Borrrrrinnnnnggg.

Franklin County Commissioner Paula Brooks is running against Pat Tiberi for Congress.

Wait, I take that back.

Franklin County Commissioner Paula Brooks, who doesn't live in the 12th Congressional District, is running against Pat Tiberi for Congress.

Brooks, who has won election twice to the office of Franklin County Commissioner, is being considered by the Dispatch as a reasonably formidable opponent to Tiberi.

Now, as a former Tiberi staffer I do have some bias, but Brooks is completely fooling herself if she thinks she has any shot in hell to unseat Tiberi.

In 2008, the Year of Obama, Tiberi won the 12th district by over 12 points. He lost Franklin County by less than 10,000 votes.

Now remember, Brooks' only name recognition in the 12th district is within Franklin County. Since 2000, Tiberi has consistently far outpaced opponents in Licking and Delaware Counties. That means Brooks not only is going to need to outpace how Democrats did in Franklin County in 2008, when Dem turnout was through the roof for Obama, but she is going to need to raise vast amounts of money to create any semblance of a challenge in Licking and Delaware County.

In other words, it's hopeless.

But with a second Franklin County Commish potentially bailing, the county GOP has itself a bit of an opportunity to start making headway in a county that has been giving increasing demographic challenges. Without any big names to go up against, the FCRP, led by Doug Preisse, has the opportunity to support a big name challenger like State Sen. David Goodman, former State Rep. Larry Wolpert, or even former Commish Dewey Stokes.

Remember, all politics is local. You win the smaller races and it sets the stage for conservative success down the road. Let's hope we get that chance.