Steve Stivers: Ohio House
Ohio's 15th District has been the site of close battles in the past two election cycles, and this year should be no different. In 2006, Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy lost to the longtime incumbent by just 1,000 votes. Two years later she won, defeating Republican candidate Steve Stivers by slightly more than 2,000 votes. Now Stivers is back for a rematch, this time with promises of heavier backing from House minority leader John Boehner and the Republican Party — and an attitude. "When you've been shot at by real bullets, negative political attacks just don't matter," says Stivers, who has served in the Ohio National Guard since 1985, including a stint in Iraq, and is now a lieutenant colonel. An active Ohio state senator from 2003 to 2008, Stivers pushed legislation on tort reform, expanding health care coverage, cutting taxes and freezing college-tuition rates. For her part, Kilroy has consistently voted along party lines in the House. If public outrage over government spending persists, she stands little chance of winning in a district that has recently provided tiny margins of victory and in which she was the first congressional Democrat since 1966.