

Increase energy efficiency and conservation in the United States. Reducing our consumption of fuels is as important as developing alternative energy sources. We need to make serious investments in cutting-edge research like the fuel cell program at Stark State to develop vehicles, appliances, and buildings that run on less and cleaner energy.

Invest in next-generation biofuels that can be grown in the 16th District. Our region includes some of the most agriculturally productive areas in all of Ohio. We should develop diversified, next-generation biofuels that we can grow right here, boosting our whole economy.

Build new local refineries to process biofuels and other next-generation fuel sources. Once we’ve grown biofuels locally, we can also refine them at brand new local facilities employing hundreds of people. John sponsored a bill in the Ohio state legislature (SB 32) to build new alternative fuel refineries on “brownfields,” or abandoned industrial sites.

Create an Apollo program to revolutionize our energy sources. A large-scale transition to 21st-Century American energy sources like wind, solar, clean coal and biomass power would free us from oil dependence forever. At the same time, a report by the Apollo Alliance estimates that nearly 23,000 manufacturing jobs could be created in Ohio through production of alternative energy, and the Political Economy Research Institute finds that more than half a million workers in Ohio could see job growth and wage increases as a result of new green energy investments.

If you liked the video and want to help us get John's energy message out, consider making a contribution of just $22 to our campaign -- one dollar for every year we'll have to wait until Kirk Schuring's "short-term" energy solution has any effect.

As you can obviously see, hanging onto "The Bush/Cheney Energy Plan" is not a logical, nor, a feasible option. Ohio's 16th District requires much more than that. Don't you think it's time we started working for Energy Independence, today? Senator Major John Boccieri's opponent believes in big oil's "stay the course" ideology. We need a serious open discussion, today, if we are to help the next generation of tomorrow.

So much of what we use is derived from petroleum. Do we continue down this "dead-end road" or do we pull together behind forward thinking leaders like John Boccieri(D-Alliance)? You tell me. This "our open forum" guaranteed by great veterans like John. Let's take the fear and misguided emotion out of the equation and start working for our new "green today"!

OH-16:"Where will you be in 2030?"

"We need to focus not on middle-east oil, but on mid-west innovation. ~ Senator Major John Boccieri(D-Alliance)

In July, John spoke about high gas prices and his energy solutions at a Canton gas station. You can watch video excerpts below:

After John has been talking for weeks about his solutions to our energy crisis, his opponent finally gave us a proposal of his own this weekend. But while John has offered serious policies to both reduce oil prices immediately and transition away from oil dependence as soon as possible, Kirk Schuring's "plan" is nothing but a page out of George W. Bush's failed playbook.

Just like President Bush, Schuring claims that opening ANWR and more of America's coastal waters to drilling is a "short-term" solution to high gas prices.

Here's our response:

If you liked the video and want to help us get John's energy message out, consider making a contribution of just $22 to our campaign -- one dollar for every year we'll have to wait until Kirk Schuring's "short-term" energy solution has any effect.

OH-16: Boccieri Launches Backyard Economic Series at Canton Home

There is some chatter coming from the street that Senator Major John Boccieri(D-Alliance) is back on the move. You know what that means. "Boots on the Ground!"

It's time to stop the fear-mongering and distorted blurbs that are being thrown at John by his opponents' surrogates! John Boccieri has the courage and honor to walk into your community and tell you the truth about the issues.

This campaign isn't going to be driven on Bush's old playbook of distortion and noise.

John Boccieri for U.S. Congress is bringing his message, derived from facts and logical reasoning, founded in the greatest human attribute...TRUTH!

So, what's the word?

On Wednesday, July 23 at 7:00 p.m., U.S. Congressional Candidate John Boccieri (OH-16) will hold the first in a series of backyard economic discussions with 16th District voters who have been hurt by the struggling economy.

Community members will join Boccieri at a local Canton home to share their personal experiences with economic hardship, including job losses, pension cuts, and health care struggles. Boccieri will moderate the discussion and lay out his plans for restoring prosperity for Ohio ’s middle class.

And, a second Boccieri backyard economic discussion may already be in the works!

If, you are motivated and want to know more; you should know how to get the "skinny"! In the meanwhile, get your beverage and popcorn...it's movie time!

OH-16: John Boccieri - "We Did It!"

You hit it out of the park!

We finished the 2nd Fundraising Quarter with over $15,000 contributed online in just five days. I can't thank you enough for your support. Our campaign wouldn't be possible without this energy and dedication.

Now I want to show you the kind of race we're running with your backing.

On Tuesday at a locally-owned gas station in Canton, I announced my plans to confront the rising fuel prices that are breaking the budgets of families here and across America. I talked about both short- and long-term solutions that won't just end our dependence on oil forever, but turn around the economy right here in the 16th District.

(You can also read a writeup and see photos at PolitickerOH.)

I look forward to discussing other important ways to revitalize our economy and restore our middle class in the coming weeks. You're always welcome to stop by 601 Cleveland Ave. NW in Canton to find out more about the campaign.

But most of all, thank you for your incredible support, and for all that you do.

Sincerely yours,

John Boccieri