Posted on 11/20/2005 3:14:35 PM PST by radar101
Rep. Jean Schmidt, Ohio’s newest member of Congress, was in one of the first hearings of her congressional career a couple weeks ago, and the testimony was enough to make her jaw drop.
The governor of Louisiana, under questioning by a transportation subcommittee on energy and water, said she had no idea how much the state had spent responding to Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, meanwhile, asked for federal money for a light rail system for his city.
Afterward, Schmidt mused with an aide about both statements, shaking her head in wonder about what she perceived as a desire to spend without any accountability.
The next day, she’d go to the floor of the House to caution against flagrant spending on the disaster without accountability. “We’re not sitting on Santa’s knee,” she said a week later, still amazed at what she’d heard.
Two months after taking over the seat long held by Rep. Rob Portman, Schmidt, a former Ohio House member and former president of Right to Life for Greater Cincinnati, is not yet inured to Washington spin.
The bureaucratic foibles that are commonplace in the capital both amaze and outrage her. She will call her twin sister, Jennifer Black, in Ohio and tell such stories with a “can you believe this one?” attitude.
But mostly, they make her angry. And Schmidt, 53, is not afraid of a fight.
She got this seat after a bruising 11-person primary and a special election that was closer than expected in one of the reddest districts in Ohio.
But her triumph was a welcome reversal of her last campaign, a state Senate bid that ended in a recount and a 22-vote loss.
Schmidt, of Loveland, cites her three years in the Ohio Legislature as training ground for Congress. During the subcommittee hearing on Louisiana, she knew to ask what Louisiana’s tax and expenditure limit was. But her lack of seniority meant she couldn’t ask questions. So she convinced a colleague to ask the question instead.
“This is like the Ohio Legislature on a bigger scale,” she said. “I liken it to running a half-marathon versus a full marathon.”
The marathon began even before she was sworn in. On Aug. 28, a week before she was to be formally sworn in, a railroad tanker car near Cincinnati leaked toxic styrene, spurring the evacuation of surrounding communities.
Schmidt called upon Ohio colleague Rep. Steve LaTourette, R-Cleveland, chairman of a subcommittee on railroad issues, for help. The two met with the president of Rail America the day after Schmidt was sworn in to demand a full report on what happened.
Since then, she has presided over the House several times to moderate the after-hours special orders debates. She has introduced legislation that would force groups that run anonymous political ads to declare themselves after phone banks called to attack her and other Republicans in Congress. She introduced a resolution recommending Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama adopt uniform statewide building codes to mitigate damage in future hurricanes.
She also has spoken on issues as varied as female astronauts to fiscal responsibility to memorializing southern Ohio soldiers who have died in Iraq. She has cosponsored a resolution defending the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, as well as one that would require women seeking an abortion to be told the process would cause pain to the fetus.
“I feel like I have hit the ground running,” she says.
Running and racing have been themes in her life.
She’s one of four children of the late Gus Hoffman, the founder of Hoffman Auto Racing, who started by running sprint cars and midgets and saw a dream realized when he entered a car in the Indy 500 in 1973. The car didn’t race that year, but did the next.
Schmidt, who grew up loving the smell of methanol — “Not ethanol!” she emphasizes, anticipating the error — and the deafening roar of cars whizzing by, became a fixture at the tracks during an era when so few women attended races that tracks often lacked women’s restrooms.
In 1973, the first year women were permitted in the pits at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Schmidt got in. By the late ’70s, she and her sister were fully uniformed scorekeepers for Hoffman Auto Racing — two young women relishing a traditionally man’s world.
“We’re not a liberal family,” said Jennifer Black, Schmidt’s sister. “We’re not a family where women’s lib was promoted. But silently, you can break barriers even when you’re not out there being a bra burner.”
Schmidt broke another barrier after the birth of her daughter Emilie in the late ’70s. Struggling with baby blues and baby weight, she opened a magazine one day with an article about running. Schmidt put on a pair of beat-up sneakers and hit the road, beginning a hobby that would result in her running 58 marathons, so far.
She said in the early years of her running, she’d often wear men’s shorts and shoes because women’s running gear wasn’t commonly available.
She still coaches a junior high cross-country team, arranging practices around her congressional schedule. At one match, she ran into Portman, who’d come to watch one of his children run.
Both running and racing, Schmidt said, prepared her for politics. By watching pit crews work together to put a car on the track, she got an inkling of the team work she’d later need in political campaigns. And by running marathons, she said, she got the drive to follow through.
Two months into her term, she already has prospective opponents for 2006.
State Rep. Tom Brinkman, a Republican from Cincinnati who opposed her in the congressional primary, depicts her as a lock-step Republican vote even when the Republicans are wrong. He’s considering running against her next year.
“Jean Schmidt is a creature of leadership,” he said. “I think that’s going to be her m.o. in D.C. It’s not necessarily something I think the voters would want. They want somebody who’s going to be independent.”
On Oct. 16, Schmidt completed her 58th marathon in Columbus. The run took her past the Ohio Statehouse. She said she thought about her years in the legislature, what they’d taught her, how she might apply the lessons in her new role in Congress. And it made her realize, once again, that she was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
“It was,” she said “an emotional rush.”
How about a subway?
Jean Schmidt sounds like she's strong enough not to get Washington DeeCeed very easily.
I also think that if Harold "hold me back!" Ford had gotten to her, she would have knocked him out.
I believe he is a member of the Ohio legislature, not a Congressman.
That one certainly has a tiger in her tank. I hope to see more.
"... Colonel Danny Bop, Ohio Representative from the 88th district in the House of Representatives."
That doesn't look like a state house to me!
I've already seen one report saying she really didn't win.
The scum are saying the ballots got stuck together because of the humidity.
Where in tarnation do they come up with these ridiculous tales?
Congressman Billybob
Latest column: "What If the French Had Pulled a 'Murtha' in 1781?"
Tell her to run the Marine Corps Marathon in DC next year..just before election day..
New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin wants money for a rail system in his city, how about a submarine base? Gimmie, gimmie, gimmie.
It does to me...unless you actually think that Ohio has at least 88 U.S. congressmen.
So .. if he's from the 88th DISTRICT that means there are 88 Congressman ..?? How do you figure that ..??
There are 30-some districts in San Diego County alone - but that doesn't mean we have 34 people in the House.
Usually, if somebody is talking about a state house - they say he's a member of the state legislature - not the House of Representatives. To me .. there is ONLY ONE House of Representatives.
I'll go look it up for you since you're having such a problem with it.
Okay - I went to Congress.org and looked him up - he's not in the "House of Representatives" - which she stated - he's in the Ohio state house.
Give her Hastert's job...she sounds more deserving; I can sense "blood on the teeth", which is what Republicans sorely lack.
Okay - I went to Congress.org and looked him up - he's not in the "House of Representatives" - which she stated - he's in the Ohio state house.
Given Schmidt's voting record in the Ohio House, this was not an inaccurate description. After she fends off a conservative challenger in the 06 primary, she will probably get stricken with Beltway-itis.
Which, by the way, is called the Ohio House of Represenatives: http://www.house.state.oh.us/
This is what I wrote to her in the wee hours of the morning.
I Am So Proud Of You!
To:
Rep. Jean Schmidt
November 20, 2005
You may be getting bashed by the wacko's on the left for repeating the words of that marine. But hearing you repeat his words Friday night was like a breath of fresh air to me! And I Thank You! I Thank You for having the backbone to stand up and fight for our troops!
And don't let the wackos on the left pull you down and quiet your voice. If the Pelosie's, Reids and the Kennedy's of this world can stand up and spout the crap that flows non-stop from their mouths like the water that pours over Niagara Falls, then you have every right to stand up and speak the truth for our troops! They are our Hero's! They are our Moms, Dads, Sons, Daughters, our Sisters, Brothers, Cousins, our Neighbors and our Friends!
There isn't one single American who doesn't know someone, a family member, a neighbor, a friend or co-worker who is or has served in Iraq and in standing up for them, in standing up for our Hero's, you stood up for all of us!
These wacko's on the left, the dems and our main stream media are all guilty of trying to steal the pride and the glory from our troops for a job well done. And why? Because they can't get over the simple fact that President Bush was elected... aaagain.
They try to hide all the good our troops have done over there in Iraq and report only the daily body count while trying to play us all for fools. Crying "When should we pull out?" "When should we pull out?" But some of us aren't that stupid. Because it only takes one look at our own murder rate here in just three American cities to put it all into perspective.
1889 Americans murdered in just ONE YEAR in just three cities. That's just three cities, THREE CITIES! New York, Chicago and Los Angles. But in the WHOLE COUNTRY of Iraq, a country were we are at WAR and in TWICE AS MUCH TIME, we've only lost approx 2050 soldiers.
Wile we mourn for those lost, and wish to God we had not lost even one American life, it's downright dirty and as low as anyone could go for them not to give our troops the pride and the glory they deserve for the outstanding, courageous, awesome, wonderful job they have been doing!
You are a Great American IMHO for repeating what that marine wanted you to say for him and I am so very proud just to be from the same state as you!
Galloway , OH
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