Wednesday, February 23, 2000
Win fires up Ohio McCain camp
But pollsters say Bush leads here
BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
John McCain's narrow win Tuesday in the Michigan primary fired up the Arizona senator's growing core of Ohio volunteers and made supporters of George W. Bush more determined than ever to stop the McCain bandwagon here.
Nearly 60 local volunteers for the McCain campaign gathered at a sports bar Tuesday night in Kenwood to watch the Michigan returns on cable television. They cheered like a crowd watching a NCAA Final Four game when CNN declared Mr. McCain the winner.
“On to Ohio,” said Mark Policinski, the Montgomery man who is organizing McCain volunteers in Southwest Ohio.
Thirteen days from now, Ohio will be the third-largest prize in a 13-state primary that could decide whether Mr. Bush or Mr. McCain is the GOP presidential nominee.
In Ohio, much of the Republican Party leadership, from Gov. Bob Taft on down, is lined up in the Bush camp; but U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine is supporting Mr. McCain. Judging from the turnout at the McCain gathering Tuesday night, the McCain campaign is building a grass-roots organization in Ohio.
Seeking crossovers
The volunteers who showed up Tuesday night — many of them with no experience in political campaigns — were given voters lists and asked to call and urge those on the lists to vote March 7 in the GOP primary.
The McCain campaign is hoping to repeat here what it pulled off in Michigan — a win accomplished with the votes of independents and Democrats crossing over to the GOP primary.
Exit polls Tuesday in Michigan showed that one-third of the voters who cast ballots in the GOP primary there were independents, while 18 percent were Democrats.
That left some of Mr. Bush's Ohio supporters dismissing the McCain victory as a race decided by people other than Republicans.
“If it does anything, I hope it energizes Republicans in Ohio to go out and vote March 7 and not allow their primary to be decided by people who are not Republicans,” said U.S. Rep. Rob Portman, R-Terrace Park, who has been campaigning for Mr. Bush.
“If it helps get Republicans fired up, it may actually help George W. Bush,” Mr. Portman said.
Mr. Bush was the “overwhelming” favorite of the Republicans who voted in Tuesday's Michigan primary, Mr. Portman said.
Cincinnati City Councilman Pat DeWine — who, like his father the senator, supports Mr. McCain — said he sees nothing wrong with his political party nominating a candidate who appeals to Democrats and independents.
“We are going to need those people to win the White House this fall,” Mr. DeWine said.
Mr. Policinski, a former Commerce Department official in the Reagan administration, said Mr. McCain's win — and the kind of volunteers he has attracted in Ohio — demonstrate that he can win in the fall by pulling in independent and Democratic voters, just as Ronald Reagan did in the 1980s.
“My dad never voted for a Republican for president in his life until Ronald Reagan came along,” Mr. Policinski said. “Reagan won because of people like my dad, not because he was the favorite of the country club set.”
Bush leading in Ohio
Mr. Portman said that the difference between Mr. Reagan and Mr. McCain is that, in the primaries in 1980, “Ronald Reagan was the overwhelming favorite of Republican voters. He didn't win the nomination with Democratic votes.”
Even with the Michigan win Tuesday, coupled with a win in his home state of Arizona, Mr. McCain has a long way to climb in Ohio. Last week, the University of Cincinnati's Ohio Poll showed that Mr. Bush led in Ohio with 59 percent to 25 percent for Mr. McCain. The poll was conducted Feb. 2-9.
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