Proudly Local

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 Hi Neighbor!  If you're on this site, chances are you are interested in your local council election and I love you for that already.  While we might have different ideas about some things, caring about this community is something we already have in common, and I like that about you.

My name is Ben Tracy and I moved to U.A. in 1987 when my parents bought a house on Fairfax Rd.  I went to Barrington Elementary and then on to Jones Middle School where I met my wife, Mallory Tracy (née Young).  But then my archaeologist parents moved to Greece and I shipped out to boarding school at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire.

After Exeter, I headed south to Brown University, then further south still for the University of Virginia School of Law.  After law school in 2010, I came home to U.A. and to Mallory (who had, by then graduated from OSU and started work as a hospital pharmacist).  I started law practice at a boutique firm working on wrongful convictions, appeals, and civil rights.

After several years in civil rights, I began work in public service, writing for U.S. and Ohio courts, including the Ohio Supreme Court, for over 10 years.  From there, I joined the appellate division of the prosecutor's office in order to keep our community safe while simultaneously preserving the civil rights that we all depend upon.

I want to call U.A. home, forever.  We love U.A. and neighbors like you.  We're raising our daughter, Abigail, here.  And all we want--all most of us want--is for government to work and to leave us alone.  But we cannot ignore the fact that our society is now flirting with something dangerous.  Rules and norms are being eroded.  Extremists try to tell us how to think, how to feel, how to speak.  Climate is in flux.  Factual reality, itself, is regularly challenged.  In this new world we need strong devotion to the rules of law and civility that have kept us peaceful and prosperous and a bold commitment to take action to evolve to meet the realities of our time.

I'm Ben Tracy and a vote for me is a vote for safety, stability, prosperity, and a government that does its job, and then lets you get on with the glorious business of living.