Bob Fitrakis - Other

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Dr. Fitrakis is a past President of the Columbus State Educational Association and has been President of the Columbus State Faculty Senate. He also chaired the Instructional Support Council of Shared Governance and was the faculty advisor to the Ohio Board of Regents. From 1991-93 he was a Friends of the Homeless board member, served on the board of the Neighborhood Network, and was a representative from the CICJ to Community Shares of Mid Ohio. He also serves on the boards of the Columbus Film Council, Central Ohio Green Education Fund, and Citizens for Responsive Government.

He visited Reynosa and Matamoros, Mexico as part of a human rights delegation to investigate conditions in the maquilladoras in 1993. As a result of the trip, he co-produced a video entitled "The Other Side of Free Trade" shown around the country at colleges and public access stations. He served as an international election observer in the 1994 presidential elections in El Salvador and was the co-author and editor of the report to the United Nations. In 2009, Fitrakis was part of a U.S. human rights delegation to Libya with former U.S. rep Cynthia McKinney.

Fitrakis was an Election Protection attorney on November 2, 2004 in Franklin County. Fitrakis rose to national prominence during the U.S. presidential election, 2004 and related 2004 U.S. election voting controversies by calling the first public hearings on election irregularities in Ohio and by filing a challenge in the Ohio Supreme Court to Ohio's presidential election results in the cases Moss v. Bush and Moss v. Moyer with three other attorneys. He testified on election irregularities before the Congressional Black Caucus and Progressive Caucus. He also testified at the Fitrakis serves as co-counsel in the King-Lincoln-Bronzeville civil rights case. Fitrakis and Wasserman won a 2005 Project Censored Award, for an article that was listed as number three of the Top 25 Censored Stories, “How a Republican Election Supervisor Manipulated the 2004 Central Ohio Vote: In Black and White” that appeared on freepress.org.

Fitrakis was a Democratic candidate for Congress in the 12th district in 1992, running against Congressman John Kasich, and for the Columbus School Board in 1995. He was the elected Democratic Ward committeeperson in the 55th ward from 1996-2000. He currently serves as a Columbus Near East Area Commissioner. Fitrakis ran for Columbus City Council in the primary of 2003. and Columbus School Board that same year, endorsed by the Central Ohio Green Party. In 2008, Fitrakis brought suit on behalf of the Green Party of Ohio to place the Party on the ballot in the state, and served as the election attorney for Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney that year.

Fitrakis ran for Governor of Ohio in 2006 on the Green Party ticket with his running mate, Anita Rios. Together they garnered 40,965 votes for 1.02 percent of the vote.

In 2012, Fitrakis is running for Congress in the 3rd district, central Ohio, in the Green Party primary Match 6, 2012. He serves on the Central Committee of the Franklin County Green Party and is Co-Chair of the Ohio Green Party. He also serves as legal counsel for Occupy Columbus.