‘Average Joe’ Schriner is pictured with his family (l-r): wife, Liz; Sarah, eight; Joe; and son, Joseph, six, during a recent campaign stop in West Union. Not pictured is 14-month-old son, Jonathan.
More than just another ‘Average Joe’ Ohio man taking the back roads to the White House
While front runners George W. Bush and John Kerry are busy slugging it out to see who will come out on top of the 2004 presidential election, another, lesser known candidate has been hard at work trying to gain support for his bid for the White House.
Though he may not have the money to spend on a big campaign like Kerry or Bush, and he may not have the campaign staff that those gentleman have, "Average Joe" Schriner is no less determined in his efforts to gain the presidency.
With more than 55,000 miles logged on the campaign trail in both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, Schriner has proven that this is more than just a passing fancy.
"I'm a 'concerned parent' who is worried about the direction the country is going for our children and everybody's children," Schriner said. "When it comes to such things as violence (especially to the unborn), drugs, poverty, sex in the media, pollution levels... For eight years prior to running, I traveled the country looking for common sense people who had come up with creative local programs to make a difference in these problem areas."
"As we campaign, we talk about these programs from place to place to plant seeds. And we were, actually, quite effective at that during Campaign 2000. And with that success, we decided to continue it for Campaign 2004."
Schriner, who is originally from Cleveland and currently resides in Ripley, was campaigning in Adams County Friday. Schriner told The People's Defender that, even though the odds are stacked against him, he's still trying to win the election.
"I recently told a graduate history class at Toledo University that every time someone picks up on one of the programs — it's as if I get a policy enacted (on a small scale) long before I ever get to D.C. ," he said. "I also told the class I was, indeed, trying to win the Election as well."
Schriner's campaign is about more than just trying to get elected, he said, it's also about educating people about what they can do in their own communities to make them better. It's also a chance for him and his family to find new ideas that can be put to use for the common good.
"As we campaign, we also continue to research," he said. "In Adams County, for instance, I interviewed William Smalley, president of the Board of Health. He told me, as an example, that the school can be an 'incubator for disease' and he said there is usually at least a 12 percent absentee rate during flu season. To combat this, a Hand Washing and Desk Sanitizing Program is in the works. He explained there are 20,000 germs per square inch on a normal school desk and washing the desks a couple times a week only makes sense. Our health care approach emphasizes prevention. With less flu, for instance, there's less school days missed, less medical costs, and so on. So we will talk about this program throughout the country (and put it on our Web site, www.voteforjoe.com) with the hopes other school systems will pick up on it.
"It is this type of thing that motivates us to keep going. Even though it doesn't show up on the exit polls, yet, we know we are having an impact on helping change the country."
Schriner's campaign entourage consists of himself, his wife, Liz, and his three children, Sarah, 8, Joseph, 6 and Jonathan, 14 months. When asked how the experience has affected his family, Joe said:
"In 2001 we went to Juarez, Mexico to look at Hispanic immigration issues first-hand. What we saw was abject poverty in the extreme, nuclear families shattered, with both parents working two shifts a day at border factories for next to nothing pay, while their children roam the streets. You can't walk away from seeing something like that, without it changing you — and wanting to help. So we researched programs along the border designed to help.
"How it has affected our children is they aren't growing up in a protective bubble. They've seen Juarez, they've seen the homeless in L.A., in Chicago, in Savannah... When our Sarah was three and a half she saw her first homeless person lying in a street in Savannah, Ga. She asked me what was wrong. I said he was homeless. She looked instantly aghast, pulled at my shirt and implored: 'Daddy, Daddy... we've got to find him a home.' Our answer to homelessness in the country? Everybody become three and a half years old again."
Schriner said the greatest reward he has received in his two campaigns has been when someone hears them speak, then goes out and tries to make a change in their community.
When asked if he had any regrets, his response was that he wasn't president already.
"As president, we would be driving the vans all over (with a big AP entourage) to all these programs — so the whole country knew about them. And, as a result, more people would be getting help."
Though it is too early to say for sure, Schriner said early conjecture is that he will run again in 2008, assuming of course that he loses this time.
