A popular Ohioan running for the U.S. Senate traveled to Akron on Monday to distinguish himself from half of his opponents.
For most of his 30-minute speech to the Akron Press Club, former Gov. Ted Strickland attacked the economic and tax policies of Republican Sen. Rob Portman. Campaigning on jobs and wage growth, Strickland even took shots at free-trade deals signed by Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, popular Democrats who have stumped for Strickland.
But not once did Strickland mention P.G. Sittenfeld, his challenger in the Democratic primary on March 15.
Sittenfeld, a 31-year-old, upstart councilman from Cincinnati, has poked at the former governor’s documented flip-flopping on gun control and his refusal to debate anyone but Portman.
“It’s not my responsibility to promote my opponent. … It’s my responsibility to win,” said Strickland, who gave no unsolicited lip-service to Sittenfeld.
Masked interruption
Sittenfeld drew a smaller crowd when he spoke in Akron last month. While Portman’s campaign said the senator “looks forward to addressing the Akron Press Club and talking about his vision for Ohio,” a date has not been set because Portman’s Senate office has yet to respond to a club invite.
Strickland’s comments came a week after Democratic leaders in Summit County and Akron endorsed Sittenfeld, the lesser known opponent. Sensing turmoil among Democrats, the Ohio Republican Party passed out anti-Strickland fliers at the door and staged a tire-shaped mascot named “Retread Ted” outside, dancing and holding a “PG sent me” sign.
“This, of course, is a lie and I’m writing to ask that you cease and desist immediately,” Sittenfeld wrote to Republican leadership. “I might add that this is not the first time that one of your party’s operatives has carried such a sign.”
Matt Borges, chair of the Ohio Republican Party, took ownership for the fliers. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, a Washington group, claimed the mascot. Both sent operatives to record the speech.
Campaign finance
Ignoring Sittenfeld and the ruckus outside, Strickland attacked Portman.
Strickland considers Portman, a Beltway politician for nearly 30 years, as partly the reason Ohioans have grown disgusted in politics.
“We suddenly have a surplus of anger in American politics. The problem is we have a deficit of courage,” said Strickland, who served about 12 years in Congress. “Why do people have such little hope of Washington today? Quite frankly, I don’t think it’s because Washington is a cynical place. I think it’s because we fill it with cynical people.”
Spending only $242,000 to win a Congressional seat in 1992, Strickland added big money to the list of reasons people do not trust politics. He blasted the 2010 Supreme Court decision that opened the door for limitless campaign contributions, including millions now supporting Portman.
American dreams
Strickland touted his support of the auto-bailout and, despite his recognition that global warming poses a “serious threat,” Ohio coal miners.
At 74, the former minister used personal anecdotes to show how the cost of living has outstripped wages as the American dream has slipped further out of reach for a shrinking middle class.
Strickland’s father worked midnights at a steel mill. When the family house burned down, “board-by-board” they converted their barn into a home. His niece now lives there.
With eight siblings, it was college that separated the politician from his brothers, who toiled as concrete finishers. Strickland gained advanced degrees in divinity and counseling. While working at a children’s home, he studied for a doctorate degree at the University of Kentucky, where he met his wife.
“Education gave me a chance to live the American dream,” Strickland said. Now, he lamented, most college graduates walk away with $30,000 or more in student loan debt. His plan to make college more affordable hinges on closing tax loopholes for businesses that shelter profits overseas.
“The difference between rich and poor is more important than having a higher SAT score versus the lowest. Put another way, a college education depends more on the money in a parent’s bank account than on the gray matter in a student’s head. And I think we better do something about that,” he said.
On guns, jobs
Strickland touted mandatory overtime pay for long workweeks and additional funding for Medicare and Social Security, subsidies for seniors and the poor. The candidate bluntly condemned terrorism, promising more details on immigration and national security in the coming weeks.
Fielding questions from the crowd, Strickland said he has not changed his position on abortion. The rural Democrat said he still supports a women’s right to choose. But his answer on gun control took longer to articulate.
Twenty-two years ago in Congress, Strickland defended what he then called the “oft forgotten and much maligned” Second Amendment. He opposed an assault weapons ban, which he said Monday he would support if it were to “make sense and be enforceable.”
As governor, Strickland signed Republican-sponsored bills that loosened gun control, one allowing open carry in restaurants.
But Strickland hasn’t signed or legislated a bill since losing the governorship to John Kasich in 2010 by 2 percent of the vote. In his time out of public office, Strickland said the 2012 killing of 20 children at a school in Sandy Hook made him rethink his position. He now says he supports universal background checks and banning gun ownership for people on terrorist “no-fly” lists.
In March 2015, however, Strickland reminded a caller during a radio interview on National Public Radio that he was the “guy who voted against the assault weapons ban.”
Strickland, who has enjoyed an “A-plus” rating from the National Rifle Association, said he dropped his NRA membership “five or six years ago” as the group became “increasingly extreme in their values.” His campaign said he has not accepted any money from the NRA in the current election cycle.
Doug Livingston can be reached at 330-996-3792 or dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @DougLivingstonABJ.