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Some voters might not like what State Rep. Tom Brinkman Jr. stands for, but at least they can count on him to be consistent.
David Schaff, who wants Brinkman’s job, is young, attractive and works for one of the few liberal Democrats holding office in Greater Cincinnati. But those things don’t say much about the kind of representative Schaff he’d be.
The race for the Ohio House of Representatives in the 34th District offers the Democrats a chance to take on a conservative Republican who has clashed with his own party leadership. But instead of offering a philosophical alternative to the incumbent, Democrats are backing a candidate who seems to have more political skills than fire.
Brinkman, the one and only
Brinkman isn’t afraid to go it alone, even when it irritates his own party. In 2000 he called Gov. Bob Taft, a fellow Republican, a “liar.” Brinkman complained that Taft had changed his stance on concealed weapons.
Brinkman is determined about saving tax money. In 2000, he says, he thought he was being elected with a bunch of conservatives who would get the state budget under control. He found out he was wrong.
“There’s not a huge crowd up there at this point, because the money was so fun to spend for 10 years,” he says.
Last year the state legislature increased spending on “odds and ends” programs that added up to $30 million, according to Brinkman. He says he was the only House member who voted against it.
In another case, Brinkman says, environmental activists got together with the non-fossil fuel aggregate industry — such as limestone quarries and gravel pits — to find better ways of monitoring its environmental impact. He chose the unpopular route and voted against the proposal because it would have meant the state, rather than the industry, picking up the additional cost of inspections.
“The fee should have gone up — not keep the fee the same and put the burden on the Ohio taxpayer,” Brinkman says.
To balance the state budget, Taft wanted the authority to make cuts to libraries and local government funds and increase taxes. Brinkman voted against the bill.
“I’m not going to vote for any tax increases,” he says. “I never have. I never will.”
Brinkman, who is the father of six and owns a printing business, says he believes it will take a maverick to turn the state around.
“The governor is a decent guy,” he says. “He really is. But he doesn’t have what the state needs to lead us into the future. I wouldn’t say we’re all the way gone, but we’re so far behind it’s phenomenal.”
Schaff, the great compromiser
Schaff is no maverick, and he doesn’t try to be. Instead of criticizing Republicans, he criticizes Brinkman for doing so.
If Brinkman has something to say about Republican leaders, Schaff says, he should go to them and talk about it rather than making it a media issue.
“I don’t feel that the party should dictate my vote, but I respect the team that I’m on and I’ll never call Bob Taft a liar, even as a Democrat,” Schaff says.
This leads to the question, why not? If Brinkman believes Taft is a liar, then shouldn’t he tell us?
Schaff asks why there are 59 Republicans in the House but Brinkman is the only one who hasn’t voted for a tax increase. This, Schaff says, shows Brinkman is out on an island.
“It’s great to stand up on your principles, but you’ve got to understand that in politics there’s a certain amount of compromise to get anything done,” Schaff says.
Schaff, 25, is an aide to Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune, who has championed open government, the needs of low-income people and equal rights for gays and lesbians. But Schaff is no liberal.
“I tell people when I’m out in the field that I’m a common sense conservative, and it resonates with people,” he says. “I think people see that I bring a common sense approach to politics and that Tom Brinkman brings an extremist approach to politics.”
Schaff also brings a somewhat sly approach to politics. Don’t voters assume that someone who describes himself as a conservative is a Republican? Schaff says he tells his party affiliation when people ask. His campaign literature, however, often leaves unstated that he’s a Democrat.
“This is a conservative district and I understand that, and I understand my job is to represent the majority of the district,” Schaff says.
Schaff worked two months for Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a Republican and former Democrat. While working in Columbus, Schaff attended a Republican Party fund-raiser where he saw the extremely conservative end of the party; it turned him off.
“I worked for Ken Blackwell,” he says. “I didn’t grow up a Democrat.”
He is now president of the Hamilton County Young Democrats.
“In politics, you have to pick a team, and I’ve picked my team,” Schaff says.
Extremism and core principles
The Republican leadership in the Ohio House of Representatives is so aggravated with Brinkman that they’ve said anything with his name on it will get killed, according to Schaff.
“I can pick up the telephone and call my Republican friend and get something done,” he says. “Tom Brinkman can’t even pick up the telephone and call his fellow Republicans to get anything done.”
Brinkman, 44, says that many times when he votes against something he doesn’t think is right, other political figures tell him they wish they could do it, too. But, they tell him, you have to go along to get along.
“Screw that,” Brinkman says. “I will not do that. That’s why when the lobbyists and political insiders rank me, they rank me last, because I won’t play ball with them. I see people crack all the time under the pressure.”
Brinkman’s positions aren’t necessarily predictable. For example, he doesn’t take a hard-line approach to drug crimes.
“We have prisons that are too full,” he says.
Some people in prison who committed victimless crimes should be let out to save money, according to Brinkman. Taxpayer money would be saved by sending addicted people to drug intervention at a cost of about $4,000 per year rather than warehousing them in jail at the rate of about $22,000 a year, he says.
“People who are addicted, we need to help them, we don’t need to punish them,” he says.
Brinkman even encouraged Cincinnati City Council to pass a resolution against the death penalty.
“I’m 100 percent pro-life,” he says.
For Schaff, the top concerns are higher education, the economy and restoring fiscal accountability.
“The legislature lacks a strong advocate for higher education,” he says. “I know how to build consensus and manage the key stakeholders. You have to go out in the field and you’ve got to talk to these presidents of universities and ask how the state budget cuts are affecting your delivery of service and how it’s impacted students’ ability to afford school.”
An educated population is the best way to drive the economy, according to Schaff. He says he’s concerned about job creation and retention.
“We’re losing more jobs than any other state in the nation for people ages 25 to 50 and that’s because the legislature has failed to address jobs in a changing economy,” he says.
That might sound dry, but Schaff says Brinkman is all about pushing an extremist agenda.
Brinkman introduced a bill to allow concealed weapons, requiring no training and no cards. That goes too far, according to Schaff.
“I actually support ‘concealed carry,’ but I don’t support this extreme version that doesn’t require any training, doesn’t require any registration for guns,” he says.
But for Brinkman, the issue is clear. He said he would support allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons — just as the governor once did.
“People have to believe when you say you’re going to do something,” Brinkman says. “You have to do it. If you don’t have some core principles, people can’t trust you’re going to do the right thing.” ©
This article appears in Sep 11-17, 2002.