BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
![[boyle]](/editions/1998/10/04/boyle_170x121.jpg)
Mary Boyle, Democrat for U.S. Senate
(AP photo)
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It is a David vs. Goliath situation, this U.S. Senate race in Ohio that pits the two-term Republican governor, George Voinovich, against the lesser known Democrat, Mary Boyle.
But the difference between this political mismatch and the Biblical tale is that this David may be going to battle with an empty slingshot.
Mr. Voinovich, the 62-year-old governor, is expected to have nearly $6 million to spend on his bid to take the seat of Democrat John Glenn, who is retiring.
Ms. Boyle, a former Cuyahoga county commissioner, is hoping to raise about $2 million.
But it's not just money that separates underdog Boyle from front-runner Voinovich.
The Republican candidate has been on the statewide general election ballot five times in the past 20 years. Four years ago he won 72 percent of the vote in the most lopsided Ohio gubernatorial election of the century. For most of his time in office, he has enjoyed an approval rating of near 70 percent.
"Everything about this race has been a mismatch," said Herb Asher, professor emeritus of political science at Ohio State University. "He has the money, the name recognition, the economy in Ohio working for him."
Both candidates, it seems, are running on Mr. Voinovich's record as governor.
The Voinovich campaign theme is "experience we can trust," and the campaign's first television commercial emphasized what has happened in Ohio since he became governor: the state leads the nation in funding for the preschool Head Start program, leads the nation in new business starts and expansions, and boasts the lowest unemployment rate in 25 years.
If elected to the Senate -- where he would be junior to his former lieutenant governor, Mike DeWine -- Mr. Voinovich has said he will work to oppose plans of leaders of his own party to use part of the expected federal budget surplus for tax cuts until the Social Security system is fixed.
"I say, "wall it up,' " referring to the budget surplus, which will consist of excess Social Security payroll deductions.
Mr. Voinovich has also said he will work to convert federal education programs into block grants to the states and be a "watchdog" on Medicare.
The Boyle campaign, too, has tried to make Mr. Voinovich's record as governor the issue, claiming he failed in his 1990 campaign promises to become the "education governor" and the "environmental governor."
"George Voinovich said a long time ago he wanted to be the "environmental governor,' " Ms. Boyle said on a recent campaign swing. "He must have meant he'd go on a canoe trip once a year."
If elected Ohio's first woman U.S. senator, Ms. Boyle has promised to work for an increase in the minimum wage and for tobacco legislation that "will stop big tobacco companies from targeting children." She supports reform legislation to give patients broad power to sue health maintenance organizations.
As the underdog, Ms. Boyle has had to gamble. Early this year, her campaign had raised about $1.5 million. Even though Ms. Boyle had no opponent in the Democratic primary, she took a sizable risk by spending most of her money on the primary campaign. She ran a statewide TV ad attacking Mr. Voinovich for his "failure" on education and urging voters to reject the state sales tax increase for the schools that Mr. Voinovich supported.
Voters defeated the tax increase overwhelmingly in the May 5 primary, but the rejection of Issue 1 and the early Boyle ad campaign seemed to have no effect on the governor's standing in the polls. In fact, there is evidence Mr. Voinovich's candidacy has gained strength since the primary.
A recent Ohio Poll, conducted Sept. 8 through Sept. 20 by the University of Cincinnati's Institute for Policy Research, showed Mr. Voinovich with a 31 percentage point lead. An Ohio Poll in May had Mr. Voinovich leading Ms. Boyle by only 16 percentage points.
But the worst news for Ms. Boyle in the Ohio Poll is that she trails substantially in the Cleveland area, with 40 percent to Mr. Voinovich's 52 percent. It is the home area for both candidates -- Mr. Voinovich was Cleveland's mayor -- but it is the strongest Democratic area in the state and a Democratic statewide candidate must do well there.
Ms. Boyle has had a problem shoring up her base of Democratic voters around the state; the poll shows that one of every five Democratic core voters in Ohio plans to vote for the Republican in the Senate race.
And she will get no help from the Democrat she is trying to replace. Mr. Glenn, one of the most popular Ohio politicians for decades, has jump-started more than one Democratic candidate's campaign. But Mr. Glenn prefers to stay away from partisan fights as a member of a NASA shuttle crew.
The Boyle campaign, like Democratic campaigns all over the country, is fearful that the scandal surrounding President Clinton will depress the Democratic voter turnout on Nov. 3, although there are some signs that Democrats might turn out because of a backlash over what they consider to be unfair treatment of the president. Ms. Boyle has not tried to distance herself from Mr. Clinton. She has said she believes the president behaved badly by having an affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Mr. Voinovich encourages Mr. Clinton to resign.
Ms. Boyle insists that the Clinton scandal has not made it more difficult for her to talk about her issues -- education, the environment, and preserving Social Security.
"It was hard to get the message out even before the Clinton thing," Ms. Boyle said.
The Democratic candidate has run a low-budget, close-to-the-ground campaign, criss-crossing the state in a van driven by her son Peter, who is also her assistant press secretary.
Since her 1994 campaign in the U.S. Senate primary, where she nearly knocked off the better known and better funded Joel Hyatt, Ms. Boyle has had a reputation as an untiring campaigner who works round-the-clock and is rarely distracted.
When she held a press conference on the Columbus riverfront recently, standing in front of a full-scale model of Christopher Columbus' ship, the Santa Maria, a bee buzzed around her head. Ms. Boyle did not miss a beat and continued her lambasting of the Voinovich record on the environment.
Her appearances are frequently with small groups in small towns. Recently, she was in Marion County, about 40 miles northwest of Columbus, where a handful of families have been trying to speed up an investigation into an unusually high number of leukemia cases among graduates of nearby River Valley High School.
Ms. Boyle met with eight members of the group in the kitchen of the rural home of Mike and Jo Griffith, and listened to them vent their frustration in dealing with bureaucrats at the state and federal levels.
"There isn't anything new about a community being concerned when something like that happens," Ms. Boyle told the River Valley group. "You know that there is environmental damage. You ought to be able to assume that the authorities are not going to be opposed to getting the situation fixed."
Ms. Boyle has said her goal is to "make government work for families." Ms. Boyle and Mr. Voinovich agree on one major issue -- the fate of Social Security and what to do with anticipated federal budget surpluses. Both say the surplus should be set aside until Congress comes up with a plan to keep Social Security solvent for the baby boom generation.
Mr. Voinovich's position puts him at odds with House Republicans, who last week voted to use 10 percent -- about $80 billion -- of the anticipated surplus for tax cuts over five years.
"First of all, there is no surplus yet; it's excess Social Security payroll tax money that will come in," Mr. Voinovich said. "How can we even think about taking payroll taxes and giving it back in tax cuts. Hear me, there is no surplus."
The theme of the Voinovich campaign has been using his experience as chief executive of the state in a legislative body.
"I have specialized in government; I have been through the mill," Mr. Voinovich said recently. "I want to take this experience and make it work for the people of Ohio."
Cincinnati was one of the stops on a recent three-day Voinovich bus tour of Ohio, one of the few public campaign forays the governor has made.
His stop was at the Queen City Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, where he talked about crime with police officers, their spouses and a handful of Republican officials.
"For all intents and purposes, we've eliminated parole in Ohio,' Mr. Voinovich said. "We've got truth in sentencing now. You don't get off for good behavior. You get more time for bad behavior." Mr. Voinovich's two principal jobs of the past two decades -- governor of Ohio and mayor of Cleveland -- have been managerial posts; he has not been a member of a legislative body since 1971.
Some in Ohio political circles have said that the governor's hands-on management style and attention -- some say obsession -- with the details of government won't sit well in a deliberative body like the Senate.
But State Rep. Robert Netzley, R-Laura, who has known Mr. Voinovich for 30 years, said he does not believe that will be a problem.
"George has been a legislator; he knows how the system works. He can adjust."
Mr. Netzley joined the GOP Senate candidate recently in Piqua, about 90 miles north of Cincinnati. There, Mr. Voinovich met with about two dozens supporters at Winans' Chocolate Shop, where he gave a long recitation of the accomplishments of his administration. "We have reformed welfare," he said. "Before we could do that, I eliminated general assistance welfare for able-bodied persons. Hardest thing I ever had to do. Gut-wrenching. But we had to do it."
The governor, with his wife Janet at his side, launched into a 20-minute speech on efficiency in government.
About halfway through, Mrs. Voinovich walked up to him with an ice cream cone and interrupted.
"Here, dear," she said, handing him the cone. "Take a breath."
Campaign trail is all uphill for Ohio Democrat
![[boyle]](/editions/1998/10/04/boyle_550x393.jpg)