Ohio Senate Race Essay, Research Paper

The Ohio Senate Race

The state of Ohio has a population of about 11 million people. It is also considered to be one of the major states that are going to factor in the presidential race. This year happened to be the year when Ohio senator Mike DeWine’s term ends. This of course meaning that there would have to be an election. This election for the one of the positions Ohio has in the United States senate. It would also mean that two men, one democrat and one republican, could be that senator. Their names are Mike DeWine and Ted Celeste.

We live in a democracy and we vote for whom we think should do what. These men campaigned for an honorable seat in the senate. Mike DeWine the incumbent, Theodore Celeste, Marvin McMickle, Richard Cordray, Ronald Dickson, Frank Cremeans, Daniel Radakovich, John Eastman, John Mcalister. Every one of these men pored lots of time, effort, and money into their campaigns, but the race really only had two candidates Mike DeWine and Ted Celeste.

The state of Ohio is overwhelmingly democratic, but this republican would not take no for an answer. He went on too win the senate race in 1994 and in doing so became the first republican senator from Ohio in two decades. Mike DeWine was born on January 5, 1947. He was born in the Ohio town of Springfield. Here he was raised and went to Yellow Springs High School. His next education stop was Miami University which is in Oxford, Ohio. There he earned his bachelor degree and graduated in 1969. Following his schooling there he attended Ohio Northern University Law School where he graduated from in 1972.

After college Mike DeWine accepted the job of Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for Greene County. He was only 25 and already on his way to the senate. Then in 1975 he was elected Greene County Prosecuting Attorney. His went on to the Ohio State Senate in 1980. Here Mr. DeWine was instrumental in the passing of a very strict drunk driving law. Two years later he ran for the United States House of Representatives and consequently won. During his stay in the House of Representatives Mike DeWine headed the passage of a landmark federal legislation to protect children victimized by violent crime. His next position was the Lieutenant Governor of the state of Ohio. While holding this position, he oversaw seven state agencies. Finally Mr. DeWine became Senator DeWine. He had become one of two Ohio Senators. During his term in the Senate Senator Mike DeWine was a member of the Judiciary Committee and a member of the Labor and Human Resources Committee. He was also chairman of a few subcommittees.

Mike DeWine like everyone has a personal side. He is married to Frances Struewing. Together they have had eight children. His children are, in order from oldest 29 to youngest five, Patrick, Jill, Becky, John, Brain, Alice, Mark, and Anna. Their daughter Becky died in a traffic accident in 1993. Sen. DeWine and his wife also have five grandchildren. Mike DeWine’s religion is Catholic. Mike DeWine has shown he has what it takes to be in the United State Senate.

The Democratic party selected Ted Celeste to run for the United States Senate. Mr. Celeste beat out Rev. Marvin McMickle and Richard Cordray too win the primary for the democrats. Ted Celeste also has an extremely proficient resume, but first I would like to take a look at his family. Mr. Celeste married Bobbie, a counseling psychologist. While together the two have had two daughters Christiana, who is 26 and Liz, who is 18 years old. Ted Celeste’s brother Richard F. Celeste also served Ohio. He was a state representative, lt. Governor, and Governor from 1983 to 1990. His father was also politically active. Ted Celeste resides in Columbus, Ohio. He is also very religiously active and goes to a Christian church.

Mr. Celeste has been a life long Ohio native. He was born in the town of Lakewood, Ohio. After graduating from the local high school Ted Celeste continued his education at the College of Wooster. Here he earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology, and graduated in 1967. Following his schooling Ted Celeste spent a summer of studying German at the University of Vienna which is located in Austria. He also took training at the University of Hawaii for the Peace Corps and at the University of Akron for the Teacher Corps.

Ted Celeste’s first public service came in the Fiji Islands between 1969 and 1970. He taught school for the Peace Corps with his with Bobbie. Then his political career began in 1974 where he managed his brother’s campaign for lt. Governor. Mr. Celeste also managed Jimmy Carter’s Ohio primary campaign in 1976 and following that he served on the president-elect’s transition team. Next for Ted was managing his brother’s unsuccessful first gubernatorial run. Also, during the seventies he served as assistant director of the Ohio Department of Finance and chief of the Bureau of Consumer Services in the Ohio Department of Public Welfare.

During the eighties Ted Celeste turned to business. He founded and was Chair of Advanced Interactive Video, Inc. He also served as president of National Housing Corporation and New Town Housing. Along with these he was the president of the Columbus Magic Soccer Team. Then deciding to get back into the political scheme Mr. Celeste was appointed as chairman of the Ohio State Board of Trustees. This was a nine-year term and ended in May of this year. Finally Mr. Celeste begins his campaign for the United States Senate. Ted Celeste does have what it takes to be a senator, but can he beat the incumbent?

Ted Celeste and Mike DeWine are two very qualified people to run for the senate, but what about their stances on important issues? Ted Celeste is a republican and of course has different views than his democrat counterpart Mike DeWine.

While in the senate Mike DeWine has voted yes on banning partial abortions and on disallowing overseas military abortions. Now Mr. Celeste believes in the allowing of women to decide for them selves. Another issue and actually probably the most important issue between the two is same sex marriages. Ted Celeste is behind the issue and Mike DeWine is against it. Among other national issues gun control comes into mind with the NRA and all Mike DeWine voted yes on background checks, but no on more penalties for gun and drug violation. Ted Celeste being the democrat he is believes strongly in gun restrictions and is in no way pro-NRA. This is how it is for just about every other issue. One of the candidates is for and the other against.

As you can see the two are not very alike and it will be up to the voters to decide who should be the next senator of Ohio, but before the people of Ohio elect whom they think should take the job both candidates were out hot on the campaign trail. Mr. Celeste seems to have the most experience in this area, but Mike DeWine already has many people behind him.

Ted Celeste used what he calls the Common Sense campaign which from what I understand is instead of collecting millions of dollars from enormous corporations he plans on getting all his money from the people of Ohio or his supporters. In a perfect world maybe this approach would work, but in today’s society it just cannot be done. The Ohio State University, The Post, ran an article about Ted Celeste’s campaign. The heading read as follows, Ohio Senate Race’s Democrat campaign close too broke. In the article it goes on to say that will campaigning for the democratic nomination Ted Celeste spent most of his money, and as of the last month he had $37,000 in the bank but now has debts around $45,000. Then I received a letter from Mr. Celeste containing his campaign money so far in this election. The letter said Ted Celeste had made around $60,00 of PAC money which means Political Action Committee. Now compare this to Mike DeWine who as of August 3, 2000 had made $890,000 in PAC money. This seems a little lopsided but just wait there is more, the letter also shows the money earned by each candidate from outside of Ohio. Mr. Celeste collected about $31,000 and Sen. DeWine made a little more around $605,000. The numbers are just astounding. I mean for a state that has spend more than 8 million dollars on previous senate elections bringing a tenth of a million against Mike DeWine’s couple million is just foolish. If Mr. Celeste thinks he can win the senate just because of his last name he has something coming to him.

The election was held November 7, 2000. My guess for the winning candidate was incumbent Mike DeWine. I choose him mainly because Ted Celeste really did not put up to much of an opposition and he was easily going to win.

The winner of the Ohio senate race was Mike DeWine. He won with 2,028,960 votes compared to Ted Celeste’s 1,140,534. These results did come in congruence with my prediction but I truthfully thought that Mike DeWine would win by more than a million votes, based on the fact the Ted Celeste just did not have any money for a great campaign, but I did underestimated his democratic connections and really the only reason he got that many votes was because Ohio is overwhelmingly democratic and also his family’s record. Overall looking back at both campaigns they were both put together pretty well and this looked as though it would be a great election but after Ted Celeste’s fiances fell apart Mike DeWine went into cruise control already having one once before and now again I predict that unless the democrats bring forth a formidable candidate Mike DeWine will be representing the state of Ohio in the Senate for many years to come.