BY SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FRANKLIN -- In this fall's 2nd Congressional District race, candidates are striving to be working-class heroes.
To the backdrop of wheezing paper machines, U.S. Rep. Rob Portman, R-Terrace Park, sported safety glasses Thursday and mingled with some of the 100 employees at BCI Franklin.
Mr. Portman said he was visiting manufacturing plants such as BCI and nearby Waytek Corp. to see the fruits of economic development and talk to the "common person" about workplace concerns.
Mr. Portman is facing Democratic opponent Charles Sanders, the mayor of Waynesville and the self-proclaimed voice of the "working people."
SECOND DISTRICT
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The 2nd Congressional District is considered one of the safest
Republican strongholds in Ohio, experts say.
Redistricting in 1992 created a district that takes in all of Adams, Brown and Clermont counties. About 60 percent of Warren County's population -- along the northern and western sides of the county -- is in the district. Also in it are western Hamilton County and such affluent eastern suburbs of Cincinnati as Indian Hill and Montgomery.
Waynesville in Warren County sits at the top of the district, which has an estimated 570,000 residents and is 96 percent white. Incumbent Rob Portman, R-Terrace Park, won a 1993 special election to succeed Republican Bill Gradison, who resigned to take a job in the insurance industry. Mr. Portman served as director of legislative affairs under President Bush.
He is running against Charles Sanders, the mayor of Waynesville since 1995.
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The race is not considered as competitive as the neighboring 1st or 6th Congressional districts. But it will not lack character. Mr. Sanders is reveling in his role as an underdog in this staunchly Republican district.
Mr. Sanders said he is not intimidated by the fact that Mr. Portman, a member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, has captured more than 70 percent of the vote in each re-election since winning his seat in a 1993 special election to succeed Republican Bill Gradison. "This will be the biggest upset," Mr. Sanders said. "I've been working entirely too hard in this race. And let me tell you something, I'm going to win."
Mr. Sanders, one of only two African Americans among Waynesville's 2,400 residents -- the other is his wife -- was elected mayor of the village in 1995.
Mr. Sanders said he plans to make Social Security an issue in the race.
"Rather than fund corporate welfare with tax abatements, we should be taking (the budget surplus) and putting it into Social Security," he said.
Mr. Portman said his stance in favor of workers' benefits has stayed the same.
He is concentrating on legislation to allow 401(k) plans to be transferred from job to job.
