Lang gets last-minute primary challenge in congressional race

Before filing deadlines were extended, Athens Law Director Pat Lang had a chance to escape a primary challenge in his bid for U.S. Congress.

That's no longer the case, however, after a mid-December compromise in the Ohio Statehouse reunited two planned 2012 primaries back into one, effectively ending a standoff over recently drawn redistricting maps. That compromise set up room for a new filing deadline for those seeking U.S. congressional seats, and challengers emerged on both side of the ballot.

Lang is running for Ohio's 15^th U.S. House District, a newly drawn district that now includes most of Athens County, including the cities of Athens and Nelsonville.

Current 15^th District U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Upper Arlington, will face a primary challenge from two other Republicans, Charles Chope and Ralph A. Applegate, both perennial candidates for Congress.

On Democratic side, Lang will square off against pilot Scott Wharton of Amanda, a small town southwest of Lancaster. Wharton had originally filed to run in the Democratic primary for Ohio's 10^th Congressional District before the compromise and the final map was put into place. He has since filed for the 15^th District.

The newly drawn 15^th District doesn't include two southeast townships in Athens County, which are located in Ohio's newly drawn 6^th District. The 15^th also includes Morgan, Perry, Hocking, Vinton, Fairfield, Pickaway, Clinton, Madison counties and parts of Franklin, Ross and Highland counties.

Population declines revealed in the 2010 U.S. Census lost Ohio two congressional seats, with the state declining from 18 to 16.

In a press release last week, Wharton said that he is a graduate of Amanda-Clearcreek High School and Ohio University.

"He proudly served as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force during Desert Storm," the release said. "Scott is currently a captain flying the B-737 for a major airline (Delta) and is a union member of the Airline Pilots Association."

The release said that Wharton resides in Amanda with his children on a family-run farm.

"Scott believes the middle-class needs a voice in Congress," the release said before stating that Wharton supports economic recovery, job growth, veterans benefits, organized labor and Social Security/Medicare. "The economy of our country has languished in the worst recession of our lifetime, and there has been a lack of leadership in Congress."

The release citees polls showing that Congress currently has an 11 percent approval rating.

"We need an advocate from outside of politics that does not pander to special interests and big business," the release concludes. "We need Scott to represent the American people; it is time to take Congress back."

In announcing his bid for the 15^th District seat, Lang vowed to focus on job creation and fight for middle-class families. He referred to Stivers as a "career banking lobbyist whose extreme agenda protects Wall Street but ends Medicare as we know it."

Lang cited his biography in announcing his bid for the seat.

"I'm running for Congress because I grew up in a small Appalachian town as a child, my parents could sometimes afford to heat just one room of the house in wintertime," he said. "When the coal mines closed and neighbors got laid off, I saw things go from tough to tougher. That's why it is so frustrating to watch Congress and see a whole lot of nothing."

Lang said that Congress is doing "nothing to create jobs, nothing to invest in middle-class families or small business, nothing to reassure us that we have the right tools to get out of this economic mess."

In Ohio's Sixth Congressional District, which includes Carthage and Troy townships the Coolville and Hockingport area everything stayed the same as it had before the new maps were drawn.

U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, will face a primary challenge from Republican Victor Smith of Waterford, Ohio. On the Democratic ticket, former U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson, of St. Clairsville, will square off against Steubenville's Cas Adulewicz for the nomination.

While the Sixth District is considered vulnerable to a Democratic challenge, the 15^th District is among the Ohio congressional districts that are considered relatively safe for the Republican incumbent.