Stivers Confident He Can Raise Funds Necessary To Match Warchest of Anti-Gun Congressional Opponent

Heard during the news conference yesterday where state Sen. Steve Stivers was asked if he felt he could raise enough money to compete with democrat Mary Jo Kilroy for the 15th district Congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Deborah Pryce:

"Well, when we decided to run on Saturday night, I had zero dollars in the bank. I've been doing some phone calling with people I know and as of now I have commitments for $60,000. I'll be making a lot of calls over the next eleven-and-a-half months."

Author's Note: I attended the news conference at Ohio GOP headquarters at the invitation of Sen. Stivers. He is getting into the race late, but presents a strong challenge to rabidly anti-gun candidate Kilroy, who narrowly lost to Pryce in the last election for this hotly contested seat. With the exception of one vote, he has been a consistent supporter of Ohioans' firearms rights. The democrat party earlier targeted this seat for takeover. More recently, up until Stivers threw his hat in the ring, democrats practically bragged the election -- set for November 2008 -- had already been decided.