Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
0000017a-3b40-d913-abfe-bf44a4f90000Howard Wilkinson joined the WVXU news team as the politics reporter and columnist in April 2012 , after 30 years of covering local, state and national politics for The Cincinnati Enquirer. On this page, you will find his weekly column, Politically Speaking; the Monday morning political chats with News Director Maryanne Zeleznik and other news coverage by Wilkinson. A native of Dayton, Ohio, Wilkinson has covered every Ohio gubernatorial race since 1974, as well as 16 presidential nominating conventions. Along with politics, Wilkinson also covered the 2001 Cincinnati race riots, the Lucasville prison riot in 1993, the Air Canada plane crash at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in 1983, and the 1997 Ohio River flooding. And, given his passion for baseball, you might even find some stories about the Cincinnati Reds here from time to time.

Butler County Sheriff Among Those Who May Run For Boehner's Seat

Butler County Sheriff's Office

Ohio House Speaker John Boehner has represented western Ohio’s sprawling 8th Congressional District since 1991, but, with his announcement that he will resign the House at the end of October, a special election is in the near future.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich will soon make a formal call for a special election to fill out the rest of Boehner’s term, which ends in Jan. 2017.

It will involve special primary elections for both Republican and Democratic candidates, followed within weeks by a special general election.

The whole process could play out by the end of the year.

The heavily Republican district stretches from Butler County in the south to Mercer County in the north.

Possible GOP candidates, according to sources are Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones, State Rep. Tim Derickson of Oxford, State Sen. Bill Coley of Liberty Township and Ohio Supreme Court Justice Sharon Kennedy of Butler County.

The most blatant statement by any potential candidate came this morning on the personal Twitter account of Jones. Accompanied by a cartoon image of Homer Simpson in deep thought, the tweet contains this message from Jones: “Hmmmmmm….weighing out my options.” 

Howard Wilkinson is in his 50th year of covering politics on the local, state and national levels.