Ohio second congressional district election, 2005

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Jump to: navigation, search
The State of Ohio, showing the Second District.
Enlarge
The State of Ohio, showing the Second District.
Detailed Map of Ohio's Second Congressional District.
Enlarge
Detailed Map of Ohio's Second Congressional District.

Elections were held in the Second Congressional District of Ohio on August 2, 2005, to choose a United States Representative to replace Rob Portman, who resigned his seat on April 29, 2005, to become United States Trade Representative. Jean Schmidt, the Republican Party candidate, defeated Democrat Paul Hackett, in a suprisingly close election as the district (printable map), which stretches along the Ohio River from the Hamilton County suburbs of Cincinnati east to Scioto County, has not elected a Democrat since Tom Luken won a 1974 special election. It is the 57th most Republican district in the nation by the reckoning of the Cook Political Report and includes all of Adams, Brown Pike, and Clermont counties and parts of Hamilton, Scioto and Warren counties.

It includes all of the Warren County municipalities of Lebanon, South Lebanon, Loveland, Maineville, Morrow, Butlerville, and Pleasant Plain, and parts of the municipalities of Mason and Blanchester. All of Union, Hamilton, Harlan, Salem, and Washington Townships were in the district, as well as parts of Turtlecreek Township immediately adjacent to the city of Lebanon, and southern Deerfield Township. The Hamilton County municipalities of Sharonville, Blue Ash, Deer Park, Loveland, Madeira, Newtown, Terrace Park, and Indian Hill were in the district, along with eastern parts of Cincinnati. All of Anderson and Symmes Townships and parts of Sycamore Township and the city of Springdale are also in the district.

The last Democrat to win a full term in this district was John Gilligan in 1964 and the district (known as the First District before 1982) has been in Republican hands for all but nine years since 1879. Portman won the seat in a 1993 special election with 77 percent of the vote and in six subsequent campaigns never received less than 70 percent.

Contents

[edit]

Timeline

Rob Portman speaks at the White House ceremony at which President George W. Bush announced he had nominated him to be the next U.S. Trade Representative on March 17, 2005.
Enlarge
Rob Portman speaks at the White House ceremony at which President George W. Bush announced he had nominated him to be the next U.S. Trade Representative on March 17, 2005.

This is the schedule for the election, as set by Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell:

[edit]

The Republican Primary

The primary was held on June 14, 2005. Eleven candidates qualified for the ballot. Candidates are listed in alphabetical order, followed by their age, hometown, home county, occupation, and prior political experience. One candidate filed but his petitions were rejected by elections officials, August F. Geier of Hamilton County's Springfield Township.

[edit]

Republican candidates

Austin

Bemmes

Brinkman

Fossett

DeWine

McEwen

Minamyer

Mink (left)Image:JeffMorganforCongress.jpg|Morgan

Schmidt

Smith

Some of these links point to Ohio second congressional district other candidates.

[edit]

The campaign

As soon as President George W. Bush announced on March 17 he was nominating Rob Portman to be United States Trade Representative, a Cabinet-rank diplomatic post that conducts trade negotiations, candidates were scrambling to enter the race. The Senate confirmed Portman on April 29 and he resigned that day. Three days later, Governor Bob Taft issued the call for the election.

Because the district is overwhelmingly Republican, most attention was paid to the Republican primary and then mostly to the candidates with the greatest name recognition and experience: Pat DeWine, Bob McEwen, Jean Schmidt, and Tom Brinkman.

[edit]

Four leading candidates

Pat DeWine was probably best known from his three successful campaigns for the Cincinnati city council and his election in November 2004 to the Hamilton County Commission. He also benefitted from his father, U.S. Senator Mike DeWine, having held statewide office since 1991, first as lieutenant governor and then senator. Bob McEwen, who was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives at twenty-four and Congress at thirty, served six terms in Washington representing the old Sixth Congressional District (centered around his hometown of Hillsboro) until his narrow defeat in a hard fought campaign in 1992. Jean Schmidt, a lifetime resident of Clermont County's Miami Township where she served as a township trustee for eleven years before her election to the Ohio House in 2000, narrowly lost the March 2004 primary for the Ohio Senate by twenty-two votes. Tom Brinkman, a member of the Ohio House since 2001, was not liked by his party's leadership because of his ardent opposition to the G.O.P.'s tax and spend policies in Columbus and his defeat of the endorsed Republican candidate in his primary in March 2000. The remaining Republican candidates were either complete unknowns such as Steve Austin or had name recognition in limited areas, such as former Reading school board member Tom Bemmes or Symmes Township trustee Eric Minamyer.

[edit]

DeWine faces questions over his family

DeWine amassed a campaign treasury larger than all his rivals combined, raising over $750,000. He was helped by his father, thousands coming from the political action committees associated with Republican colleagues of his father, such as Mississippi Senator Trent Lott. McEwen was dependent on his own money, contributing $250,000 to his campaign. Schmidt also made significant contributions to her campaign. DeWine's father was also a hindrance to the campaign. Never the most conservative of Republican senators, DeWine angered supporters of President George W. Bush by his participation in a deal to avoid the "nuclear option" to filibusters on Bush's nominees to federal courts. Pat DeWine told the press had he been in Congress, he would not have supported his father's compromise.

More damaging to DeWine were the questions raised about his personal life. In 2004, he had faced incumbent John Dowlin in the March primary for the Republican nomination to be county commissioner. Dowlin had ran ads calling attention to DeWine leaving his pregnant wife and their two children for a mistress working as a lobbyist. Though Dowlin lost, the issue was resurrected by DeWine's rivals in 2005. McEwen and Schmidt made it a point in their stump speeches to emphasize how long they had been married to their spouses, Schmidt declaring "I am a woman of character who has been married for twenty-nine years."

Many voters agreed with the critics. A letter from Jeffrey S. Learman of Warren County's Deerfield Township published in The Pulse-Journal on June 9 stated:

If Pat DeWine cannot honor his vow before God to preserve the sanctity of his marriage by remaining faithful to his wife, how can he possibly be trusted to honor a vow before God to uphold and defend the Constitution, to preserve the freedom and liberties of those residing in the 2nd Congressional District? If Pat DeWine would betray those closest to him--his wife and children--then no one, especially constituents whom he has never met, is safe from his treachery. Pat DeWine is unfit for public office, even that of dog catcher.

DeWine was criticized by Simon Leis, Hamilton County sheriff and a former prosecuting attorney and judge, who said he should resign. "I think the man should step down," Leis said. "The citizens of this community deserve someone who will run the county full time." (Leis was later to become chairman of Minamyer's campaign.)

[edit]

DeWine focuses on McEwen

DeWine focused his attention on the most experienced candidate, Bob McEwen. DeWine said McEwen had "wasted taxpayers' money" by having the most expensive Congressional office of any Ohio member of the U.S. House. DeWine criticized McEwen's bouncing of 166 checks on the House bank, a major factor in his 1992 defeat. And DeWine tried to depict McEwen as a carpetbagger, asking in television advertisements "If Bob McEwen really cares about us, why has he spent the last twelve years living in Virginia?" McEwen denied he has bounced any checks, repeating what he had claimed in 1992 and insisted that he had continued to reside in Ohio since he lost his re-election bid, that he had never voted in Virginia nor held a Virginia drivers license. (McEwen did not live in the second district until April 11, when he bought a condominium in Anderson Township; but DeWine did not live in the district until he bought a home there on April 6.) DeWine quoted correspondence from the Highland County Board of Elections cancelling McEwen's voter registration for living in Virginia.

DeWine also questioned McEwen's record on taxes, sending out mailings criticizing McEwen's vote on May 24, 1982 in the 97th Congress "in support of a Democrat budget that raised out taxes by $233 billion." Two mailings focused on this issue, one featuring a photograph of Ronald Reagan which was captioned "When President Reagan Needed Votes to Keep Taxes Low, Bob McEwen Said 'NO'", the other asking "Are We Still the Party of Lower Taxes?" which noted DeWine supports Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's amendment to the Ohio Constitution to limit spending increases and had a photo of DeWine and Blackwell together.

[edit]

McEwen responds to DeWine

McEwen ran television ads that lamented DeWine's "desperate, untrue attacks" but did not attempt to refute them, instead focusing on how he would continue to advance the idea of Ronald Reagan. To emphasize his connection to Reagan, McEwen brought Reagan aide and Attorney General Edwin Meese to Ohio to speak on how important McEwen had been in advancing Reagan's legislative agenda. McEwen also emphasized his return to Congress would mean he would enter not as a freshman but as a seventh termer, thus entitling him to better committee assignments. However, spokesmen for Ohio's Deborah Pryce, chairman of the House Republican Conference, the body which decides such matters, denied McEwen would automatically get his former seniority back.

On the issues, McEwen emphasized his pro-life stance and support for immigration reform. One mailing he sent had a picture of 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta's visa captioned "Shocking: All of the 9/11 murderers had visas issued to them by the U.S. State Department" and called for "a military presence on the Mexican and Canadian borders."

McEwen had high profile endorsements from Focus on the Family leader James Dobson, former United States Attorney General Edwin Meese, Cincinnati Bengals player Anthony Munoz, American Family Association president Donald Wildmon, Citizens for Community Values anti-pornography crusader Phil Burress, and former New York congressman and 1996 vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp, who came to the district to campaign for him. Kemp said in a rally in Clermont County on May 20 that "Bob and his wife Liz are like part of our family." Dobson wrote in his endorsement letter "I have rarely been more excited about a candidate running in a highly significant race than I am about Bob McEwen for Congress . . . . If Bob returns to the House of Representatives, he will once again emerge as a tireless champion for the family and for traditional conservative values." [1]

Ed Meese came to Cincinnati on May 31 to campaign for McEwen saying "Ronald Reagan relied on him heavily". Rival candidate Pat DeWine the same day questioned McEwen's post-Congressional career as a lobbyist, issuing a press release saying "no one who has ever served in Congress ought to be allowed to become a lobbyist. Ever."

Congressman John Boehner, whose Eighth District was to the west of the Second, endorsed McEwen on June 7. Boehner was a freshman in McEwen's final term. He said "Bob is the most qualified to step in and represent that district." The Congressmen from other neighboring districts, Steve Chabot and Mike Turner, were silent in the primary race. McEwen a week before the primary was reported to have raised $366,429, McEwen donating $250,000 to his campaign; DeWine's total was $743,407.

[edit]

DeWine vs. Brinkman

Pat DeWine also targeted Tom Brinkman. One mailing had a large ominous photograph of a man in a ski mask pointing a gun directly at the viewer. The caption was "Tom Brinkman opposes the death penalty, even for child murderers, cop killers and terrorists who kill Americans." The mailing also stated "Tom Brinkman says he's a conservative but when it comes to the safety of our families, he doesn't stand with us" and that murderers "will get off easy if he casts the deciding vote."

However, Brinkman's opposition to the death penalty was rooted in his pro-life beliefs. One of Brinkman's mailings said "Tom Brinkman believes all life is precious and must be protected. He has a 100% pro-life voting record." Brinkman's position was that he was "100% pro-life from conception to natural death."[2] While DeWine also stated his pro-life position, Brinkman noted on his web-site "Because of [my] unwavering support of the Right to Life, from conception to natural death, Ohio Right to Life, Cincinnati Right to Life and Family First have again exclusively endorsed my election this year." [3]

[edit]

Schmidt vs. Brinkman

Jean Schmidt was criticized in ads paid for by the Club for Growth , the Washington, D.C.-based group associated with Grover Norquist which campaigns for lower taxes and actively works for the defeat of Republicans it considers insufficiently conservative, such as Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. “Jean Schmidt is a proven supporter of higher taxes. Her record in the Ohio State Legislature shows that she voted to raise the state sales tax and opposed efforts to keep property taxes down,” said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey.[4] The Club's ads noted Schmidt had voted in favor of Governor Taft's 20 percent increase in the state sales tax and increases in the state budget. The Club compared her unfavorably to Tom Brinkman, who was hailed in the ad as "Honest. Conservative. Leader." The Ohio Taxpayers Association disputed the Club's ad. Its president told The Cincinnati Enquirer that Schmidt had "a pretty good record" in Columbus and that the OTA's political action committee had endorsed her. Schmidt explained her vote in an interview with The Cincinnati Enquirer in February 2004:

I understood that it is our responsibility to not only balance the budget but to make sure the citizens of Ohio have the adequate services to meet their needs. And toward that end, I did the responsible thing. I voted for the budget, because constitutionally we had to have a balanced budget.[5]

Schmidt's campaign literature noted her pro-life voting record, her opposition to gay marriage, her high ratings from the National Rifle Association, and that she "opposes an activist court system that acts against our conservative values." Her literature also featured her endorsement by Phil Fulton, a pastor who fought the court ordered removal of tablets containing the Ten Commandments from the grounds of schools in Adams County. Fulton was quoted in a Schmidt mailing:

Jean has stood strong in our 10 Commandments fight and all the moral issues that concern the people of adams County. As a member of the 10 Commandments Committee and a pastor for 30 years, I support her whole heartedly.
[edit]

Minamyer more low key

Eric Minamyer ran a much more low-key campaign. His lone television spot was minimally produced, featuring him speaking directly to the camera while pictures of him in his military and police uniform were displayed on the screen. Minamyer spoke of his service in the Iraq War, as a special deputy of the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, and on the boards of the Indian Hill school district and Great Oaks Joint Vocational District. "The choice is clear" he stated, emphasizing his background rather than issues or the other candidates.

[edit]

The other Republicans

The remaining Republican candidates, having far less to spend than their better known rivals, tried to get their name out through yard signs, t-shirts, and meeting the voters at malls, American Legion halls, and parades. Several had web-sites, including Douglas Mink who had the cleverly named "Thinkmink.org" site. The Dayton Daily News, a Democratic paper, wrote in an editorial that the GOP primary had been "an absolutely mad race to the right" and "it feels like this contest is about who's going to represent right to life and evangelical churches."

[edit]

Republican results

These are the unofficial final returns from the primary, which are subject to change and must be certified by the Boards of Elections.[6] A total of 45,611 ballots were cast in the Republican primary, representing 9.99% of the 456,795 registered voters in the district and 76.6% of the 59,538 ballots cast in both primaries.

  1. Jean Schmidt, 14,232 (31.4%)
  2. Bob McEwen, 11,565 (25.5%)
  3. Tom Brinkman, 9,211 (20.3%)
  4. Pat DeWine, 5,455 (12.0%)
  5. Eric Minamyer, 2,111 (4.7%)
  6. Peter A. Fossett, 1,026 (2.3%)
  7. Tom Bemmes, 695 (1.5%)
  8. Jeff Morgan, 400 (0.9%)
  9. David R. Smith, 374 (0.8%)
  10. Steve Austin, 221 (0.5%)
  11. Douglas Mink, 100 (0.2%)
[edit]

The Democratic Primary

The primary was held on June 14, 2005. Five candidates qualified for the ballot and one write-in candidate filed after his petitions were rejected for insufficient signatures. Candidates are listed in alphabetical order, followed by their age, hometown, home county, occupation, and prior political experience. Russell Hurley, a barber from Anderson Township, was the first Democrat to enter the race. While he filed papers, his petitions were rejected.

[edit]

Democratic candidates

Hackett

Katz

Parker

Sanders

Sinnard

Wulsin

Some of these links point to Ohio second congressional district other candidates.

[edit]

The Democratic campaign

The Democratic primary attracted little attention. The obvious candidate was Charles W. Sanders, who won the nomination in the past four primaries but never got more than 28% of the vote against Portman in the general election. Many party leaders expressed their gratitude for Sanders for his past service but backed Paul Hackett instead. The Democratic parties in Pike, Clermont, and Hamilton Counties all endorsed Hackett, an attorney from Indian Hill who had served on the Milford city council in the 1990s and in the Marines in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, over Sanders, the only black candidate in either primary, who had been recalled as Mayor of Waynesville when he charged the village police with racial profiling.

Victoria Wells Wulsin, a doctor from Indian Hill, led a charity, SOTENI International, that was funding an AIDS prevention campaign in Kenya. Her platform was not one that would win many fans in the conservative Second District: pro-choice, pro-gay rights, opposing the Iraq War, and calling for the repeal of the tax cuts George W. Bush won from Congress.

Jeff Sinnard, a civil engineer who proudly noted he was a "stay-at-home dad", was the most conservative Democrat in the field, quoting the Bible on his web-site and expressing his oppositition to gay marriage and abortion: "I endorse a reverence for human life and dignity from conception to natural death."

Sanders, in addition to the racial profiling issue, had faced complaints from his constituents that he spent too much time on his Congressional campaigns and meeting high Democratic officials such as Bill Clinton rather than attending to local issues. Because of redistricting, Sanders no longer lived in the Second District and had not in his last two runs against Portman. Sanders was not concerned that party leaders were backing Hackett, telling The Cincinnati Enquirer "People out there know me. I may not have the money or the organization, but no one in this race will work harder."

[edit]

Democratic results

These are the unofficial final returns from the primary, which are subject to change and must be certified by the Boards of Elections.[7] A total of 13,927 ballots were cast representing 3.05% of the 456,795 registered voters in the district and 23.4% of the 59,538 ballots cast in both primaries.

  1. Paul Hackett, 7,856 (56.9%)
  2. Victoria Wells Wulsin, 3,756 (27.2%)
  3. Charles W. Sanders, 1,251 (8.8%)
  4. James John Parker, 668 (4.8%)
  5. Jeff Sinnard, 279 (2.0%)
  6. Arthur Stanley Katz, 24 (0.2%)
[edit]

General election

The general election was held on August 2, 2005.

After her primary win, Schmidt flew to Washington, D.C., to attend fundraisers and have a campaign commerical shot featuring her with George W. Bush. Having far more money than her opponent, she was able to afford a television campaign and distributed many large campaign signs throughout the district. However, her financial edge diminished as of late July.

Hackett's limited budget had meant his campaign was limited to word of mouth, one-on-one personal campaigning, and yard signs, of which there were many, despite the strong Republican tilt of the district. One tactic to ensure his name was seen was Hackett's campaign affixing signs to all of the overpasses of I-71 in eastern Hamilton County.

However, with the help of Democrats from across the nation, Hackett raised several hundred thousand dollars in the closing weeks of the campaign. One main reason Democrats have decided to rally around Hackett was that, had he won, he would have been the first veteran of the 2003 invasion of Iraq to serve in Congress. Late in the campaign Schmidt claimed Mark Kirk, Republican Congressman from Illinois was the first Congressman to serve in Iraq, but Kirk said he had never actually been on tour in Iraq.

Controversy arose over whether Schmidt had failed to list gifts received when she was in the Ohio General Assembly on her financial disclosure statements.[8] Another controversy was her ties to Tom Noe, a major player in the Coingate scandal. Schmidt initially denied ever meeting Noe, but Hackett produced minutes of a 2002 Ohio Board of Regents meeting attended by Schmidt. Noe was a member of the board at the time.

Jane S. Anderson, an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati who has unsuccessfully run for the Cincinnati city council and the Ohio House, told the Associated Press

It's definitely worth it to the Democrats to put in the effort if only to keep the party energized. Even if Paul Hackett loses, it is very important for the party for him to do well. It could be seen as a sign of opportunities for Democrats in other GOP strongholds.

The election was given major national attention by the television networks and other observers despite its restricted locality. Throughout the night, as returns came in, political watchers and bloggers zeroed in on the election as an indicator of American political opinion shifts.

Many predictions were made everywhere, but as this district had always been a Republican stronghold, most projected a Schmidt win, even though polling was showing the race was getting tight.

After Schmidt's narrow win, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich warned Republicans that the election was a warning sign for the 2006 midterms and that while they should not yet panic, they should "think" before it was too late. Ohio Republican Party political director Jason Mauk said: ""To the extent that voters in that district were sending a message to the Republican Party at the state or national level, we have heard that message and we will continue to listen to their concerns."

[edit]

General Election Results

These are the final unofficial results from the Hamilton County Board of Elections and The Cincinnati Enquirer. These numbers have not been certified and are subject to change.

Precincts counted: 753 out of 753 (100%)

Candidate Party Hamilton Warren Clermont Brown Adams Scioto Pike Totals Percent
Jean Schmidt Republican 25,048 7,556 17,320 3,100 1,911 2,638 1,559 59,132 51.74 (Elected)
Paul Hackett Democratic 23,657 5,420 12,439 3,950 2,101 4,925 2,659 55,151 48.25
James J. Condit, Jr. (write in)               10 0.01
James E. Constable, Jr. (write in)               3 <0.005
Total                 114,296 100
[edit]

See also

[edit]

External links

[edit]

References

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_second_congressional_district_election%2C_2005"
Personal tools