At the Ohio Daily Blog is posted a three part interview with Justin Coussoule, written by Anastasia Pantsios. Coussoule is the Democrat who is seeking to be elected to the U.S. House from Ohio’s 8th District.  He is seeking to replace Republican Leader John Boehner, the long term incumbent.

Justin is 35 years old, a West Point graduate.  His wife, Amanda, is also a West Point grad. They have two children.  Justin left a good job at Procter and Gamble so he could be free to campaign full time.

In the interview Coussoule emphasizes that the 8th District can be won. He says Boehner’s poor work ethic and Boehner’s astounding indifference to the needs of his constituents make him vulnerable.

Coussoule is counting on his West Point credentials to help out.  He says “I don’t think you can overstate the weight people in this part of state put on being a veteran and having a military background.”  And he points to Democrats who have come close to carrying the district: “In 2006, Ted Strickland won 46% of vote. Rich Cordray in the special election in 2008 won 43%.”

Excerpts from the interview:

• John Boehner is an embarrassment on so many levels. He is so focused on his role as party leader and power player in Washington, he has grown out of touch with constituents. He is never here. The big joke in the district is where is John Boehner? He lives in a gated golf-course community, the only one I know of in the whole district. This is somebody who last year alone hosted 119 golf outings. He spent $83,000 on golf. The median income in this district is $43,000 dollars.
• Our country faces the biggest challenges we’ve faced in 50 if not 100 years, and our representative is on the golf course every three days. We wouldn’t tolerate that work ethic from the dogcatcher, let alone our congressman. And this golfing is not in the district. He spends his time in southern California, Florida.”
• I don’t think John Boehner has a principled bone in his body. Anyone who sees the time he spends being wined and dined by the wealthy corporate community sees he’s not the representative of this middle-class working community, with places have been hollowed out after 25-30 years of trade policies Boehner has supported.
• This district is a working, middle-class district. The vast majority of communities were once much more vibrant blue-collar manufacturing-based economies.
• The Republican Party and the conservatives have used a handful of social issues I don’t think they even believe in to appeal to people’s anger and fear to win elections. Then they pursue economic policies that oppose most of the voters’ interests. We need to carry the message that Boehner is against you on 90% of the issues, and the other 10% he’s using as a political football.
• I think that’s a trap we fall into as Democrats, letting discussion swirl around gay marriage and abortion, when what affects people’s lives is bread-and-butter issues. Unemployment in the 8th district is 13%. Why don’t we talk about that rather than abortion?
• Two things tie the list of biggest concern of 8th District voters.  Generally, it’s about Boehner’s lack of involvement in district, his absenteeism. Where is he, and what has he done in 20 years? And second, his stance on earmarks. … People say John Boehner takes this supposedly principled stand against earmarks, but he has no problems voting for legislation with earmarks for other districts. We pay our federal tax dollars into the treasury like everyone else. We have worthwhile projects in our district like everyplace else. They say, we want someone who fights for our interests and dollars. We’re not looking for abuse, the things you’d see on the evening news as fleecing the taxpayers. People don’t see his stance against earmarks as admirable. After 20 years, people look at that and say, this is disingenuous on his part.
• I can’t think of any other race in the country that can change the political climate as much as this one. If we keep John Boehner having to fight, we shut their mouths about taking over the House if he’s here, having to campaign and preserve his own seat. That benefits everyone.
• I think we’ve received contributions from just about all 50 states. A significant share of our fundraising is from online from people outside the district. There is a national component to this race, and to the extent that we can foster that that is great. I think as a strategy, as a campaign, we are focused locally. … We want to keep it focused on what John Boehner has or hasn’t done for us and what I can do better.
• It’s frustrating that people like Sherrod Brown won’t endorse, and they won’t do it because they take their guidance from the party. It’s surprising that these people won’t even endorse the Democrat who is running against John Boehner.

I was afraid that the whole internet debate idea might fizzle out when Guy Fogle failed to respond to my recent e-mail messages.  I was afraid that his silence meant that he might not support the idea.  David Esrati made it clear that he would not participate in the internet debate event, unless all three candidates were involved.  Joe Roberts was all for the event. So, if we we to have any kind of event at all, it all depended on Guy.

I finally heard from Guy this morning and he told me that on Monday evening he and his supporters would be going door to door. He said that he was having a lot of success in his face to face encounters with voters, and that he had decided to not change his plans for Monday. He said he would not be available to participate in an on-line debate. I replied that Esrati had suggested a 12:00 noon meeting time — in order to attract downtown workers and students who might be on their lunch hour — and an earlier meeting would still give him the evening free.  But Guy reminded me that he needed to work at his job and that he didn’t get off work until, I think he said, 4:30 PM.

It was clear from the beginning of the conversation that Fogle’s mind was made up:  he would not participate. But I made an attempt, anyway, to help him see that we should not discard such a great opportunity, and that his time would be better spent via developing an internet following, rather than knocking on a relatively few number of doors.

I pointed out that the permission to use the auditorium in Sinclair College’s Conference Center is huge, that we were very fortunate, that we were getting a much bigger stage than I had actually hoped for.  I said if we could pull off such a program, it would show that as a Party we are forward looking — interested in creating community via the internet, interested in effectively engaging the internet community.

I tried to appeal to Fogle that we should work together to make the event successful, so, whoever wins the nomination, his campaign would start off with a boost. I said we would have the opportunity to generate a whole new e-mail list — of individuals in the internet community — and a chance to raise money for a You-tube project.

But, Guy had made up his mind.

I’m surprised at Guy Fogle’s refusal. It’s an interesting development in the campaign, for anyone paying attention. It hadn’t occurred to me, until the last few days, as I was scurrying to try to put this event together, that such an outcome was even was a possibility.  The event came together this morning when the conference center sales manager for Sinclair, Kym Yahn, indicated to me that she had the green light and that we could have use of the conference auditorium on Monday, July 12 — we simply needed to decide on the time.  Wow. It was a big breakthrough.  An hour later, I heard from Guy.