Partisanship takes center stage in race for 6th District of Ohio in Congress

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Incumbent U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, a Republican, and Jennifer Garrison, his Democratic opponent, say they are bipartisan while accusing the other of falsely claiming to work well with those across the political aisle.

The two are squaring off in the race for the 6th Congressional District seat that Johnson of Marietta has represented for the past four years. Also in the race is Dennis Lambert of Pedro, a Green Party candidate.

The 18-county district includes all of Columbiana County and portions of Mahoning County.

Garrison of Marietta said when she served six years in the state Legislature, “I worked across party lines to achieve results,” and that she has “a history of bringing people together. I think that people should compromise.”

Discussing Johnson, Garrison said voters “do not want a candidate who reinvents himself on a 30-second television commercial every two years. They want to see results.”

Johnson said he often works with Democrats in the U.S. House and each of the five pieces of legislation he’s sponsored that have been signed into law had strong bipartisan support.

“I work well across the aisle with a number of Democrats,” he said.

The two-term congressman added: “My philosophy is everybody gets a seat at the table.”

Johnson touts his membership in the No Labels Problem Solvers Coalition that brings together Democrats and Republicans as evidence of his bipartisanship. Garrison said that group doesn’t have a “litmus test,” and anyone can join and call themselves bipartisan.

Johnson said he’s opposed his party multiple times in Congress, such as obtaining money for workforce development for the district and funding for the Appalachian Regional Commission even though the GOP has opposed earmarks.

“I’ve got one of the lowest party-line voting records in the Republican delegation; it’s around 94, 95 percent,” Johnson said. “It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I vote for Republican principles of smaller government, repealing the health care law. [But] when common sense demands I oppose my party, I do.”

As for Garrison, Johnson said she overwhelmingly voted with her party while in the Ohio House.

“She says she’s bipartisan,” he said. “That’s not what her voting record says.”

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.