Thursday, August 31, 2006
The race for the 6th District is one of the most competitive in the country.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, stumping for Charlie Wilson, says Ohio is key in the change Americans want going into the November election.
"People are clear that they want a change of course," Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel said via telephone Wednesday on the way to a campaign fundraiser for state Sen. Charlie Wilson, a St. Clairsville Democrat, who faces Republican Chuck Blasdel of East Liverpool for the 6th Congressional District seat.
Emanuel pointed to a bill restricting predatory lending that Blasdel voted against.
"If you want to change Washington, you have to change the people you send," Emanuel said. "You can't continue to send people whose policy is to go along to get along."
The 6th Congressional District race is one of the most competitive in the country. The 12-county district includes Columbiana County and a portion of Mahoning County.
Democrat U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland of Lisbon, who holds the 6th Congressional seat, isn't running for re-election. He's the Democratic nominee for governor.
Stumping for candidates
Several prominent figures from both parties have been campaigning for their respective candidates in the race.
Republicans who have made Mahoning Valley appearances for Blasdel include House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Vice President Dick Cheney and House Majority Leader John Boehner.
Besides Emanuel, other national supporters of Wilson have included U.S. Rep. James E. Clyburn, the House Democratic Caucus chairman, and James Carville, a campaign consultant who ran President Clinton's 1992 campaign and who attended a Pittsburgh fundraiser for Wilson earlier this month.
Democrats in Congress want an increase in the minimum wage, an up or down vote on recommendations in the 9-11 Commission report, and restoration of the cuts in college education, Emanuel said.
He also pointed to the war in Iraq as an area that has turned people away from the Republican party.
"It's time for a winning strategy" in Iraq, Emanuel said.
But he was short on specifics of how to achieve that.
"The commander-in-chief owes the people one," he said. "There's only one commander-in-chief at a time. We'll continue our job as oversight."
Specifics
Emanuel listed troops' lack of appropriate equipment in the war and the 12 generals who have criticized Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's handling of the war.
That type of criticism from so many generals is unusual.
"It's a unique time because you have a uniquely incompetent secretary of defense," Emanuel said.
Ed Patru, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said that the Democratic leadership in Congress, including Emanuel, has voted eight times to fund the war in Iraq.
"If Charlie Wilson believes we ought to stop funding the troops in Iraq, he ought to stand up and say so on the record," Patru said.
The NRCC spokesman also questioned what Wilson's positions are on President Bush's tax cuts.