Mary Jo Kilroy

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Mary Jo Kilroy

Candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio, 15th district

Born	April 30, 1949 (1949-04-30) (age 59)
Political party	Democratic Party
Spouse	Robert Handelman
Residence	Cleveland, Ohio
Alma mater	Cleveland State University, The Ohio State University
Profession	attorney

Mary Jo Kilroy (born April 30, 1949) is an American attorney and politician from Ohio. Kilroy, a Democrat, is a County Commissioner of Franklin County, Ohio, which includes the capital city of Columbus, including its downtown area, and some of its surrounding suburban and rural areas. She ran unopposed and won her party's nomination for election to the 15th District of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2006 primary election. Kilroy narrowly lost to incumbent Republican Deborah Pryce in the November, 2006 general election. However, Kilroy has announced she will run again in 2008 against Republican Steve Stivers, as Pryce is planning to retire after the current term.

1 Personal life
2 Career
3 2006 Congressional Race
4 2008 Congressional Race
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Personal life

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Kilroy grew up as the daughter of a pipefitter, and went on to work her way through college, earning her bachelor's degree from Cleveland State University and her J.D. from The Ohio State University. Mary Jo Kilroy currently resides in Columbus, Ohio. She and her husband, Robert Handelman, have two college-aged daughters, Julia, a graduate student at Columbia University who attended Oberlin College, and Rosa, an undergraduate at Brown University. Kilroy also owns three dogs.

[edit] Career

After working in private practice as a partner in the law firm of Handelman and Kilroy, Kilroy served for eight years on the Columbus School Board. She was then elected county commissioner in 2000 and reelected in 2004 serving as the Board's President from 2005-2006. She lost the race for Representative from Ohio's 15th District to Deborah Pryce 50.2%-49.7%.

[edit] 2006 Congressional Race

See also United States House elections, 2006

Mary Jo Kilroy Speaking in Front of the Veterans Memorial in Columbus, Ohio.

The 2006 race in Ohio's 15th district gained significant national attention as it was seen as one of a handful of seats that Democrats had an opportunity to gain from Republicans. As of mid-October, the race was generally considered to be a toss-up largely due to incumbent Representative Pryce's leadership in the GOP.^[1] ^[2]

[edit] Endorsements

Kilroy received a number of endorsements in the 15th District race, including the Stonewall Democrats of Central Ohio [1], Upper Arlington Progressive Action, SEIU, AFL-CIO of Ohio, the League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Emily's List, The Democratic Advancement PAC (Dapac), Democracy for America, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Ted Strickland. [2] The Human Rights Campaign has given a dual endorsement to both Kilroy and her opponent, Pryce.[3]

Monday, December 11, 2006. After two recounts and all of the votes were counted, Congresswoman Deborah Pryce (R) prevailed over Democratic challenger Mary Jo Kilroy. The Franklin County Board of Elections announced the results Monday morning.

Pryce (R) gained 25 votes and Kilroy (D) gained 18 votes in the recount of votes in Franklin, Union, and Madison Counties in Ohio. Pryce won with 50.24% of the vote.

[edit] Issues

Issues such as Ohio's minimum wage, prescription drugs for seniors, a balanced budget, and supporting and end to US involvement in Iraq are among those for which Kilroy has shown support.^{[citation needed]} Additional priorities include environmental stewardship and energy independence.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Debates

Two debates were held for this race during the 2006 election cycle. The first took place September 18th ^[3] and the second was on October 12th.^[4] ^[5] In the first debate Kilroy and incumbent U.S. Representative, Pryce discussed the war in Iraq, the war on terror, taxes, social security, the federal deficit and President Bush.

The second debate was marked by a more heated exchange on behalf of both participants. Kilroy referred to Pryce as a "right-wing apologist" and said that "Deborah Pryce continues to distort my record." ^[5] Meanwhile Pryce described her opponent as a "far left" fringe Democrat" and said that Kilroy "spews lies and misinformation." ^[5] The debate was attended by 400 people at the Ohio State University Fawcett Center and reporters from as far away as Ireland.

[edit] 2008 Congressional Race

See also United States House elections, 2008

Kilroy announced her intention to again seek the 15th District seat in 2007. This cycle, she is running against Republican Steve Stivers, a State Senator from the 16th District. Once again, the race is regarded as a competitive one.

In a recent editorial, Kilroy came under fire for providing contracts for the new Huntington Ballpark to union-only shops, even though they were the high bidder, costing the taxpayers over $260,000 in additional costs. According to a Columbus Dispatch Editorial, “Clearly, the Democratic commissioners are steering contracts to unionized contractors to court the Democratic Party's labor constituency. This is especially true of Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy, who wants to cement labor support as she runs for Congress this year.” ^[6]

Kilroy, and the County Commissioners, have been sued by three times this year for awarding contracts to the union, high-bid companies.^{[citation needed]}

In April of 2008, the Sierra Club again endorsed Kilroy's candidacy. ^[7]