{"id":28337,"date":"2012-08-31T07:56:26","date_gmt":"2012-08-31T12:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=28337"},"modified":"2012-09-01T07:38:44","modified_gmt":"2012-09-01T12:38:44","slug":"dem-house-candidate-visits-conservative-vw-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2012\/08\/31\/dem-house-candidate-visits-conservative-vw-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Dem House candidate visits county"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Angela Zimmann, Democrat candidate for the 5th U.S. House District seat held by Republican Bob Latta, chats with Fair Board Director Ann Marshall while touring the fairgrounds on Thursday. (Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Angela Zimmann is a Renaissance woman: Lutheran pastor, engineer, college professor, mother, foster parent, and school board member. She\u2019s also challenging incumbent Bob Latta, a conservative Republican, for the Fifth District U.S. House of Representatives seat he has held for the past six years.<\/p>\n

Zimmann, a self-proclaimed moderate Democrat, says she feels she has a chance to unseat Latta, one of the most conservative House members, with the redistricting of the Fifth District that brought in a number of new Democrats from the Toledo area who were formerly part of Democrat Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur\u2019s district.<\/p>\n

If elected, she would be an increasing rarity in Congress: someone who is willing to cross the aisle to work with Republicans on solutions to the nation\u2019s problems, including health care and economic problems that continue to plague the U.S.<\/p>\n

Zimmann, who was a supply pastor at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Convoy 15 years ago, was in Van Wert County on Thursday, visiting her old church in Convoy, as well as Vancrest of Convoy nursing home, Convoy and Van Wert downtown businesses and county government offices — while spending part of the afternoon at the Van Wert County Fair — said she sees the same thing in this county that she sees in other places she has been in Ohio and across the nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I see are people who care about each other, who care deeply about their communities, who are concerned for the state of Ohio, who are concerned about America and who really want folks in Washington to get along,\u201d Zimmann said.<\/p>\n

Noting that most people are moderates, in her estimation, who think of themselves as Americans first, and Republicans and Democrats second, the Bowling Green State University writing professor said the church she serves in the Toledo area is a microcosm for the problems many Americans face.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my church I have people who are Republican, people who are Tea Party, people who are Democrat and we all work together to accomplish we need and every one of them has said to me: \u2018we support you, we think that what you are doing is great because we know you and know how much you are about people, and know you won\u2019t just walk the party line, but the people\u2019s line,\u201d Zimmann said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really comfortable with that,\u201d Zimmann said, noting that her mother was a lifelong Republican, \u201ccradle to grave.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Angela Zimmann talks with Juli Hamilton of Something from the Garden during Thursday's Market on Main Street, while Hamilton's son, Kyle, looks on. (Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHe calls himself a conservative; in many ways I\u2019m conservative, too, I\u2019m fiscally conservative, I believe in small government,\u201d Zimmann said. \u201cThe difference between me and my opponent is that I\u2019m not a radical, I\u2019m a moderate, nuanced thinker and he\u2019s a radical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Van Wert County is known as a conservative stronghold, Zimmann said she feels the Fifth District, as a whole, is a moderate district, rather than conservative or liberal. She also mourned the loss of several moderate Congress members, including Olympia Snow and Ohioan Steve LaTourette, noting her opinion that Congress needs more moderates in order to deal with the many problems Americans \u2026 and America \u2026 face.<\/p>\n

For Ohio, Zimmann said she sees a \u201crenewed emphasis\u201d on manufacturing, not only traditional industries but \u201cgreen manufacturing\u201d as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we close tax loopholes, we won\u2019t be sending so many of our jobs overseas,\u201d she noted, adding that infrastructure projects would also benefit the state.\u00a0 \u201cA big part of this is keeping our jobs here, good jobs with good benefits, she noted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my background in engineering, one of my big emphases is also on infrastructure, and I feel that when we put federal dollars into infrastructure it stimulates the economy,\u201d she said. \u201cThis has been shown to work mathematically and Republicans and Democrats agree on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zimmann also took a swipe at her opponent and Republicans, noting that Latta has voted twice against paycheck fairness legislation and said she feels there is \u201ca war against women in the Republican Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Democrat also addressed the Obama health care legislation, noting that she feels there are good things in the legislation and bad things, but would work hard, if elected, to find ways to tweak the legislation to make it cost-effective and fair for all Americans.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike most legislation, there is good and there is bad, and I would not say repeal, I would say revise,\u201d Zimmann said.<\/p>\n

She also criticized Latta for only calling for repeal of the health care legislation, not in finding ways to amend it to be more acceptable to Republicans and Democrats.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I hear is him bashing Obama, bashing the Democrat party,\u201d Zimmann said. \u201cIf I would hear him say \u2018this is bad, let\u2019s do this,\u2019 but all I hear him say is \u2018this is bad, this is bad, this is bad\u2019. if you\u2019re not part of the solution, you\u2019re part of the problem and he\u2019s part of the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is not a simple solution to the (health care) problem, it calls for nuanced thinking,\u201d Zimmann said. \u201cAll I see is sound bites coming from my opponent; we don\u2019t need sound bites, we need solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Democrat also is disappointed that Latta has not agreed to debate her on the issues, with the Republican incumbent failing to show up for the only debate scheduled earlier in the campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people of District 5 deserve to hear the two of us present our stances on the issues,\u201d Zimmann noted, and added that Latta’s failure to do so “is not the American way.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor Angela Zimmann is a Renaissance woman: Lutheran pastor, engineer, college professor, mother, foster parent, and school board member. She\u2019s also challenging incumbent Bob Latta, a conservative Republican, for the Fifth District U.S. House of Representatives seat he has held for the past six years. Zimmann, a self-proclaimed moderate Democrat, says she feels […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-27 13:22:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}