BY HOWARD WILKINSON and PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
To judge by the unceasing parade of talking-head shows on the cable news networks, voters in places like Ohio and Kentucky will go to the polls eight weeks from Tuesday with nothing but sex on their minds.
Presidential sex, that is.
The ever-growing furor over President Clinton's affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky is inescapable to anyone who has picked up a newspaper or watched a TV news broadcast in recent months.
Democrats fear that the damage done to the president will rub off on Democratic congressional candidates, turning a year in which the Democrats had hoped to regain control of Congress into one where they will be lucky to hold onto what they've got.
But voters in the Tristate have some of the most hotly contested congressional races in the country to decide -- such as in Ohio's 1st Congressional District, where Republican incumbent Steve Chabot is being challenged by Democrat Roxanne Qualls; Northern Kentucky's 4th Congressional District, an open seat being contested by Republican Gex "Jay" Williams and Democrat Ken Lucas; and the U.S. Senate race in Kentucky, where the present 4th District congressman, Jim Bunning, is matched against Democrat Scotty Baesler for an open seat.
In the Ohio and Kentucky races, voters say that while the current scandal in Washington is of concern to them, there are other issues that are more real to them as citizens trying to make a living, pay taxes and raise their children.
"When I vote these days, I'm not really thinking about myself so much as I am about what kind of country my children are going to live in," said 40-year-old Mary Ann Twilling, a Delhi Township resident, mother of six, and a nurse at Children's Hospital Medical Center.
"There are a lot of issues out there that concern," Mrs. Twilling said Saturday morning, standing in her driveway a few minutes after Mr. Chabot had greeted her on one of his door-to-door neighborhood campaign walks.
"My kids go to private schools, but I'm a taxpayer and I'm concerned about public schools, too," she said. "I see 12th-graders who can't pass ninth-grade proficiency tests, and I know there is something very wrong with our education system."
What she wants in a member of Congress, she said, "is somebody who's willing to do the right thing and is concerned about family values."
Mrs. Twilling is one of the nearly 570,000 constituents of Mr. Chabot in Ohio's 1st Congressional District, which includes most of Cincinnati and the city's western suburbs.
It is the scene of one of the most expensive and fiercely contested congressional races in the country, with the two-term congressman from Westwood being challenged by Ms. Qualls, who has been elected Cincinnati mayor three times.
The district is one that throws together strongly Democratic inner-city neighborhoods that make candidates like Ms. Qualls mayor with the conservative, overwhelmingly Republican suburbs that send candidates like Mr. Chabot to Congress.
Families valued
As in many congressional races around the country this year, the word family pops up in the political rhetoric of both sides.
Both Mr. Chabot and Ms. Qualls say they want to represent the interests of families in Congress and work on issues that are important to families. But they approach the subject from different directions.
For Mr. Chabot, representing families means supporting across-the-board tax cuts and reducing the size and influence of the federal government.
For Ms. Qualls, it means supporting targeted tax cuts to help families with child care and college educations, and supporting social programs that help the poor, elderly and infirm.
In the predominantly black Cincinnati suburb of Lincoln Heights, where Ms. Qualls and a corps of campaign volunteers walked in the community's Labor Day Weekend parade Saturday, the Democrat's belief in activist government strikes a chord with many voters. "She has more liberal views, and she seems to care about people in places like Lincoln Heights," said Arnelle Thompson, of Lincoln Heights, as she and her husband, Leon, watched the parade from their front porch.
Lanie Eckford, a 35-year-old store clerk and mother of two in Lincoln Heights, said that when she listens to politicians, she wants them to "talk about things that are real."
"I want to know what they want to do about crime and making it safe for kids," she said.
Clyde Hanley, a retiree, said his principal concern is that Congress "save Social Security. A lot of people around here, that's all they got."
But whether the voters live in low-income neighborhoods such as Lincoln Heights or in comfortable suburbs like Delhi Township, they talk about issues that affect their children.
"We're very strong on family values issues," said Susan Meyer of Delhi Township, who, with her husband, Joe, have four small children. "So we're interested in education and teaching values."
Mrs. Meyer also mentioned abortion -- an issue that divides the candidates in the 1st District and weighs heavily in elections on Cincinnati's heavily Catholic west side. Mrs. Meyer said one of the reasons she has supported Mr. Chabot in the past is his opposition to abortion. Ms. Qualls has consistently supported abortion rights for women.
Her neighbor across the street, Mark Winterhalter, said that he, too, bases much of his support for Mr. Chabot on his abortion stance.
"I like his stance on moral issues like abortion," Mr. Winterhalter said. "He seems like a good, solid, moral family man.
"I think that's especially important out here on the west side. There's a lot of family tradition out here. More so than the east side, which is more transient. People like Steve because they know he's a good west-sider."
We-known candidates
The personal side of politics is also a factor in races like the 1st District of Ohio and the 4th District of Kentucky. In both races, the candidates are political figures who are well known to voters; they have been through numerous elections.
In Kentucky's 4th District race, both candidates are known commodities to Northern Kentucky voters -- Mr. Williams is a long-time state senator; Mr. Lucas is a former Boone County judge-executive.
Philosophically, Mr. Lucas has a reputation as a moderate Democrat with close ties to the business community, who emphasizes economic development issues. Mr. Williams, on the other hand, has made his reputation as a social conservative and a staunch abortion foe.
Newport pediatrician Dr. Chris Bolling, 35, a registered Democrat and Lucas supporter, said he is interested in "personal liberty issues" and finds Mr. Williams "too strident of a conservative for me."
"That's really what drew me to (Mr. Lucas) and this race," he said. "I get very alarmed by the conservative pro-family lobby. They're just too strident."
But Mr. Williams' conservative approach to government is what influences Florence resident Troy Crook.
Mr. Crook, 29, a hotel manager and father of three young children -- a 4-year-old and twins age 1 -- said he wants a candidate who is conservative "and has strong family values."
"I'm against abortion, and Republicans are stronger on that" than a lot of the Democrats, Mr. Crook said.
"I like the pro-family approach to a lot of issues, like crime and taxes. I like the more conservative candidates."
The Clinton factor
In both the Kentucky U.S. Senate race and the 1st District race in Ohio, the debate over President Clinton's call for a "Patient's Bill of Rights" that limits the power of health maintenance organizations (HMOs) has already emerged as a campaign issue.
Fran Reitman, 40, a small business owner from Campbell County, is a Democrat who has not decided how she'll vote in Kentucky's U.S. Senate race, but she said that how the candidates stand on health-care legislation, like the "Patient's Bill of Rights," will help make up her mind.
"I have employees who can't go to the doctor they want because an HMO won't let them," said Ms. Reitman, owner of Reitman Auto Parts in Camp Springs.
"That's not right. We need doctors, not insurance companies or anybody else, making medical decisions."
While voters in both Kentucky and Ohio talk about issues like saving Social Security, HMO reform and education as issues that are important to them, the Clinton scandal is out there bubbling just under the surface. What is not clear is how, if it all, it will affect congressional races.
Newport's Dr. Bolling said he worries "that Bill Clinton will be an issue. I hope not. I hope Democrats are able to distance themselves from him. But a lot of former Clinton supporters are very disillusioned at this point."
It is clear that concerns about ethics and morality -- both in Washington and society in general -- are important to voters in Ohio and Kentucky, as elsewhere around the country.
National polls show that while people feel better about government than they did four years ago, they distrust politicians more than ever. A recent national poll by the Pew Research Center had 56 percent of Americans saying they are more frustrated than angry with government. About 40 percent said they think politicians to be crooks, while only 24 percent said government agencies are wasteful and only 14 percent complained about government policies.
Jenny Geiman, a 35-year-old registered nurse and mother of five from Fort Thomas, said the Clinton scandal will affect her in at least one way -- it will make her look more closely at the character of the candidates she votes for.
"Our leaders and candidates should have values," Mrs. Geiman said. "It's something voters need to look at, because it is important."
