Sunday, February 07, 1999
Politicians move mementos of home
BY JIM KNIPPENBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Well, at last. The dust is clearing, The boxes are being unpacked and the walls, shelves and desktops are taking shape.
Referring here to the offices of four Tristate politicians who've moved into new jobs: Ohio Governor Bob Taft and Buckeye state treasurer Joe Deters have new offices in Columbus; U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, has one in Washington as does Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky.
So what little pieces of home, we were wondering, did all these guys crate up and ship out to make their new offices a little more homey. You know, souvenirs, pieces of their pasts, so they won't get tooooo homesick for their home bases.
Turns out pictures are the thing with everyone of these guys. But there are other oddments as well ...
• Treasurer Deters, for example. He's an avid and devoted runner, even a marathoner when he gets the time for 26 miles. Maybe he spiced up his ninth floor office in the State Office Tower with some old sweat socks? Or a retired gym shoe?
Well, no, says press secretary Tim Clark. “He has a lot of pictures. Pictures galore, and they're all of (wife) Missy and the (three) children.”
Centerpiece of the family gallery is one of Deters, 5-year-old daughter Mary Elyse and Governor Taft. Taken last fall in the heat of the campaign, it shows Elyse crashing the stage in the middle of a press conference. “It's in a frame that Elyse hand painted; it says "I love you daddy'.”
Oh yeah, there's also this alarm clock on his desk, one of those jobs where you can record a personalized wake-up call. Except Deters doesn't use it for a wake-up call. His message is one of his kids saying, “Time for a meeting, Daddy.”
And the zillion citations, awards, certificates, diplomas and press clippings he's gathered over the years? None of the above are going to show up, Clark says.
• Bunning is also a new kid on the block. His new D.C. office is, well, taking shape at best, says press secretary John Mecham.“We're in temporary offices and expect to move in about a month, so the senator isn't even unpacking. The only thing he has on those bare walls is a framed Kentucky Derby poster.”
Well, of course.
Once Bunning does get unpacked, he'll pull out a mountain of Kentucky memorabilia, including a mountain of pictures and, of course, more Derby souvenirs.
• Voinovich shares Bunning's predicament: Temporary offices.
“You mean our cinder block walls and dusty desktops?” asks press secretary Mike Dawson. “He has a pile of pictures from all over the state from 10 years as mayor (Cleveland) and eight years as governor. But until we see what office we get, there's no telling what he'll put up. It's not even clear at this point what he brought with him.”
One thing the senator would like to do, depending on which office he gets, is to work with the Ohio Historical Society to fill the place with things that shout Ohio's heritage.
Beyond that, there'll be the keys to this, that and the other city, plaques and awards and a painting or two going in.
• Ohio's governor, meanwhile, is all the way moved in, says press secretary Scott Milburn.
Centerpiece of his “touch of home” display is a little shrublike tree in the corner of his office. Turns out it's a ming aralia, a plant that looks like a fig tree. What makes it important to him is that it sat in his father's (Robert Taft Jr.) senate office, making it an heirloom of sorts.
Aside from the plant, it's pictures, pictures and more pictures, almost all of them of wife Hope and daughter Anna.
Psst! appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Have an item to report? Call Jim Knippenberg at 768-8513;
fax: 768-8330.
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