Cleveland Plain Dealer: Nothing Predictable in Brown, DeWine Votes

By Stephen Koff

So much for political labels.

A Republican from Ohio — one who’s rated poorly by environmental groups — helped block a bill Wednesday that would have permitted oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Yet a Democrat from Ohio — someone liked by environmentalists — had voted to open the refuge to drilling.

Not quite as extraordinary as that juxtaposition, both of these men — Republican U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine and Democratic U.S. House member Sherrod Brown — voted against budget cuts they say will harm the underprivileged. DeWine, the Republican, echoed those on the left when he said, “This bill, I think, hurts children.”

The political tango of Capitol Hill always leaves room for fancy footwork and role reversal, but the coming election year puts votes by these potential political foes in a whole new context. DeWine, a two-term incumbent, is up for re-election and Brown, a seven-term representative from Avon, hopes to unseat him.

But first Brown must face Paul Hackett, the Cincinnati attorney and Marine reservist whose campaign is soaking up these strange alliances and votes. Hackett, like Brown and DeWine, would have voted against the budget bill, which cuts child support enforcement, foster care funding and student loans in an effort to trim future federal spending.

DeWine’s budget vote was among those that required Vice President Dick Cheney to come to the Senate chamber Wednesday and break the 50-50 tie.

The ANWR vote came next. DeWine joined senators who successfully used a procedural vote that will force removing ANWR from a military spending bill.

House members operate under different rules and had fewer choices — to either support ANWR as part of the military spending bill when it came up Monday, or vote down the whole bill.

“As much as I fought against oil drilling, I chose to give our troops a raise,” Brown said. He was forced to, he said, by the way Republicans linked the two matters.

Karl Frisch, Hackett’s spokesman, would not say how Hackett would have voted if he were in Brown’s shoes. But he said, “There’s a matter of principle. You’ve got to stand tall and stand against those things.”

Brown, asked why he didn’t make a protest vote against the military-ANWR bill, said, “I don’t do protest votes when soldiers’ lives are at stake.”

In 2003, Brown voted against providing $87 billion for troop funding. He said that bill was different.

He opposed the 2003 bill, he said, because the Pentagon failed to provide safe armor and refused to hold politically connected contractors accountable for shoddy work and improper billing. He subsequently voted for other troop support, including a 2004 measure to provide better armor for soldiers in Iraq.

As for DeWine, environmental groups praised the ANWR vote Wednesday. But it’s hardly a coup for the Republican.

The League of Conservation Voters gave DeWine a ranking of 12, on a scale of 1 to 100, for his work in the 2003-04 Congress, even with his sponsorship of Great Lakes cleanup projects. Brown got a score of 94.

DeWine says his opposition to abortion hurts him with environmentalists who view it as a form of population control. The ratings are based on broad-based issues, some environmental, some budgetary that affect environmental programs, and some judicial, such as federal appeal court nominees nominees.

That’s another reason why this week’s votes may not matter by next year’s primary or general elections.

December 22, 2005 | Filed Under Hackett, News Mentions 

Comments

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.