Photo By Graham Lienhart

Paul Hackett, Democratic nominee for Congress, talks with retired U.S. Army veteran Bob Knuven.

Paul Hackett gets under the skin of Republicans. The Democratic congressional candidate elicited an eye roll from his opponent, Jean Schmidt, during their debate July 7. Responding to a question about the candidates' wealth, Hackett said that Schmidt, like him, has come from "a great family and reaped the benefits of a great family." The ordinarily poised Schmidt seemed miffed by the subject of her own wealth and shifted her eyes in irritation.

Throughout the debate, Hackett and Schmidt presented drastically different belief systems and styles. Hackett attacked the Bush administration with an aggressive and macho demeanor and promised competent policy. Schmidt championed the administration's policies in a soothing voice, like that of an elementary teacher reading to a group of fifth-graders.

If Schmidt attempted to strike a lulling, reassuring chord, Hackett was mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.

Making Bush the issue
The two candidates in the Aug. 2 special election debated at Chatfield College, a small Catholic institution in Brown County near the geographical center of the 2nd Congressional District. The moderator, WXIX (Channel 19) news anchor Jack Atherton, opened with a statement about the day's terrorist attacks in London. Schmidt revisited the attacks in her opening statement.

"The enemies of freedom are still there," she said. She promised to "stand shoulder-to-shoulder" with President Bush in the war on terror and "finish the job in Iraq." She also used the bombings to attack Hackett for a joke he'd made about the "biggest threat to America" being "the man in the White House."

"If the events of today don't show how outrageous a comment like this is, nothing will," Schmidt said.

She then outlined the three keystone issues of her campaign: national security, taxes and a comprehensive energy policy.

Hackett highlighted his world travels, ownership of a small law office and military service in the Iraq War, presenting himself as a tough-talking civil liberties Democrat.

"I don't need Washington to tell me how to live my personal life or how to pray to my God," he said.

Throughout the evening Hackett peppered his speech with "ain'ts," "darns" and "hells" -- a dialect foreign to his birthplace and residence, Indian Hill, but more at home in the cornfields of Brown County. Be they affectations or the real deal, Hackett announced himself as a Democrat with blood in his veins.

The first question concerned policy on Iraq. Schmidt touted the war effort.

"We have toppled a terrorist regime, a terrorist madman ... the people are cheering in the streets over this," she said. "Iraq has decided to become a democratic regime, a regime that will stop weapons of mass destruction, stop nuclear build-up and go with us to stop the terrorists in our tracks."

Hackett disputed the Bush administration at every opportunity.

"Look, I'm a Marine Corps combat vet," he said. "I'm not soft on defense. I'm not soft on terrorism. Hell, I've looked terrorism in the eye, and I've vanquished it. But I'm hard on an administration that has not had the courage to put forth an Iraq terrorism policy that reflects reality."

Hackett criticized what he called the administration's hypocrisy for professing to spread democracy abroad but hurting democracy at home through the Patriot Act.

Schmidt pledged her support for the so-called Bush Doctrine, which holds that pre-emptive invasion is the best deterrent to terrorism and justifies the Iraq War. She frequently used a plant metaphor to prove her point.

"We are planting the seeds of democracy," she said. "We need to water them and let them grow."

Giddy about ANWR
On the economy, Schmidt hit two main themes, tax reduction and ethanol subsidies. She called for elimination of the estate tax and making the Bush tax cuts permanent.

Hackett countered that he, as a high-income earner, should take the brunt of the tax burden rather than a low-income worker. He also assailed the cost of the Iraq War, which is approaching $200 billion, saying it has resulted in budget cuts for domestic programs.

Schmidt advocated more ethanol plants for "real job opportunities" and a solution to the energy crisis. Hackett had no substantive response, except vague opposition to the ethanol subsidies Schmidt offered.

However, a non-partisan 2001 study by Cornell University Professor David Pimental concluded that ethanol produces no net energy gain and thus no net profit, requiring 29 percent more fuel to produce it than it yields. The majority of the subsidies that sustain the industry go to large ethanol-producing corporations.

Schmidt also argued that the corresponding growth of mega-farms will improve jobs. She didn't shy away from the negative connotations of mega-farms, which The Dayton Daily News reported in 2002 on average pay only $7.50 an hour, rely on immigrant labor, pollute air and water and bludgeon the competition of smaller farms.

Schmidt didn't temper her other environmental positions, either. She was downright chipper when discussing drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

"I like the fact that we're drilling in ANWR," she said. "We need to."

Photo By Graham Lienhart

Connie Bare talks with her friend of 31 years, Jean Schmidt, Republican candidate. Schmidt and Hackett met July 7 for a debate in the run-up to the special election Aug. 2.

Hackett, who owns a hybrid car, opposes drilling in ANWR.

"We can't drill our way out of this problem," he said.

Schmidt, who is president of Cincinnati Right To Life, attempted to strike a moderate chord on abortion. She said that she doesn't support a national ban on abortion and even praised Sandra Day O'Connor, who consistently upheld reproductive rights throughout her tenure on the Supreme Court.

This was a Schmidt drastically different from the one at the Moral Values Forum during the primary campaign. There she highlighted that she was 100 percent pro-life with no exceptions and justified her vote on tax legislation with the argument that it diverted funds from Planned Parenthood.

Hackett seized upon Schmidt's reluctance to assert the vehemence of her anti-abortion stance. He pushed the need to fund preventive education and said that, until there are no unwanted pregnancies, abortion should remain legal, safe and rare. Hackett managed to make the pro-choice position seem manly and obvious, dominating a debate that Republicans almost always rhetorically win.

Once the debate ended, Hackett dramatically took off his sport coat to reveal sweat stains across his blue Oxford shirt. He raised his drenched arms, as if in victory, and grinned widely, connecting with the laughing crowd, who shared his sense of deflated tension.

Schmidt quipped that she, too, wanted to remove her clothing, but "I'd probably get arrested." ©