Register 100 Seats Remaining

Dale Butland Author Visit

When Ohio Was Blue: My Twenty-Year Journey with John Glenn

Political strategist and author Dale Butland visits the Bexley Public Library to celebrate the release of his new book When Ohio Was Blue: My Twenty-Year Journey with John Glenn.

Political strategist and author Dale Butland visits the Bexley Public Library to celebrate the release of his new book, When Ohio Was Blue: My Twenty-Year Journey with John Glenn. Dale will recount stories of his nearly two decades of working with the late US Senator and astronaut John Glenn, serving as his press secretary, Ohio chief of staff, and reelection campaign director. NBC4 Anchor Collen Marshall calls the book "an American tale told with the honesty and humor that can only come from someone who lived it."

Copies of When Ohio Was Blue will be for sale at this event with a book signing following the discussion.

About the Author:

Dale Butland has forty-six years of experience in government and political communications. For nearly two decades, he worked for the late US Senator and astronaut John Glenn, serving as his press secretary, Ohio chief of staff, and reelection campaign director. He’s also worked for numerous other Ohio politicians, including US Senator Howard M. Metzenbaum and talk show host Jerry Springer. He regularly appears on several politics and public affairs television shows and is a frequent op-ed contributor to many Ohio and national newspapers, including a poignant remembrance of Senator Glenn, “John Glenn: The Last American Hero?” published by The New York Times.

About the Book:

When Ohio Was Blue is a book about politics for people who aren’t steeped in it and who may not even like politics very much. Far more than simply a memoir, this book provides readers with a behind-the-scenes account of what it was like to work at the highest level of Ohio politics during the 1980s and ’90s, when Democrats like the late US Senators John Glenn and Howard Metzenbaum dominated the political landscape in the Buckeye State.   

Dale Butland—who was both personally and professionally close with Glenn, Metzenbaum, and the other political figures who take center-stage in these pages—peppers his account with hilarious stories and poignant anecdotes to give readers a true sense of who these men were, what made them tick, and why they enjoyed such enormous success. Along the way, Butland highlights how Glenn and Metzenbaum navigated many of that era’s most controversial political issues, illuminating the critical but unsung role talented staff members can play in the process.  

When Ohio Was Blue isn’t just a nostalgic look at past politics, rather it is an insightful analysis of the unpredictable and quirky business of politics and Butland’s attentive examination of how and why America’s politics have become so thoroughly polarized in recent years, along with a few suggestions for how to fix our badly broken economic and political systems.   

For those who crave a funny, unvarnished, and thoroughly entertaining look at what politics once was—and perhaps can be again—When Ohio Was Blue is just the book. 

Upcoming events