John Fockler – WI (Lib-OH-Senate)

John Fockler – WI*  (Lib-OH-Senate)

* denotes Write-In

John Fockler Senate Candidate for Ohio

Biography from

John Fockler – 2012 Campaign Biography

John Fockler is a write-in candidate for the party’s nomination for the 2012 United States Senate race.

Fockler, 54, was born in Pittsburgh, but his family moved to the Cleveland suburb of Bay Village in 1959. He graduated from Bay High School in 1975, where he had been active in band, choir, drama, The Bay Window school newspaper, and student government.

Fockler graduated in 1979 from Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, with a degree in history. While at Colgate, he was a page editor at The Colgate News, a news producer at WRCU-FM and a four-year second tenor in the Colgate Thirteen, the university’s male a capella group.

A “lifer” in the hotel industry, Fockler spent several years running hotels in Ohio and Pennsylvania and as a controller and front office manager. He currently works at the Comfort Inn in Austintown, Ohio, where he anchors the night audit, does payroll, and handles ordering for the hotel’s breakfast program.

Away from work, Fockler coached t-ball and softball in the Uptown Kiwanis baseball program. His main outside activity has been Torch Club, an association of professional people which meets to dine together and hear papers presented by members or guests. He is a past president of both the Youngstown and Akron Torch Clubs, and his papers have been featured in the international association’s magazine, The Torch, eight times.

Fockler got his political baptism going door-to-door for his father’s campaign for City Council President in 1961. He passed out literature for other local campaigns in Bay Village throughout the 1960’s. He made one appearance before Young Republicans in 1980 for the Howard Baker campaign. Recently, he has regularly attended meetings of the Campaign for Liberty, the group founded by Ron Paul supporters, and has spoken before the group several times.

Fockler joined the Libertarian Party in 1996, becoming active in the Mahoning Valley group the next year and serving as their chair twice. Beginning in 1999, he held a number of different positions in the state party, including newsletter editor, secretary and treasurer. He attended the LP’s national conventions three times, and ran for office on the Libertarian ticket twice before, for state house in 2000 and state senate in 2010. Currently, he serves as Secretary of the State Central Committee, Mahoning County Development Coordinator and is a regular contributor to the Buckeye Libertarian News.

Fockler has been married to Cathy for twenty-five years. They have two daughters, Cameron (Cammi) and Chandlee and two grandsons, Aiden and Caiden.

Fockler was moved to pursue the LP nomination for two reasons. He wanted to ensure that every Ohio voter would have the opportunity to vote in a Libertarian primary in 2012, something that could only happen if there was a candidate for US Senate, and he looks forward to the chance to put the libertarian point of view in front of as many Ohio voters as possible, and to challenge the policies of the two “legacy parties.”