BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SOUTHGATE -- Jim Bunning is already in one of the country's most exclusive clubs. On Nov. 3 he hopes to join another.
The Northern Kentucky native and resident elected two years ago to Major League Baseball's Hall of Fame and 12 years ago to Congress is hoping to beat Democrat Scotty Baesler in Kentucky's U.S. Senate race next week.
He runs as a candidate as he played baseball for 21 years -- tough, persistent, focused, intimidating and not afraid to throw a high hard one with a baseball or a campaign ad.
"I knew it was going to be a hard race and a hard campaign," said Mr. Baesler, who has been the subject, or more appropriately target, of some biting ads from the Bunning camp and Republican Party.
"It has not disappointed me."
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BUNNING BIO
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Age: 67.
Home: Southgate.
Hometown: Southgate.
Family: Wife, Mary; nine children.
Religion: Roman Catholic.
Education: Bachelor's in economics, Xavier University.
Work experience: Professional baseball player, 1950-71; minor-league manager, 1971-75; stockbroker and sports agent, 1960-88.
Political career: Elected to Fort Thomas City Council, 1977; elected to Kentucky Senate, 1979; elected to U.S. House, 1986; re-elected to U.S. House, 1988-96; defeated State Sen. Barry Metcalf in U.S. Senate Republican primary, May 1998.
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Jim Bunning's supporters call him tenacious, courageous, honest and unwavering, a devoted husband, father and grandfather; a warm and caring person who, when he becomes a friend, is a friend for life.
His detractors and political opponents say he is arrogant, aloof and even nasty, a snobby elitist who has a quick temper, a harsh demeanor and an inflated ego.
Successful, eventful life
Few can argue that Mr. Bunning has lived a successful, eventful life that has spanned 67 years, from the sandlots of Southgate to the halls of Congress to the baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.
And with the majority of Northern Kentucky voters expected to be behind him -- as they have been in his last six U.S. House races -- Mr. Bunning could add another entry on his already impressive resume if elected next week to the Senate.
"Jim Bunning is courageous. And he is not afraid to say what is on his mind," said Damon Thayer of Dry Ridge, chairman of the 4th District Republican Party and a long-time Bunning backer. "I admire that.
"For me, Jim Bunning is the closest I'll ever get to Ronald Reagan. He is my definition of what it means to be a Republican."
His image across Kentucky and in Washington is that of a hard-nosed Congressman and former professional athlete, but here at home he also has an equal reputation as a family man.
He and his wife Mary, who often campaigns with her husband and rarely is without him at public appearances, have nine children and 32 grandchildren. In speeches and interviews, Mr. Bunning almost always mentions his family, which he also features in many of his campaign ads.
"I ran for Congress because I felt it was time for me to give something back to my community, my state and my country . . . and my children," he said recently.
"I wanted my children and my grandchildren to have the opportunity to dream their own dreams, and to follow their dreams as far as individual skill and hard work and personal ambition can take them."
Friends said his devotion to his family goes back to his own mother and father.
"Even today, his great love for his mom and dad is so apparent," said Jim Stegman of Fort Thomas, who has known Mr. Bunning for more than 50 years.
"When he talks about them he still gets choked up," said Mr. Stegman, a Republican running this year for Campbell County Commissioner.
Some Democrats see another Jim Bunning, one whom they call a carpetbagger from Cincinnati who doesn't understand the real concerns and needs of Kentucky.
They revel in pointing to 1996, when Mr. Bunning sent a telegram chastising Rick Pitino, the popular University of Kentucky basketball coach, for appearing at an election-eve rally on the UK campus with President Clinton.
"He isn't Kentucky enough to represent Kentucky," said national and state Democratic Party strategist Terry McBrayer of Lexington. "He won't get out and talk to the people. He stays with the Rotary Club crowd," Mr. Baesler says.
Mr. Bunning, however, has hit the campaign trail hard this campaign season. Supporters say his values, political views and conservative take on government are exactly what voters want in Kentucky, once part of the Democratic Party's Solid South that is now leaning Republican.
"I've heard it said that Jim Bunning represents what the people of Kentucky want in a politician as well as any elected official in the state," said Fort Mitchell resident Gary Bockelman, a Bunning supporter.
"I would have to agree with that. He's a conservative in a conservative state, and it doesn't really matter what party you're in. It's what you stand for."
Born, reared in Southgate
Mr. Bunning was born and raised in Southgate, a neighborhood of modest but well-kept homes in Campbell County. The Bunnings lived on Harvard Place, one block away from Ridgeway Avenue, where Mary Theis -- now Mary Bunning -- lived with her family.
The couple met in grade school, married in 1952 and still live in Southgate, albeit in a $200,000 condo on a golf course.
Mr. Bunning was a three-sport star at St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati. At Xavier University, he studied business administration and economics.
Though big league baseball teams wanted to sign the gangly pitcher with the imposing sidearm delivery after he graduated from high school, his father made it clear college should come first.
"My father impressed on me how important it was to get an education," Mr. Bunning said during a recent campaign speech. "I will forever be thankful to him for instilling that in me."
After graduating from college in fewer than four years, Mr. Bunning signed with the Detroit Tigers in 1950. His bonus was $4,000, his salary $150 a month to play at Class D Richmond in the minor leagues. At the outset of his career, Mr. Bunning didn't appear to be headed to the Hall of Fame. He spent seven years playing spring and summer in the minors, spending the fall and winter playing in Mexico and Cuba, or helping to make ends meet selling insurance and sporting goods and driving a soft-drink truck.
The young couple was beginning to raise a family and spent countless hours on the road and months in small towns where Mr. Bunning played baseball.
"We traveled a lot by station wagons in those days," Mrs. Bunning said.
Made majors in '57
He broke into the majors in 1957 with the Tigers and went on to post numbers that landed him in the Hall of Fame -- 224 wins, 40 shutouts, no-hitters in both leagues and a perfect game.
After retiring in 1971, Mr. Bunning managed in the minor leagues, worked as a stockbroker and sports agent and moved his family to Fort Thomas.
It was at a dinner party in 1977 that Jack Steinman, a lifelong friend of Mr. Bunning, asked the former ballplayer if he would consider running for Fort Thomas City Council.
"Jim was always interested in what was going on in the community, and he was obviously very intelligent with a good head for business," Mr. Steinman recalled.
"We chatted a little bit that night with him and Mary about running, and before you know it he was out knocking on doors," he said.
Mr. Bunning won that race and two years later was elected to the Kentucky Senate, then a bastion of Democratic power and good ol' boy political muscle.
Colleagues say Mr. Bunning delighted in pushing a conservative agenda and battling the Democrats even though he was greatly outnumbered. "He can rub you the wrong way," former Sen. Gene Huff of London told the Louisville Courier-Journal several years ago. "But he has the ability to impress you that he's sincere in what he does."
In 1983, in the only political race he ever lost, Mr. Bunning was the Republican nominee for governor. Democrat Martha Layne Collins became the first woman elected governor, beating Mr. Bunning with 56 percent of the vote.
Three years later, Republican U.S. Rep. Gene Snyder retired from Congress and Mr. Bunning ran for the 4th District seat. Despite running in a district that is about 2-1 Democratic he beat Democrat Terry Mann, then a popular state legislator from Newport.
Though his district has been redrawn over the years by Democrats Mr. Bunning has won five re-election campaigns. Among the Democrats he has defeated over the years are Covington Mayor Denny Bowman in 1996 and former gubernatorial candidate Floyd Poore in 1992.
Contract with America
In Congress, Mr. Bunning has championed the Contract With America, strengthening Social Security, lowering taxes and protecting tobacco farmers from regulatory oversight from the Food and Drug Administration.
He was the first Republican from Kentucky to sit on the powerful Ways and Means Committee. After two of his daughters had difficulty adopting a biracial child, he pushed legislation outlawing the practice of trying to match a child with adoptive parents of the same race.
Mr. Steinman, still a member of Mr. Bunning's social and political inner circles, says his long-time friend will make a good Senator "for the same reasons he made a good congressman, a good father, a good ballplayer, a good businessman and a good friend."
"He's a hard-charging guy who is very firm in his convictions, a guy who, when he gives you his word, you can take it to the bank," Mr. Steinman said.
"That makes for a very credible person in politics, and in life."
