BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
George Voinovich
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If Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate were looking to trade Ohio's Democratic senator, John Glenn, for a conservative ideologue on Nov. 3, they lost.
Ohio Gov. George Voinovich will not go to Washington in January as typical Republican senator.
After all, it is not every Republican governor who finds himself singled out by the Wall Street Journal as America's "premier tax-and-spend governor."
The 62-year-old governor, who was elected to the Senate Nov. 3 over Democrat Mary Boyle with 56 percent of the vote, bristles at suggestions that he is anything but a dyed-in-the-wool conservative Republican.
"I'm a devolution nut," Mr. Voinovich said during the campaign, referring to his belief that the federal government should be sending more power, particularly over how federal dollars are spent, back to state and local governments.
But he clearly has little in common with the kind of of hard-core, conservative ideologues who were swept into power in Congress in the GOP landslide of 1994. Friends and foes alike describe him as a "moderate" Republican.
Over the years, both as mayor of Cleveland and governor of Ohio, Mr. Voinovich has had more than his share of dust-ups with conservative leaders in Washington, from Ronald Reagan to Newt Gingrich.
"Moderate" Republicans are more welcome in the Senate than in the House, and Mr. Voinovich can be expected to be in tune with most of the legislative agenda that Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott puts forward when the 106th Congress takes office in January. But Mr. Voinovich is unlikely to be the kind of senator who will march in lock-step with the party leadership.
"George is an independent fellow, an independent thinker," said U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, who will become Ohio's senior senator when Mr. Voinovich takes office in January.
"But you have to look at his background," said Mr. DeWine, who served as Mr. Voinovich's lieutenant governor during the first Voinovich term. "He's very sensitive to the states' prerogatives, which means he'll be very much in line with the leadership of the Senate."
In September, the GOP-controlled House passed a bill using 10 percent of the federal budget surplus over the next five years for tax cuts, but the bill died in the Senate.
But it may be revived in 1999, and if support for using the any part of the budget surplus for tax cuts gains strength in the Senate, Mr. Voinovich will oppose it.
A familiar face
Unlike many freshman senators, Mr. Voinovich will not go to Washington as a stranger.
He is known on Capitol Hill, having spent considerable time over the past 20 years shuttling between Ohio and Washington to twist congressional arms on a wide variety of issues.
As mayor of Cleveland in the 1980s, he battled frequently with the Reagan administration over urban policy, at a time when he was raising local taxes to finance the city's revitalization.
As governor, he worked with U.S. Rep. Rob Portman, R-Terrace Park, on legislation to limit unfunded federal mandates on the states. Over the past year, as chairman of the National Governors' Association, he has lobbied Congress not to raise air quality standards, arguing that it would stifle economic growth in states like Ohio.
"When I get to the United States Senate, I will know more about domestic policy than any other member of the Senate," Mr. Voinovich said during the campaign.
Mr. Voinovich has earned a reputation as a "hands-on" elected official, one who immerses himself in the most minute details of government and one who clearly enjoys being in charge.
Even some of his political allies have wondered out loud whether, after nearly 20 years as a chief executive officer of a large city and a major state, Mr. Voinovich will become frustrated with the slower pace of a deliberative body like the Senate.
But Mr. Voinovich points to his five years in the Ohio General Assembly in the late 1960s and early 1970s and said that, over the years, he has "had to learn to work with others. The governor's not a dictator. I have to work with all kinds of constituencies."
GOP duo from Ohio
When Mr. Voinovich joins Mr. DeWine in the Senate in January, it will mark the first time in a quarter century that Ohio has had two Republican senators.
The last GOP pair from Ohio was Robert Taft Jr. and William Saxbe in the early 1970s - but they were members of the minority party in Congress. Mr. Voinovich and Mr. DeWine will be in the majority party.
"It makes a big difference," Mr. DeWine said. "George and I are on the same page on a lot of issues. We ought to be able to get some things done."
