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Fight for the 5th: Latta says influx of illegal workers is key problem; Weirauch says more jobs lost to outsourcing
[December 09, 2007]

Fight for the 5th: Latta says influx of illegal workers is key problem; Weirauch says more jobs lost to outsourcing


(Lima News, The (Ohio) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Dec. 9--When talking with voters in the Ohio 5th Congressional District, state Rep. Bob Latta said he hears about immigration second only to jobs in Northwest Ohio.

Robin Weirauch has campaigned on jobs lost to Mexico and overseas because of federal trade agreements.

The two are running in a special election Tuesday to fill the seat of the late U.S. Rep. Paul Gillmor, who died Sept. 5 at the age of 68 after a fall in his Washington apartment. In the last days of the campaign, candidates and national parties are pouring in money to the race and have gone negative with their TV advertising.



Latta, 51, is a Republican from Bowling Green, the most populous area in the sprawling 5th District. He previously served as a Wood County commissioner and state senator and has represented the area in the Ohio House since 2001.

Latta said he opposes amnesty for people in the country illegally, and favors fences on the Mexican border and hiring more border patrol officers. Illegal immigrants are a "slap in the face" to people who are in the United States legally and drain services such as health care and schooling.


As a county commissioner and legislator, Latta said, he has helped create jobs by favoring policies that help businesses.

"If a law doesn't make sense, if it's hindering something, we need to change it," Latta said.

Latta also said his views on social issues -- he is anti-abortion and a Second Amendment supporter -- represent the views of the 5th District.

Weirauch, 50, a Democrat from Napoleon, ran for the congressional seat in 2004 and 2006. She served as assistant director of Bowling Green State University's Center for Regional Development from 1998 to 2006.

With major contributions from labor groups, Weirauch has focused on trade issues, jobs leaving the country and health care. She has campaigned at factories closed or closing. She used the Friday after Thanksgiving to highlight consumer product and toy safety issues and the "made in China" label.

Several attempts were made to contact Weirauch this week, but she could not be reached for comment.

Democratic momentum?

Weirauch lost twice against Gillmor, but garnered 43 percent of the vote in her previous bid, with a tiny budget, almost no outside help and no TV advertising.

Democrats, emboldened by gains made in state and national elections in 2006, are putting time and money into the dash of an election. At the same time, Latta, with a strong base and family roots in a district that voted 61 percent for President Bush, could be facing mutiny within his own party.

Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John Edwards sent letters last week encouraging support for Weirauch, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had spent more than $243,000 as of Friday on mailings and television advertising, according to campaign finance filings.

The attention has forced the National Republican Congressional Committee to spend more than $380,000 in mailings, phone banking and TV advertising, according to the filings, on a district that shouldn't be competitive.

Gillmor held the seat in the heavily Republican district 19 years, and Latta's father, Delbert, held the seat for 40 years before that.

National support for Weirauch hasn't surprised Latta.

"Special elections are exactly that," Latta said. "It's an election where a traditional base will or won't show up and may not have much to do with the makeup of the district. I anticipated there would be great interest in this race."

Negative air attacks

The resulting TV ads, some produced by the campaigns and others by the national parties' congressional committees, have taken a not-surprising negative turn in the last days of the campaign.

"We're really getting the negative advertising here," said Melissa Miller, a political science professor at Bowling Green State University. "We had a lull after the primary, which was probably a relief to voters, because I think they got their fix."

The money from the national parties is financing the amount of negative ads -- as Democrats focus on tying Latta to tax increases, Ohio Election Commission reprimands and former Gov. Bob Taft, while Republicans criticize Weirauch's positions on immigration, health care, abortion and taxes.

The money indicates the parties believe the race is closer than some might have thought, Miller said.

The negative tone could keep people away Tuesday and be one reason why a 20 percent turnout isn't out of the question.

"There are no other races on the ballot. There's no other reason to go to the polls that day," Miller said. "No one else is out there trying to mobilize voters, so it's going to come down to which side can mobilize their supporters and there's a real incentive for Democrats."

One race during a month that is perhaps the busiest for Americans, Miller said, could very well mean people skip it.

"A regular midterm election averages 35 percent turnout," Miller said. "I won't be surprised by 20 percent. I'll be disappointed, but I won't be surprised."

Republican meltdown?

The money and support coming in to Weirauch's campaign has been a double-edged sword. The money from the likes of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Political Action Committee and pro-choice PAC Emily's List has allowed Latta and Republicans to paint Weirauch as an extreme-left wing candidate whose views don't mesh with those of Northwest Ohioans.

On Friday, Latta spent the day appealing to core conservatives and talking about social issues, doing news conferences in Bowling Green and Ottawa on "family values" with Right to Life officials and attending a fishing and gun club banquet, highlighting his National Rifle Association endorsement.

However, chatter swirled this past week on conservative blogs in Ohio about the possibility of conservatives staying home Tuesday. Following a negative, divisive and close primary in which the Ohio Elections Commission reprimanded Latta and fellow candidate Ohio Sen. Steve Buehrer for lying about each other, Buehrer supporters haven't gotten behind Latta.

"You had four in 10 Republican voters supporting Buehrer. If they are disgusted by the negativity of that campaign or the outcome, and they stay home, it could really change the outcome of the election," Miller said.

One poster at Redstate.com summed up other conservative views:

"It is Republican(s) like you, Mr. Latta, that soured the GOP's reputation on fiscal matters that helped lead to the 2006 bloodbath. Like Rush said after the 2006 election, I'm tired of carrying water for big government Republicans like you."

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