|
|||||
| |
The Blade (Toledo, OH)
Editorial
10-30-00
Mike DeWine doesn’t much look the part, but, after one term, he is Ohio’s senior member in the U.S. Senate. At 53, the Cedarville resident has been an elected official for just under a quarter-century - a county prosecutor, state senator, member of Congress, lieutenant governor, and, for the past six years, U.S. senator.
We endorsed Mr. DeWine in 1994 because he was the better candidate in an uninspiring contest with storefront lawyer Joel Hyatt. We anticipated a much better campaign this time around, but what Ohio got was worse - almost no competition at all.
Democrat Ted Celeste, a nonstarter from the beginning, has put up a token fight against Mr. DeWine, having been unable to raise money and having failed to convince even his own party to help fund a respectable statewide effort. What political experts had rated a potentially competitive race, despite a campaign-finance system that favors incumbents, turned out to be lackluster.
Richard Cordray, who lost to Mr. Celeste in the Democratic primary, would have been a far superior candidate and would have provoked a meaningful discussion about the role of the federal government.
During his first term, Mr. DeWine generally has been a reliable, conservative vote on most Republican issues.
Unfortunately, and unlike his "junior" colleague, Sen. George Voinovich, Mr. DeWine rarely bucks the party position. Nor does he take flashy or radical positions on sexy issues. Even as one of the select Senate managers, assigned to monitor Monica Lewinsky’s deposition prior to President Clinton’s impeachment trial, he didn’t go out of his way to attract attention.
Among his important accomplishments: the 1998 rewrite of federal job-training laws, which gave local governments more flexibility in use of federal funds, and which was considered vital to the success of welfare-reform laws promoting employment; the 1997 Adoption and Safe Families Act, intended to speed up adoptions and protect children in abusive foster-care situations, and a package of children’s health measures this year to improve pediatric research, asthma research and treatment, and children’s hospitals.
Crime prevention also has been on Mr. DeWine’s agenda, as Congress approved his $1.25 billion, five-year program to improve crime laboratories and help local police use national crime databases. In addition, he sponsored legislation to provide $2.6 billion for renewed U.S. efforts toward drug eradication and interdiction.
To his credit, Mr. DeWine also delivered on a project of prime importance to the Toledo area, creation of the Fallen Timbers Battlefield and Fort Miamis National Historic Site. This site, near I-475 and U.S. 24, marks the location of the Battle of Fallen Timbers, which in 1794 made way for American settlement in the area that now includes Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois.
We would rather have had an energetic campaign by two qualified candidates, fought over the major issues facing this country, but Mr. DeWine’s admirable record on issues of importance to many Ohioans has earned him a second term in the U.S. Senate.
NOTICE: This article, which may be copyrighted, is reprinted with specific permission granted to Heidelberg College. Further reprint rights must be secured from the publisher.
Heidelberg College / Office of College
Relations / webmaster@heidelberg.edu