CNN Inside Politics - Transcript
CNN Inside Politics - Transcript
Wednesday, August 3, 2005
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JOHNS: Thanks so much, Bill Schneider.
With me now from Cincinnati is the winner of yesterday's special election in Ohio, Jean Schmidt, the Republican.
Thanks for joining us.
SCHMIDT: Thank you for having me on.
JOHNS: I guess we ought to start at the beginning here. A lot of people -- you heard Bill just a moment ago -- have called this a referendum on Iraq in large part. Is that how you see it?
SCHMIDT: No. First off, this was a special election. And the dynamics in a special election are not a bellwether for regular elections.
The second thing that I think that the national media is missing is that my opponent, understanding the popularity of the president in this district, actually in his ads painted himself as someone who supported the president. So, you're -- you're missing a larger picture in this district.
JOHNS: But he's also someone who called the president a bunch of names as well. At least, that's what I've heard. Do you think that he simply went too far in the race and there was a backlash?
SCHMIDT: When he was making those name-callings, it was in the national press, not in the local press. And with a very short window of opportunity for the voters of this district to get to know either candidate, it was very, very easy to do a smoke-and-mirrors kind of a thing, for him to paint himself as a Republican.
In fact, there were Republicans in this district, when they saw his ad, that thought he was the Republican candidate. Nowhere in his ads did he ever say Democrat. The second thing is, is that you have to look at the uniqueness of this election. In June, there were 11 of us that ran on the Republican ticket. And there was a front-runner that the people in this district had a passion about, either a love or a hate relationship. And for those that loved him, they voted for him. But, for the rest, they were looking at the other 10 candidates as their choice. Once that election was over, the passion and the energy for the August election waned.
They thought, because this had always been a very easy race, that there really was no reason to go back to the polls. They misunderstood the fact that, in the past 20 years, the Democrats have not mounted a candidate like Mr. Hackett. And the Democrats have never put as much money into the race as they did with Mr. Hackett. And so those were some of the unique features of it.
The other thing that I think that you've missed when I heard your analyst is the whole issue of the Scioto County. If you understand Scioto County, while it appears in part to look more Republican- leaning, those independent voters are actually Democrats. I have worked on the ground with local campaigns out in Scioto County in the last four years, and I can tell you, even though it looks as an index as a Republican district, once you get off the presidential platform, the national platform and you get into the local, they tend to vote Democratic.
JOHNS: Now, of course, the Democrats, the day after, are saying the closeness of this race really indicates there's no safe Republican district in this country. And they're saying this basically because of the Iraq war. Do you buy that? Obviously not.
SCHMIDT: No, I really don't. The Iraq war is, of course, an important issue, and the voters of this district recognize that. But when I was talking to them over the last four months, the things that they were talking about when we talked about national security was that they wanted to keep the course going, but they also wanted to protect the borders. Border patrol is a very serious issue here.
They also wanted to talk about the president's tax policy. They wanted to keep the tax cuts permanent, because it puts real money into the hands of real individuals. They want to eliminate the death tax, the capital gains tax, and the alternative minimum tax.
And they want a sound energy policy that moves us away from foreign oil and on to a domestic supply, including drilling in the ANWR, taking a look at our refineries and boosting those, and looking at short-term solutions, such as a renewable policy that has an ethanol component, as well as long-term renewable solutions.
So, these were the things that I was hearing time and time again in the district. The national media was trying to focus on the war.
JOHNS: One last question. One last question. Just wanted to jump in.
SCHMIDT: Sure.
JOHNS: A lot of people have tried to link you to the ethics problems of the governor there in Ohio. What do you think? Did that have an effect on the race?
SCHMIDT: My opponent tried to malign my character in a very unfair way by painting a very broad brush that anybody that served in the House of Representatives suddenly was tied to Bob Taft. It was -- it was a very unfair portrayal of me. He did it the last two weeks of the campaign, very little time for me to actually respond to it.
Again, with the uniqueness of this race, the quickness of this race, allowed him to do a smoke-and-mirrors approach. I would caution anyone on either side to look at this race as a bellwether for the Republican Party or Democratic Party, because it was a special race. Special unique features were going into this that will not be in place in a general election.
JOHNS: Jean Schmidt, thank you so much. We'll see you up here in Washington.
SCHMIDT: You bet. Thank you so much.
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