![\"By](\"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Todd-Wolfrum-headshot-8-2015-200px.jpg\")
<\/a>Lincolnview went to the state finals in basketball only to be beaten by an all-star team from the Cleveland area masquerading as a small Christian school. Why the OHSAA can\u2019t accomplish the separation of public and private schools in its state tournaments is beyond comprehension. Seems like even the private schools would want to be in a division where they compete with other teams that play by similar rules.<\/p>\n
Without a doubt, the most thrilling stop in that Lancer run was the district final game with Crestview over at Elida. Connor Lautzenheiser put on an offensive display reminiscent of Doug Etzler and Brandon Pardon to the respective fan bases. Lincolnview won on a last second shot and that team\u2019s steamrolling over the next three opponents proved that Van Wert County likely had the best two Division IV public school basketball teams in the state.<\/p>\n
And, by the way, I did get through that election.<\/p>\n
A local election is a singular experience. It clarifies not only who your friends are and who doesn\u2019t much care for you, but more importantly, who doesn\u2019t much care for you that you thought was your friend.<\/p>\n
Going door-to-door is the only good way to get a message out in these things. There\u2019s no polling or television coverage locally and advertising, even on the radio, can only get out sound bites. One of my friends after hearing one of my radio ads called to tell me that it about put him to sleep. He suggested I try something more like Trump was doing. Although that would have been interesting, I\u2019m glad I wasn\u2019t tempted.<\/p>\n
As a commissioner candidate, the further you get away from the center of the county, the less relevant you feel. I knocked on many a door in Willshire, Delphos, and Jennings Township and received a \u201cWho are you again?\u201d or \u201cWhat office are you trying for?\u201d Fair enough —\u00a0need to do more to reach those places, I guess.<\/p>\n
Some doors were better left unknocked. My favorite interaction was with an elderly gentleman in Delphos that went like this:<\/p>\n
Voter, after I introduced myself: \u201cWho are you voting for in the Republican Primary?\u201d<\/p>\n
Me: \u201cI\u2019m not really sure yet\u201d (this was shortly after Ben Carson dropped out and there were five remaining candidates).<\/p>\n
Voter: \u201cThen I\u2019m not sure about you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Me: \u201cWell, it\u2019s between Trump and Cruz. I like the outsiders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Voter: \u201cThen I can\u2019t support you.\u201d Door shut in face.<\/p>\n
Very few people actually want a conversation when you come to their door. I had discovered the Jehovah\u2019s Witness effect in my first election — the less well I dressed, the more likely people were to answer their doors. Stay away from ties.<\/p>\n
I delivered a standard spiel on the porch: Introduce myself, say why I was there, and get my literature in their hand. I\u2019d see a smile on most faces when I\u2019d start to back away, indicating I had no intention of taking any more of their time. Not being critical \u2013 I\u2019d be the same way. I might even be one that pretended no one was home. That\u2019s what I would do with the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses anyway.<\/p>\n
As for my opposition, I knew what was coming at me well before the race actually started. Largely because of this column, there had aligned a sizable contingent from the old guard waiting for this election as an opportunity to shut my big mouth. Someone once had told me that her daughter had read one of my columns when she was home from college and couldn\u2019t believe what I was saying. \u201cThey\u2019re going to come after him,\u201d she had said.<\/p>\n
I had only thought of these things as telling the truth with occasional attempts at humor. But the daughter was right: they came after me.<\/p>\n
I talked during the campaign about the old status quo supporting my opponent financially and as much as they could by preaching the good word. I was asked several times who specifically I was talking about. I would drop a name or two of the most vocal, but if you really want to know who wanted a return to the old days of steady population decline and limited and fragmented economic development efforts, you can obtain the list of my opponent\u2019s donors from the Van Wert County Board of Elections.<\/p>\n
The negative that I heard as I campaigned was a bit confusing. One contingent against me said I was a troublemaker, another said I was just a yes-man for the other commissioners (the other commissioners got a kick out of that). You learn that if someone doesn\u2019t like you and they don\u2019t know why, they\u2019ll provide themselves a reason. It reminded me of the scene from Cool Hand Luke<\/em> where Luke has been beaten-up by the bosses and the warden is explaining why he\u2019s getting beaten. Luke says, \u201cYou don\u2019t need a reason to kick me, boss.\u201d<\/p>\n Overall, I wouldn\u2019t say it was fun, but I would say it was necessary. I had attempted enough change in my first term that a referendum was certainly in order. To the 65 percent that voted for me, thanks for understanding and supporting what myself and the other commissioners were trying to accomplish over the last few years.<\/p>\n It\u2019s always seemed disingenuous to me for a politician after an election to thank all of the voters, even the ones who didn\u2019t vote for him. One could even see how that could be characterized as sarcastic or insulting. So to those who didn\u2019t vote for me, I say only this: Perhaps it\u2019s my fault for not communicating better. I promise to write twice as many of these columns in my second term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" About five months ago, this column went on hiatus because I was running for re-election to the Commissioners\u2019 Office. A lot has happened since then. Donald Trump, love him or hate him — and there doesn\u2019t seem to be much in between — has redefined American politics. And even if you\u2019re not a fan, you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinions"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-07 12:30:26","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\/76485","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=76485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}