Ninth District candidate speaks near Waterville

Ninth District Congressional candidate Steve Kraus, who is vying for the Republican nomination in the March 6 primary, said Thursday that Ohio should be allowed to drill under Lake Erie for natural gas.

Mr. Kraus, who is running against Samuel “Joe the Plumber” Wurzelbacher for the GOP nomination, called drilling under the lake a state’s rights issue.

Mr. Kraus spoke about that and other state and local issues for about an hour to about 30 people at the Fallen Timbers Republican Club meeting at the Browning Retirement Center near Waterville.

During a question and answer period, Mr. Kraus, a U.S. Air Force veteran, said it is the duty of every American to own a gun to protect ourselves “from a government that is out of control.”

He later said that he did not mean that Americans should take up arms against the government in the literal sense.

Mr. Kraus, a Huron auctioneer and a licensed realtor with Prudential Stadtmiller Realty, grew up in Erie County, graduating from Sandusky High School in 1977.

Mr. Wurzelbacher, of Springfield Township, spoke at the same venue last month.

The winner in Republican primary race will face the winner of the Democratic nomination, which is between longtime political veterans U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) and U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D., Cleveland), and political newcomer Graham Veysey of Cleveland.