U.S. SENATE RACE Fingerhut hopes Springer doesn't run

By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- State Sen. Eric D. Fingerhut, who is running for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate next year, hopes TV talk show host Jerry Springer doesn't enter the race even though it will bring national attention to the campaign.
"If Springer is in the race, the race will be about Jerry Springer from now until [the] March" primary, Fingerhut, of Cleveland, told The Vindicator on Monday. "I think Jerry Springer is bad for Ohio. If people see me fighting him and beating him that will help me. But, overall, it isn't what I want."
Fingerhut says he isn't afraid to take on the outrageous talk show host. Two statewide polls show Fingerhut would beat Springer in a head-to-head match-up in next year's Democratic primary.
"It's a circus being in this race with him," Fingerhut said.
Expected to announce
Springer is expected to announce Wednesday whether he'll run for the Democratic nomination in next year's U.S. Senate race. He has repeatedly said that he wouldn't run for the Senate if he believed people wouldn't vote for him because of his outrageous talk show, which he calls "silly" and "stupid."
"If you had asked me even up to a week ago, I'd have said, 'He's running,'" Fingerhut said. "I'm starting to pick up some vibes that it's not going as well as he thought."
If Fingerhut emerges as the Democratic nominee, he will face U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, a Republican, in the November 2004 general election. Fingerhut acknowledges that he will not be able to match Voinovich financially; the latest campaign finance reports show Voinovich with $3.4 million, and Fingerhut with less than one-tenth that amount.
"I need to raise at least $1 million this year to have momentum and legitimacy going into the campaign," Fingerhut said.
Fingerhut says he has great respect for Voinovich, and the senator has done a good job fighting to retain the state's manufacturing base. But Voinovich has failed to promote national policies that will develop high-technology businesses, research and development, and hasn't focused his attention on education, he said.
"The U.S. senator alone isn't going to turn the state around, but this senator has made it harder for us to do that," Fingerhut said.
Tax cuts
Voinovich was the key political figure responsible for reducing the president's tax-cut package from $550 billion to $350 billion. But Fingerhut said he should have done more.
"The federal budget cuts caused this state to raise taxes," said Fingerhut, the ranking Democrat on the Ohio Senate's Finance and Financial Institutions Committee. "What they did with the tax cut was short-term stimulation of the economy that will hurt us long term."
In response, Marcie Ridgway, Voinovich's spokeswoman, said the senator is "maintaining our endangered manufacturing base, and keeping a clenched fist on wasteful government spending in Washington."
skolnick@vindy.com