BY HOWARD WILKINSON and JULIE IRWIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Ohio will have two Republican U.S. senators for the first time in a generation after Ohio Gov. George Voinovich swept to victory Tuesday over Democrat Mary Boyle.
The Associated Press declared Mr. Voinovich, the two-term governor of Ohio, the winner at 7:30 p.m. -- just as the polls were closing -- based on exit polling.
Mr. Voinovich had 57 percent of the vote to 43 percent for Ms. Boyle, a former Cuyahoga County commissioner, with 29 percent of the state's 13,094 precincts reporting.
The 62-year-old governor will join fellow Ohio Republican Mike DeWine in the Senate and will replace retiring Democrat John Glenn, who is now circling the Earth in the space shuttle Discovery. Mr. Voinovich gave his acceptance speech shortly before 9:30 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus. He was joined on the podium by his wife, his children and his granddaughter, and Sen. Mike DeWine and his wife.
"I've never worked so hard in my life," he said, referring to his eight years as governor. "And working together, we put Ohio back on track . . .
"I just want you to know I'm going to work as hard in the U.S. Senate to keep Ohio and America on the right track."
Mr. Voinovich vowed to protect Social Security and Medicare, keep America militarily strong and competitive in the global marketplace, and to work toward early education program.
"Just as we drew a line in the sand across Ohio on behalf of the health and welfare of our children, I'm going to draw that line in the sand in D.C.," he said.
"Brother Dewine, I'm going to sing the same song in Washington, working harder and smarter and doing more with less."
A cloud was cast over Mr. Voinovich's massive election victory because of an allegation that the governor personally approved a scheme to disguise a $60,000 payment from his 1994 re-election committee to his brother, Paul, and a statehouse lobbyist.
The Ohio Elections Commission quietly launched an investigation last week; and the story broke on the day before the election.
Trying to stop the count
The Boyle campaign immediately jumped on the story, calling on Ohio's chief elections officer, Bob Taft, to hold off on certifying the results of Tuesday's Senate election until the commission completes its investigation. Mr. Taft was running against Lee Fisher to replace Mr. Voinovich as governor.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Taft's office said Tuesday that the secretary of state does not have the authority to do that.
The campaign was a mismatch from the beginning.
Ohio Gov. George Voinovich, prevented by Ohio law from running for a third consecutive term as governor, began his campaign for Mr. Glenn's Senate seat almost immediately after his overwhelming re-election victory in 1994, when he took 72 percent of the vote over a weak Democratic opponent.
From the start, Mr. Voinovich had a tremendous advantage in terms of name recognition and money, two factors that, ultimately, Ms. Boyle could not overcome.
The governor's favorable rating among Ohioans has hovered between 60 percent and 70 percent throughout his two terms as governor, and he had more than twice as much money to spend as the Democrat. As of the end of September, the Voinovich campaign had raised nearly $5.5 million, compared to slightly over $2 million for Ms. Boyle.
Many Ohio political observers believed that, at times, it seemed as if Ms. Boyle were running for governor instead of the U.S. Senate, given the issues she raised during the campaigns.
Since the spring, she had hammered away at Mr. Voinovich's record as governor on education, blaming him for the poor state of Ohio school buildings and for failing to come up with a solution to Ohio's school-funding crisis.
Mr. Voinovich for the most part ignored Ms. Boyle, spending his money on a series of campaign commercials that emphasized the governor's experience.
He will also start out at odds with many of his GOP colleagues in the House and Senate who want to use part of the budget surplus for tax cuts. Mr. Voinovich believes the surpluses that come from Social Security taxes should be set aside to shore up the system.
He has said that he will ask the Senate GOP leadership for two committee assignments -- to the Armed Services and Governmental Affairs. committees.
