POLITICS Mayor to join Bush for dinner

The two Georges will meet again next week.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Guess who's coming to dinner?
Mayor George M. McKelvey said he received a telephone call from a scheduler at the White House asking him to a private 25-person dinner Wednesday with President Bush. McKelvey said he is the only Ohioan to be invited to this particular White House dinner.
The call was a follow-up to the president's request in September to McKelvey to come to the White House.
McKelvey was the only Democrat in a sea of Ohio Republican heavy-hitters, including Gov. Bob Taft and the state's two U.S. senators, to greet the president last Labor Day when Bush got off Air Force One to deliver a speech in the Cleveland area. After a brief meet-and-greet, Bush stopped as he was getting into an awaiting limousine, turned around and walked back to McKelvey to invite him to the White House to talk further.
"It's a tremendous honor," McKelvey said. "It's a unique opportunity."
Issues
McKelvey said he plans to discuss a number of issues with Bush. They include lobbying the president to keep the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna off the federal base closure list, providing assistance to the manufacturing industry, encouraging job creation and retention and creating incentives to keep U.S. companies from relocating outside the country.
McKelvey said he hopes to spend the night at the White House, although that wasn't part of the discussion he had Tuesday with the White House scheduler.
McKelvey, a two-term Democratic mayor, said his decision to eat dinner with the Republican president shouldn't be taken as an endorsement of Bush. Actually, McKelvey said, the endorsement from a mayor of a midsize Ohio city in the presidential race is rather meaningless, and he has no intention of endorsing anyone.
"I have enough common sense to know there will be two choices for president, and I feel an obligation to the community to develop a relationship with both candidates," McKelvey said.
Rocky beginning
So far, the mayor's been off to a rough start with U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee. McKelvey, who is far from a favorite among Mahoning Democratic Party officials, attended Kerry's rally April 27. But unlike dozens of politicians, several who hold minor positions, McKelvey was not invited to stand on the platform with the candidate.
"I hope to develop a relationship with Sen. Kerry over the next six months," he said. "I will continue to reach out, and hopefully I can work with Sen. Kerry to help our community. I can't get a ticket to a Kerry event, but I can get an invitation to the White House."
McKelvey said he will surely be thought of as a "traitor and a turncoat" by some Mahoning Democrats for meeting with Bush.
"They don't understand that you need to build relationships with both sides of the aisle," he said. "I've done that my entire life. To slam the door on Republicans and say, 'Youngstown wants nothing from you' is plain stupid."
McKelvey said his relationship with Bush, which began during the 2000 presidential election when the Republican visited Youngstown on a whistle-stop train trip after the GOP national convention, has benefited the city.
McKelvey credits Bush with helping to get a federal renewal community designation for Youngstown, and said his dealings with Republicans on the state and national level led to funding for several projects, including the opening of Federal Plaza.
skolnick@vindy.com