Tuesday, November 09, 1999
Group backs anti-abortion GOP slate
Ohio House seats set off scramble
BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A coalition of anti-abortion, “pro-family” organizations is turning up the heat on Hamilton County Republican Party officials to endorse their slate of candidates for open state legislative seats.
GOP officials are in the process of screening candidates for party endorsement in the March 2000 primary, but the Cincinnati Pro-Family Alliance has a slate of its own, which includes Green Township Trustee Bill Seitz and anti-tax crusader Tom Brinkman Jr.
“We have had a consistently pro-life delegation from Hamilton County, and we want to keep it that way,” said lawyer David Langdon, one of the alliance organizers.
Next year, five Ohio House seats in Hamilton County will be open because of the state's term limits law, most of them in solidly Republican districts. The open seats have set off a scramble of dozens of potential GOP candidates.
With as many as five dozen Republicans expressing inter est in the five open seats, county GOP leaders decided to endorse candidates in each district, and, they hope, avoid primary battles.
A 25-member party screening committee will start interviewing potential candidates by the end of the week. Party Executive Director Shannon Walker Jones said the party plans to announce its endorsements Dec. 8, a month before the Jan. 7 candidate filing deadline.
There will be no “litmus test” issues for the candidates who are interviewed by the party, Ms. Jones said.
“The process is open to anyone who wants to come in and make his or her case,” she said.
Mr. Langdon said the Cincinnati Pro-Family Alliance plans a rally for its candidates at 7 p.m. today at the Western Hills Country Club “to try to impress the party leadership on the support our candidates have.”
GOP Chairman H.C. Buck Niehoff was invited to the rally, but Ms. Jones said he would not attend.
The Alliance includes the Right to Life of Greater Cin cinnati Political Action Committee (PAC); Family First PAC; Ohio Family Association PAC; Equal Rights, Not Special Rights PAC; and the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes (COAST).
Mr. Langdon said the organizations represent “a substantial number of the people who vote in Republican primaries. We hope the party leadership will recognize that.”
The alliance has endorsed candidates in four of the five Ohio House districts:
• 32nd District, held by Republi can Dale Van Vyven, where first-time candidate Jim Raussen of Springdale has been endorsed.
• 33rd District, held by Democrat Jerome Luebbers, where Tony Condia, director of governmental relations at the Home Builders Association of Greater Cincinnati, has the endorsement.
• 34th District, held by Republican Cheryl Winkler, where Mr. Seitz is the preferred candidate.
• 37th District, held by Republican Jacqueline O'Brien, where Mr. Brinkman, who heads COAST, has the endorsement.
The Alliance has yet to endorse in the 36th District, now held by Republican Robert Schuler, and has invited several potential candidates to tonight's rally.
All the Alliance's endorsed candidates plan to seek the party endorsement, but Mr. Langdon said if the group's candidates are not endorsed, “there very well could be some primary contests.”
All the candidates for the party endorsements were asked to fill out a questionnaire that gives the candidates a choice of four of seven issues on which to outline their positions.
Candidates are given the option of saying whether they support or oppose Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that made abortions legal; the use of tax money for organizations that promote abortion; and late-term abortions. But candidates can choose not to answer the abortion question.
The other issue options for candidates include “right to work” legislation, tort reform, tax policy, school funding, health care reform and air quality standards.
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