Op-Ed: GOP's labels stick poorly to Coleman

February 06, 2005
Cleveland Plain Dealer

by Sandy Theis

Bumper-sticker slogans don't apply to Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman, and that's the way he likes it.

The first Democrat to announce his candidacy for governor wants to keep abortion legal. So does one of the Republican contenders, Auditor Betty Montgomery.

Coleman opposes gay marriage but supports civil unions. So does Attorney General Jim Petro, another Republican running for governor, although Petro prefers the term "binding" unions.

Coleman supports the death penalty. All three Republican hopefuls - Petro, Montgomery and Secretary of State Ken Blackwell - support it, too. Coleman came out against a law that allows citizens to carry concealed weapons. Petro and Blackwell supported it, but Montgomery is on Coleman's side.

On taxes, the last decade shows that everyone but Blackwell backed at least one tax hike. Coleman's: A $4-per-day rental-car tax that voters repealed. Petro and Montgomery's: A 20 percent state sales tax increase that voters rejected in 1998.

Just hours after Coleman announced he would run for governor next year, Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett issued a statement that called Coleman's "political views on the death penalty, gay marriage, taxes and gun control . . . out of touch with mainstream Ohio."

Using Bennett's yardstick, the only one fit to lead is Blackwell.

Click here to read the entire op-ed in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

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