You’re big, beautiful geniuses with the best brains

I’m from Athens County, Ohio. I was born and raised here, and I’ve lived here most of my adult life. Our famous exports include Jackie O’s beer, Joe Burrow (who is very good at sports), and Sarah Jessica Parker (who was born in Nelsonville, but wasn’t lucky enough to grow up there 💅). We’re also the home of Ohio University.

My friend Jon Rose is running for Athens County Commissioner. He’s a fashionable af devoted partner and dad in an 80s cover band and a real “never met a stranger” kind of genuinely friendly person. He is biconic and vegan. Look at him!

I think you would really like him.

I met Jon through a group organizing a caravan of Athens County residents to go to the National Equality March in 2009, when we were both members of a local LGBTQ org. Since we marched in DC, he has become a paramedic, helped unionize his fellow workers and developed a safe, physically active recreational area on his own property to help give the kids and adults in our area something inexpensive and fun to do in a sober environment. (Like many poor, rural areas, alcoholism and substance abuse disorder are rampant here.)

Yes, yes, I know how we feel about federal electoralism but local office is something that can actually have an impact on people’s lives, and Jon is a popular, charming, well-spoken dude who is coming straight out of the ranks of our working class. Maybe this is worth a shot?

Athens County has always been a blue spot amongst the rural red in the southeastern part of Ohio, and it isn’t uncommon for Democrats to run for local office unopposed in the primary, general, or both.

My (extremely inexpert) analysis is that this is because the local business elite realized decades ago that it was easier to run Democrats in college towns, and it is difficult for anyone outside this entrenched group of favor-traders to run for office. The number of landlords in local government is too damn high.

The poverty and shitty internet availability makes it hard for anyone without means to even know where to start. How do you do any research on this when you know absolutely nothing, barely have time to think or enough to eat, and you have to walk up the ridge a little bit to get enough cell signal to use the internet?

In February, a clerical error kept Chauncey Mayor Andrea Renner off the primary ballot. She had one minor inaccuracy on her paperwork – the start date of the office she was hoping to win was off by one day – and tried to withdraw and resubmit, but the courts say there’s not a process in our election law to correct your paperwork or withdraw and resubmit candidacy for a primary, so she’s SOL.

My friend Jon Rose entered the race as an Independent in May. His opponent lived up to his asshole reputation by immediately filling Jon’s neighborhood with his campaign yard signs; meanwhile, Jon is still struggling to come up with the money to buy any signs at all. Donate here after you’re done blessing everyone at /c/mutual_aid.

I’m not officially associated with the campaign at all, I just really like Jon and have been dying for someone to bring this kind of energy to public office here.

I’ll post more about Jon’s campaign and the history of Athens County (Mound Builders! The Underground Railroad! Labor Battles!) in relevant comms. Meanwhile, I’m here to say hello, do my best to answer your questions about Athens County, Ohio, and Jon, and thank you in advance for your encouragement, advice, and assistance.

Thank You.