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Paul Hackett (politician)

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Paul Lewis Hackett III (born March 30, 1962) is a trial lawyer from Ohio who on June 14, 2005, won the Democratic nomination for Congress to replace Rob Portman in the Second District of Ohio (map) and will face Republican nominee Jean Schmidt in the general election on August 2, 2005. Hackett would be the first veteran of the Iraq War in Congress if elected.

Background

Hackett was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Paul and Beth Hackett, who lived at the time in Gates Mills. As an infant, his family moved to West Palm Beach, Florida, where his father worked for the Pratt and Whitney aircraft engine company. Before Hackett started school, his family returned to Ohio when his father took a job with the General Electric Company's aircraft engine division in Evendale, a Cincinnati suburb. Hackett lived in Wyoming, Montgomery, and Indian Hill and attended the Seven Hills School and Indian Hill High School.

He has a B.A. from Case Western Reserve University and his J.D. is from the Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University. Hackett was admitted to the Ohio bar on November 7, 1988 and practices law in downtown Cincinnati with the Hackett Law Office, which he opened in 1994. He is a member of the National Rifle Association. A resident of Indian Hill, a wealthy Cincinnati suburb, he lives in a home along the Little Miami River built in 1802. Hackett is a retired major in the United States Marine Corps Reserve who served in the Iraq War. Hackett is married to Suzanne C. Hackett. They have three children.

On Milford council

Hackett was elected to the city council of Milford, Ohio, a city in Clermont and Hamilton Counties, in 1995 to replace Chris Imbus, who was recalled from office by a vote of 410 to 86. In the recall election on May 2, he defeated businessman Jacques E. Smith by a vote of 388 to 81. On the Milford council, he opposed efforts to rezone a parcel of land in order to retain the Milford post office within the city limits. He resigned from the council in September 1998 to devote more time to his family and his law practice and was replaced on the council by James Gradolf. When Hackett purchased a home in Indian Hill in 2000, the purchase made The Cincinnati Enquirer's column of most expensive real-estate transactions in the area.

Iraq Service

In 2004, Hackett, a Major in the Select Marine Corps Reserve, volunteered for active duty in Iraq. He then spent seven months as a civil affairs officer with the 4th Civil Affairs Group of the 1st Marine Division. He was assigned to Ramadi, took part in the Fallujah campaign and supported the reconstruction efforts in Fallujah. On 12 October 2004, a convoy under his command was hit by two road-side bombs.

Enters 2005 OH-02 Congressional Race

Hackett decided to run because "with all that this country has given me, I felt it wasn't right for me to be enjoying life in Indian Hill when Marines were fighting and dying in Iraq," he told The Cincinnati Post. In his bid for Congress to replace Rob Portman, Hackett was endorsed by the county Democratic parties in four of the seven counties in the district, those in Brown, Clermont, Hamilton, and Pike Counties. Party leaders chose to support him rather than Charles W. Sanders, the Democratic nominee in 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004, because, as Tim Burke, chairman of the party in Hamilton County, said, "The blunt reality is that Charles Sanders can't win the 2nd District seat."

Hackett was also endorsed by labor unions: the United Auto Workers, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Greater Cincinnati Building and Construction Trades Council. The Dayton Daily News, a Democratic paper, endorsed Hackett, calling him an "articulate, down-to-earth exponent of moderate Democratic views."

Hackett told The Cincinnati Enquirer that the Iraq War has not been worth the price. "We need to develop an exit strategy and execute it. That strategy must commit 100% of our efforts to training the 140,000 Iraqi soldiers to do the jobs that the United States is doing now. We cannot again falsely declare victory."

The Cincinnati Enquirer, a paper with a Republican editorial position, endorsed Hackett in the Democratic primary. The paper editorialized "he is not an ideologue, but someone willing to listen to different points of view and to act on the basis of what he believes will best serve his constituents." The paper also called attention to his leading a recall against members of the Milford city council and "his ability to take charge of a situation, whether it is a dysfunctional local government in Ohio, or setting up the basics of a civil government in a city in Iraq."

Hackett was undaunted by the Republican composition of the district, which Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report said was the 57th most Republican in America. Hackett claimed:

No single party owns this district. It's not a Republican district, it's not a Democratic district. It's actually the seat of the citizens of the 2nd District. They deserve an opportunity to make an informed decision as to who will represent them in Washington, D.C.

Hackett also told The Enquirer he is the best candidate because of his service in Iraq.

John Green, a political science professor at the University of Akron in northeast Ohio told USA Today "It's a real steep uphill climb for him. It is such a Republican district." Jane S. Anderson, an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati who has unsuccessfully run for the Cincinnati city council and the Ohio House, told the Associated Press

It's definitely worth it to the Democrats to put in the effort if only to keep the party energized. Even if Paul Hackett loses, it is very important for the party for him to do well. It could be seen as a sign of opportunities for Democrats in other GOP strongholds.

2005 General Election

Hackett criticized Jean Schmidt, the Miami Township resident who had served two terms in the Ohio House and won the Republican nomination, as a "rubber stamp" for Bob Taft in Columbus and said she would continue in that role for George W. Bush if she were elected. "If you think America needs another career politician steeped in a culture of corruption who does as she's told and toes the line on failed policies, then I'm not your candidate," he wrote in a guest column for The Cincinnati Post. He laid out his positions:

I'm for limiting government. I'm for fiscal responsibility. I'm for a strong national defense. I'm for fair trade. This means I don't need Washington to tell me how to live my personal life of worship my God. And I don't need Washington to dictate what decisions my wife can make with her doctor any more than I need Washington to tell me what guns I keep in my gun safe. I fought for Iraq's freedom, not to come back and have a government tell me I can't have my freedom because the world is too dangerous. Our freedoms are what make America great and desirable to the rest of the world and any government that wants to take away its people's freedoms under the pretense of national security is what makes the world more dangerous.

Hackett was highly critical of his opponent's record. On June 12, he went to Nicola's Ristorante on Sycamore Street in Over-the-Rhine to call attention to Schmidt having accepted dinner there and Cincinnati Bengals tickets from a lobbyist for pharmaceutical company Chiron in October 2004 and failing to report the gifts on her financial disclosure statements.

The Cincinnati Enquirer ran a front page story on July 2 reporting on the candidates financial disclosure statements that revealed both were millionaires. Hackett was worth between $650,000 and $1,600,000, while Schmidt was worth between $1,700,000 and $6,800,000, most of her wealth in the form of a real estate company owned with her three siblings, RTJJ, LLC. (These figures did not include the value of either's home. The Hamilton County Auditor valued Hackett's home on five acres at $552,800 and the Clermont County Auditor valued Schmidt's home on two-thirds of an acre at $138,510.) Hackett told The Enquirer, "I'm a self-made guy. I didn't inherit it. I didn't marry for it. What you see is what I made in the last decade."

Hackett was a strong advocate for the Second Amendment, but nevertheless lost the endorsement of the National Rifle Association to Jean Schmidt. Hackett told The Enquirer "I don't know what I have to do. I've gone against the grain in the Democratic party. There isn't a bigger gun enthusiast than me." (A spokeman for the NRA said the endorsement was based on Schmidt's voting record in the Ohio House and that Hackett, having only served on a city council, did not have the track record Schmidt did.) Schmidt also won the endorsements of the International Association of Fire Fighters, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the Southern Ohio Board of Realtors, the National Homebuilders Association, and the Fraternal Order of Police. The FOP blasted Hackett for representing a plaintiff in a suit against a Clermont County police officer.

The candidates participated in only two debates. The first was held on July 7 at Chatfield College in St. Martin in Brown County, moderated by Jack Atherton of WXIX-TV, the Fox Network affiliate in Cincinnati. Hackett told the audience his opponent was "a rubber stamp for failed policies" and "if you think America is on the right track and we need more of the same, I'm not your candidate." The second debate was held at the Ohio Valley vocational school in West Union in Adams County.

Hackett attracted national attention to what had always been considered a safe Republican district. The New York Times ran a front-page story on him and articles appeared in USA Today and The Washington Post. USA Today wrote "if Democrats could design a dream candidate to capitalize on national distress about the war in Iraq, he would look a lot like the tall, telegenic Marine Reserve major who finished a seven-month tour of Iraq in March."

His campaign became notable as the first competitive Democratic campaign in the district since 1964.

On July 19, Democratic campaigner James Carville appeared at a fund-raiser for Hackett in downtown Cincinnati that raised $100,000. On July 21, Max Cleland, formerly a United States Senator from Georgia, campaigned for Hackett at a rally in Blue Ash. John Glenn, the astronaut who later represented Ohio in the United States Senate, sent out an e-mail asking Democrats to volunteer for Hackett, and Glenn campaigned with him on July 30 in Cincinnati. Four-star general and Presidential candidate Wesley Clark also endorsed Hackett.

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean sent out an e-mail appeal for Hackett which, combined with work by bloggers, helped raise over $475,000 in online contributions for Hackett, thus making him the first Democratic nominee in the Second District in many years who could afford to run television advertisements. Hackett's ad began with a clip of President Bush declaring "There is no higher calling than service in our armed forces" and then played up his service in the Marine Corps, while never mentioning his party. Republicans were displeased. The Republican National Committee's lawyers wrote him saying the commercial deceived the public with "the false impression the President has endorsed your candidacy."

The National Republican Congressional Committee, the official Republican Party body that helps candidates for the United States House of Representatives, announced on July 28 it was spending $265,000 for television ads in the Cincinnati market, covering the western part of the district, and $250,000 for ads in the Huntington, West Virginia market, covering the eastern half. Carl Forti told The Cincinnati Enquirer "we decided to bury him" after Hackett told USA Today, in a story published that morning "I don't like the son-of-a-bitch that lives in the White House but I'd put my life on the line for him." Forti said the NRCC had "no concern that she will lose. She will not lose."

The Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes [1], a Cincinnati-based group founded by Tom Brinkman (who lost the GOP primary to Schmidt), began running ads in the last week of July urging voters to skip the election. COAST's president, Jim Urling, told The Cincinnati Enquirer that this might help elect Hackett, but "we think it will be easier to remove a Democrat next year than an incumbent Republican posing as a conservative."

In the general election, the generally moderate Dayton Daily News and the more conservative Cincinnati Post endorsed Hackett. The Daily News said Schmidt's attacks on Senators Mike DeWine and George Voinovich were "remarkably classless" and "seemed to be saying that voters who like legislators who exercise occasional independence from their party should not vote for her."

See also

External links

References

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