'Ted Strickland', (born
August 4 1941) is an
American politician of the
Democratic Party who currently serves as the
Governor of Ohio.
[1]
Previously, Strickland served as a member of the
United States House of Representatives for the
sixth congressional district of
Ohio.
Early career and election to Congress
Born in
Lucasville,
Ohio, Strickland was one of nine children; his father was a steelworker. A
1959 graduate of
Northwest High School (McDermott, Ohio), Ted went on to be the first of his family to attend college.
[1] Strickland was awarded a
Bachelor of Arts degree from
Asbury College (
Wilmore,
Kentucky) in
1963. In
1966, he received a
Master of Arts degree from the
University of Kentucky (
Lexington, Kentucky). He received another master's degree in 1967 from
Asbury Theological Seminary (Wilmore, Kentucky). He received a
doctorate in
psychology from the University of Kentucky in
1980. Ted is married to Frances Strickland, an
educational psychologist and author of a widely-used screening test for kindergarten-age children.
Strickland worked as a counseling psychologist at the
Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in
Lucasville, Ohio; was an administrator at a
Methodist children's home; and was a professor of psychology at
Shawnee State University (
Portsmouth, Ohio). His only known pastoral position within a church was a very brief associate pastoral position at Wesley United Methodist Church located at the corner of Offnere and Gallia Streets, Portsmouth, Ohio (now Cornerstone United Methodist Church).
Strickland ran for U.S. Representative for
Ohio's 6th congressional district in
1976,
1978, and 1980, losing twice to long-time incumbent
William H. Harsha, and later to Harsha's successor and campaign manager,
Bob McEwen.
Strickland ran again for the 6th District seat in
1992, once again facing Bob McEwen, who had suffered some political damage by being associated with the
House banking scandal. The 6th District had been combined with the old 10th District when Ohio lost two seats in Congress following the
1990 census, and now covered a huge area stretching from
Lebanon in
Warren County to
Marietta in
Washington County on the opposite side of the state. The district proved a difficult place to campaign, representing half a dozen different media markets and home to no large cities and few unifying influences.
Patrick J. Buchanan,
Dan Quayle and
Oliver North came to Ohio to campaign for McEwen, but Strickland narrowly won in the general election on
November 3,
1992. Strickland received 122,720 votes to McEwen's 119,252, a plurality of only 3,468. Strickland said "I ran against
Pat Robertson,
Pat Buchanan, the
National Rifle Association and
Right-to-Life. They threw everything at me. I'm just so happy I beat back those guys. I think they're so divisive." Strickland began serving in 1993 (103rd Congress).
Congressional career
Strickland was first elected to Congress in 1992. In 1994, the Republican wave swamped Strickland, who narrowly lost his seat to Republican
Frank Cremeans. However, in 1996, Strickland won his seat back, again narrowly, taking office in 1997 (the
105th Congress). He was reelected four more times without serious opposition, and even ran unopposed in
2004.
2006 Ohio gubernatorial campaign
Main articles: Ohio gubernatorial election, 2006
Strickland successfully ran for
Governor of Ohio in 2006, when the then-governor,
Robert A. Taft II, was term-limited and could not run for re-election. Strickland selected former
Ohio Attorney General and 1998 Democratic nominee for governor
Lee Fisher as his running mate. He was sworn in as governor on
January 8,
2007.
[2]
Strickland addresses a crowd at a Turnaround Ohio rally in
Cincinnati.
Opposition
Strickland easily won the Democratic primary on
May 2,
2006, winning 80 percent of the vote.
[3] He was challenged by
Republican Secretary of State
Ken Blackwell,
Libertarian economist
Bill Peirce and
Green Bob Fitrakis in the November
general election, but won handily on
November 7,
2006, capturing 60% of the vote. Blackwell finished in a distant second with 37% of the vote.
[4]
Major endorsements (general election)
★ Associated General Contractors of Ohio
★ LGBT
[2]
★
Fraternal Order of Police[5]
★ National Association of Police Organizations
★ Cleveland Stonewall Democrats
[3]
★ Ohio Patrolmen's Benevolent Association
★ Ohio Trooper Coalition
★ Ohio Education Association
★
Ohio Federation of Teachers[6]
★ Ohio Association of Professional Fire Fighters
★ Ohio Legislative Black Caucus
★
National Rifle Association
★ ''
The Akron Beacon Journal''
★ ''
The Columbus Dispatch''
★ ''
The Plain Dealer'' (Cleveland)
★ ''
Dayton Daily News''
★ ''
The Toledo Blade''
★ ''The Canton Repository''
★ Mayor
Mark L. Mallory of
Cincinnati
★ Mayor
Frank G. Jackson of
Cleveland
★ Mayor
Michael B. Coleman of
Columbus
★ Mayor
Rhine McLin of
Dayton
★ Mayor
Carty Finkbeiner of
Toledo
★ Mayor
Jay Williams of
Youngstown
A full listing of endorsements can be found on Strickland's campaign website.
[7]
Media strategy
Strickland began his media campaign for the general election in July by purchasing significant airtime on Christian radio stations throughout the state. The ad cites a verse from the
Book of Micah calling one "to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with our God," principles Strickland says he has held throughout his life. His televised ads began airing in late September and are available for viewing on his website.
[8]
Republican support
Strickland's candidacy received some support from Republicans, indicated by many of the pollsters covering the race.
[9] Additionally, a number of high profile Republicans publicly announced their support for Strickland at a press conference on
September 12,
[10] and Strickland's website has launched "Republicans For Strickland,"
[11] which lists over 340 registered Republican endorsers.
Gubernatorial career
After drawing some criticism for running a "close to the vest" campaign in which he didn't go into many specific details about how he would change Ohio as governor, Strickland became more outspoken upon taking office. He has made education a centerpiece of his goals as governor, hoping to come up with ways to get more Ohioans to afford college, graduate from in-state universities, and thus stay in-state for quality jobs. While his Congressional record gave reason for many critics to claim during the campaign he was unfriendly to taxpayers and would carry this trend to the gubernatorial office
[12], he has made some efforts to investigate state government spending and have minimal tax increases in his "State of the State" address in March 2007.
[13] he emphasized a goal to freeze or minimally increase tuition in the next few years, and have minimal tax increases across the board. He appointed
Eric Fingerhut as a state chancellor of higher education. He also wants to shift funding away from Ohio's private universities towards public universities.
[14] While the Republican-led legislature, led by State House Speaker
Jon Husted, agreed with the need to emphasize education, they disagreed on how to keep costs down without raising taxes.
[15] Nevertheless, Strickland was able to overcome nearly all of these disagreements with the legislature to pass a unanimous budget of $52 billion over the two fiscal years beginning July 2007 with few line-item vetoes; this unanimous approval of the budget was the state's first in 84 years.
[16] On the pre-collegiate level of education, Strickland has pushed to cut funding of
school vouchers, and opposes federally subsidized abstinence-only
sex education programs.
[17]
[18]
In addition to shoring up state education, one of Strickland's primary economic plans has been working to help bring jobs in the coal and energy industries to Ohio.
[19]
Strickland has also emphasized health care. In addition, on the issue of
capital punishment, Strickland has thus far delayed three executions until further review.
[20] In addition, Strickland has also refused to block three additional executions, including two that eventually occurred.
[21] The March 20, 2007 execution of Kenneth Biros, which Strickland refused to stop, was later stayed by the
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in
Cincinnati.
[22]
While he voted against
partial-birth abortion while in the U.S. House, Strickland has said he would veto a near-total abortion ban proposed by Ohio State House member
Tom Brinkman (R-Cincinnati) that does not include rape, incest or health exceptions.
[23]
Arguably the biggest setback to occur during his tenure as Governor was the loss of a computer backup tape that contained the names and Social Security numbers of 64,000 state employees and their families, and 225,000 other state taxpayers. Especially troubling was that a 22-year-old intern was entrusted to this tape and it was stolen out of an unlocked car; however, the administration has insisted that due to the technical nature of the coding it has not been accessed.
[24]
In spite of a few such setbacks, his success with bringing the legislature together with his budget and the state's overall desire for change after the Taft years have resulted in some of the highest approval and lowest disapproval ratings in Ohio gubernatorial history: 61% approval, 15% disapproval, including 54%/19% splits from Republicans.
[25]
Electoral history
See also
★
Election Results, U.S. Representative from Ohio, 6th District
★
List of United States Representatives from Ohio
References
1. Projections in Ohio, W.Va. Alan Boyle
2. Julie Carr Smyth, "New governor starts new era", Associated Press (''The Cincinnati Post''), January 8, 2007.
3. http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/ElectionsVoter/results2006.aspx?Section=1683
4. http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/ElectionsVoter/results2006.aspx?Section=1841
5. http://www.vindy.com/content/local_regional/357414136552319.php
6. http://oh.aft.org/index.cfm?action=article&articleID=3a103f9b-1ea2-4297-8069-3610402aad48
7. http://strickland.3cdn.net/c874e30e818198d204_idm6i6sb6.pdf
8. http://www.tedstrickland.com/television
9. http://www.ohioelects.com/poll/?story=dispatch/2006/09/24/20060924-A10-01.html
10. http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=307576&Category=13
11. http://www.tedstrickland.com/republicans
12. Matthew Naugle, [4], Tell the Truth Ted (non-neutral POV), April 8, 2007
13. http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/news/1175848366321660.xml&coll=2
14. http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artikkel?NoCache=1&Dato=20070325&Kategori=NEWS24&Lopenr=703250319&Ref=AR
15. http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=6226994
16. www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/17424050.htm
17. http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070323/NEWS01/703230419/1077/COL02
18. http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/living/education/16915796.htm
19. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_OH_Test_Well.html
20. http://zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/OPINION03/703250343/1014/OPINION
21. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=1666
22. http://governor.ohio.gov/News/March2007/News31607/tabid/218/Default.aspx
23. http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/jul/07071301.html
24. http://wbns10tv.com/?sec=&story=sites/10tv/content/pool/200706/1334296654.html
25. Strickland approval rating explodes, [5], Buckeye State Blog (NPOV warning), July 23, 2007
External links
★
Ohio Governor Ted Strickland 'official state site'
★
National Governors Association — Ohio Governor Ted Strickland biography
★
Follow the Money — Ted Strickland and Lee Fisher 2006 campaign contributions
★
On the Issues — Ted Strickland issue positions and quotes
★
Project Vote Smart — Governor Ted Strickland (OH) profile
★
Smart Voter — Ted Strickland/Lee Fisher voter information
★
Ted Strickland for Governor '06 'official campaign site'
'U.S. Representative 1993–1995, 1997–2007)
★
★
Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: Ted Strickland voting record 1993–2007
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