AP: Taft's hidden-gun veto promise could rile fellow Republicans
By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
AP Statehouse Correspondent
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Gov. Bob Taft's promise to veto a concealed weapons bill reflects political considerations that go beyond the Republican Party.
Taft has long been uneasy about giving Ohioans the right to carry a concealed gun. At first he refused to support legislation without the backing of law enforcement groups.
This fall, as that opposition fell away in the face of several compromises to the bill, he added a new requirement: The public should have some access to the names of permit holders.
The Legislature passed a concealed weapons bill last week.
Taft, who is barred by law from seeking a third term, is acting in the context of a still politically diverse state, said Alex Lamis, a Case Western Reserve University political analyst.
"When Taft does things that seem to be against the Republican majority in the Legislature, he's responding to the fact that the state as a whole is not overwhelmingly Republican," Lamis said. "There's a lot of diversity there."
Although Ohio supported President Bush in the 2000 election, for example, he defeated Al Gore by only four percentage points, and only after Gore abandoned Ohio in the closing weeks to focus on other Midwestern states.
And while Republicans dominate the Legislature and all statewide offices, Democrats hold the mayor's seat in most major cities, including Columbus, Cleveland, Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown.
Taft's opposition angers concealed weapons supporters and doesn't make sense to them politically.
"He's doing these things on the eve of trying to get President Bush re-elected," said Chad Baus, a spokesman for Ohioans for Concealed Carry. "To some extent, conservatives are looking around and saying, 'Where do we go? I'm not being represented by this guy."'
Bob Bennett, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, dismisses such concerns.
When it comes to concealed weapons, "disgruntled Republicans will be upset at Bob Taft," he said. "But I don't think it will have any impact on the election next year. They're going to judge George Bush on his record as a compassionate conservative, something he's been pretty consistent on."
The bill now before Taft allows Ohioans to receive a permit after undergoing a background check and proper training. It allows reporters to get limited permit information from a sheriff's office by asking if an individual is on a list of permit holders.
Taft wants broader access to entire lists of permit holders.
Complicating the debate is the fact that the issue doesn't always break down along party lines. While most House Republicans voted for the bill, they were joined by many Democrats. Some Republicans also opposed it, saying it was too restrictive and amounted to gun control.
Term limits are giving Taft an opportunity to stand on his beliefs rather than let politics sway him, said Tom Sutton, a Baldwin-Wallace College political science professor.
"This is where he has this rare opportunity to act on his policy beliefs apart from political considerations," he said. "I don't think he's going to bend. He feels strongly about this."
Taft also has another issue that will help him shore up Republican support, Sutton said: a bill declaring same-sex marriage as against state public policy.
Taft said he will sign such a bill, approved by the House last week.
Whatever political support Taft loses on concealed weapons, "he gets it back on this one," Sutton said. "It's a no brainer for him."
Click here to read the story from the Associated Press.
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