Monday, October 18, 2004
Fingerhut knows underdogs
His Senate race uphill against popular Voinovich
By Jim Siegel
Enquirer Columbus Bureau
COLUMBUS - Ohio used to be great at making things. To make Ohio great again, Eric Fingerhut sees a need for new policies in Washington.
"What we've been allowing to happen is that products that make wealth for countries, we've allowed those jobs to leave, and through our trade and tax policies, we've encouraged them to leave," he said.
Fingerhut, a 45-year-old state senator, said he wants to bring a new approach to the U.S. Senate, which is why the Cleveland-area Democrat is challenging Sen. George Voinovich. Six more years of the same, he argues, just isn't going to cut it.
"What he's been doing is supporting policies that are draining investment away from Ohio's economy," he said.
Instead of tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, Fingerhut wants to bring back the research and development tax credit to stimulate innovation and plant upgrades.
He's proposing a job creation tax credit for businesses to help temporarily offset the cost of new employees.
He criticizes Voinovich's votes for the tax cuts, which he argues has done far more to add to the federal deficit than it has done to stimulate the economy.
Voinovich disagrees, saying the cuts are helping the economy. He notes that he fought against President Bush and his party leaders, who wanted a much bigger tax cut.
Fingerhut doesn't believe Voinovich is sincere in his plans to crack down on China's trade and property rights violations, noting the senator voted to give the country favored-nation trade status.
"Those jobs that have gone to China are not coming back," Fingerhut said. "He absolutely should have known he is dealing with a country with a dictatorial government that prohibits free speech, prohibits the right to organize, violates treaties all over the world, violates private property rights - and that's the country he voted to give favored-nation status to."
Voinovich has made trade reforms with China a key component of his plans to improve Ohio's economy. He said he has refused to approve any additional trade agreements until current trade laws are more aggressively enforced.
Fingerhut also is highly critical of Voinovich's staunch support of the Medicare reform bill, designed to provide better prescription drug coverage to program participants.
Voinovich admits the plan is not perfect, but stresses that in 2006, an additional 650,000 Ohioans will get good prescription drug coverage.
Fingerhut terms the half-trillion-dollar program a "fiscal disaster" that is compounding the debt with no guarantee of what Medicare recipients will pay for drugs. The government's subsidizing of drugs, he said, is driving up prices.
"They are prohibiting Medicare from using the purchasing power of government to bring down the price," Fingerhut said.
Fingerhut said he would give government the power to negotiate prices, along with other revisions that would all but scrap the current plan. He also would lift prescription drug import bans from Canada.
"I haven't met one person in the state of Ohio who thinks they should be a criminal if they go to Canada and get the same drug for cheaper," he said.
A win for Fingerhut would return him to Washington, where he spent one term as a congressman, voting to balance the budget in 1993. But that vote, which included tax increases, helped lead him and many House Democrats to defeat in 1994.
"There's no shame in losing an election when you do the right thing," he said.
As a state senator for the past six years, Fingerhut is known for advocating for more education funding and fighting for programs that assist the poor and middle-class. He has earned respect for his command of the issues.
He opposed Ohio's Defense of Marriage Act and was perhaps the Legislature's most vocal opponent of the law allowing Ohioans to carry concealed handguns.
What he lacks in campaign funds, Fingerhut is trying to make up for in energy. He completed a 335-mile walk from Cincinnati to Cleveland in August to show he is "walking in Ohioans' shoes."
Now trimmer and tanner, Fingerhut continues walking in individual cities. He's also trying out average, everyday jobs, such as working in a sub shop, to show he's "working in Ohioans' shoes."
Basically, he's doing what he can to keep up with Voinovich, an Ohio political icon who expects to spend more than $5 million on television advertising. Fingerhut will barely be seen over the airwaves.
"The only way people will know there is an alternative is if they see me and meet me," he said. "I have to let them know we can elect a new senator from Ohio."
Facing a disadvantage is nothing new to Fingerhut. Growing up modestly, Fingerhut's roots as the middle child of three taught him the value of family and faith.
"The thing that drives me is understanding that nothing that I've accomplished have I accomplished by myself," he said.
His grandparents came from Hungary and eastern Russia to settle in Sandusky between World Wars I and II. His father fought in World War II and then sold insurance, before dying of a heart attack at age 56. Fingerhut was just 15.
"Here was a family, a widow who was a secretary with three children between elementary school and high school," he said. "Yet at no point did we feel that we didn't have everything we needed."
He cited the quality public schools, including after-school programs, and government financial help, such as veteran and Social Security survivor benefits. He would go on to be the first member of his family to graduate from college.
"I was so lucky to have a loving family and friends that took care of me," Fingerhut said.
"I believe that's the principal obligation that we each have as citizens of this county is to make sure we have invested in our future the same way people did for us."
Fingerhut today lives just three miles from his childhood home in Shaker Heights with his wife and son, Sam, who is almost 3.
He looks at Sam and thinks of the record half-trillion-dollar federal budget deficit.
"I look at him and say, I'm supposed to be saving for his future not stealing from his future, and that's what we're doing right now in this country," he said.
Senate debate downtown Friday
U.S. Sen. George Voinovich and state Sen. Eric Fingerhut will have their only live-audience debate for the Senate on Friday, co-sponsored by the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, WCPO-TV, League of Women Voters of the Cincinnati Area and the
The debate will be held at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in downtown Cincinnati. It will be taped in the Freedom Center's theater and broadcast first at 8 p.m. Friday. WCPO-TV, the primary media sponsor of the event, will make the broadcast available to statewide and national media outlets for simulcast or for rebroadcast.
The debate will be moderated by WCPO-TV news anchor Clyde Gray.
It will be a ticketed-only event. For tickets, call the chamber at (513) 579-3111.
A look at key votes in the Ohio Senate for Eric Fingerhut, D-Shaker Heights.
