The Hamilton County Ohio Board of Elections website shows that David Krikorian will be running as a Democrat in Ohio’s 2nd Congressional District. Krikorian previously ran as an independent candidate in 2008 and was endorsed by the Libertarian Party of Ohio. He earned over 17% of the votes in that race, making him the most successful independent congressional candidate in the country during that election cycle.
The 2nd district’s Republican incumbent, Jean Schmidt, has held the seat since 2005. Schmidt and Krikorian have a disputatious history, with Krikorian accusing Schmidt of accepting “blood money” from the Turkish government and Schmidt filing a defamation suit against Krikorian. A local website has referred to Krikorian as Schmidt’s “arch-enemy”. In 2010, Krikorian ran for the same seat as a Democrat but lost in the primary to Surya Yalamanchili.
While it was previously known that Krikorian was considering running in the 2nd district, it was not clear what ballot line he would choose to run on. He stated that he would run as an independent if the Democratic Party did not support him. The prospect of running against both Schmidt and Krikorian in the general election was a factor in State Rep. Connie Pillich’s decision to run for re-election in the State House instead of the U.S. Congress.
This is a really interesting race.
Nice links, too.
William R. Smith is the only other person to file in the Democratic primary. Smith filed to run in the 2nd District in the 2008 election cycle but did not raise any money.