Ohio's 13th congressional district election, 2006
Encyclopedia
Election
An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...
for the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
. It was an open seat because Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown
Sherrod Brown
Sherrod Campbell Brown is the senior United States Senator from Ohio and a member of the Democratic Party. Before his election to the U.S. Senate, he was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Ohio's 13th congressional district from 1993 to 2007...
ran for the U.S. Senate. The primaries were on May 2, 2006, and were won by Democrat Betty Sutton
Betty Sutton
Betty Sue Sutton is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2007. She is a member of the Democratic Party.The district includes most of the western and southern suburbs of Cleveland, and includes North Royalton, Akron, Lorain, Elyria, Strongsville, Avon and Cuyahoga Falls.-Early life and...
, a former State Senator, and Republican Craig L. Foltin
Craig L. Foltin
L. Craig Foltin is a Republican politician who served as mayor of Lorain, Ohio from 2000 to 2007. At the age of 32, Foltin upset incumbent Joe Koziura 51.5% to 48.5% in 1999 to win the Mayoral seat in the City of Lorain where Democrats outnumber Republicans five to one. Kozuira had previously won...
, the mayor of Lorain, Ohio
Lorain, Ohio
Lorain is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on Lake Erie, at the mouth of the Black River, about 30 miles west of Cleveland....
. The general election was held on November 7, 2006, general election and was won by Betty Sutton.
Republican
The candidates included:- Businessman Joe Ortega
- Attorney David McGrew
- Lorain Mayor Craig L. FoltinCraig L. FoltinL. Craig Foltin is a Republican politician who served as mayor of Lorain, Ohio from 2000 to 2007. At the age of 32, Foltin upset incumbent Joe Koziura 51.5% to 48.5% in 1999 to win the Mayoral seat in the City of Lorain where Democrats outnumber Republicans five to one. Kozuira had previously won...
- Car dealer Charles DeLorean, brother of automobile legend John De LoreanJohn De LoreanJohn Zachary DeLorean was an American engineer and executive in the U.S. automobile industry, most notably with General Motors, and founder of the DeLorean Motor Company....
Democratic
The candidates included:- Chardon labor lawyer and former State Representative Betty SuttonBetty SuttonBetty Sue Sutton is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2007. She is a member of the Democratic Party.The district includes most of the western and southern suburbs of Cleveland, and includes North Royalton, Akron, Lorain, Elyria, Strongsville, Avon and Cuyahoga Falls.-Early life and...
, who was warmly welcomed into the race by labor leaders and the DCCC. - Long-time Akron attorney, Democratic activist, and WWII vet John Wolfe.
- Former Congressman Tom SawyerThomas C. SawyerThomas Charles Sawyer, usually known as Tom Sawyer, is a Democratic member of the Ohio Senate, who has represented the 28th District since his appointment in February 2007. He served as a U.S. representative from Ohio from 1987 to 2003.- Career :...
, who had poor fundraising among individual donors and lingering labor hostility over his "yes" vote on the North American Free Trade AgreementNorth American Free Trade AgreementThe North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA is an agreement signed by the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America. The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994. It superseded the Canada – United States Free Trade Agreement...
(NAFTA) in 1993. - Youngstown-bred shopping center heiress Capri CafaroCapri CafaroCapri Silvestri Cafaro is a Democratic member of the Ohio Senate, representing the 32nd District since her appointment in 2007. In 2009, Cafaro became minority leader after serving as assistant minority whip for the Senate.-Career:...
, loser to Steve LaTouretteSteve LaTouretteSteven C. "Steve" LaTourette is the U.S. House of Representative for , serving since 1995. He is a member of the Republican Party.-Early life, education and career:...
in in 2004, in a race where she put more than $1.6 million of her own money into the campaign - Gary J. Kucinich, a former elected city councilman and school board member in Cleveland, a brother of 10th District Democratic Representative Dennis J. Kucinich
- Elyria Mayor Bill Grace
Cafaro was seen as potentially vulnerable because of her involvement with disgraced U.S. Rep. James Traficant
James Traficant
James Anthony Traficant, Jr. is a former Democratic Representative in the United States Congress from Ohio . He represented the 17th Congressional District, which centered on his hometown of Youngstown and included parts of three counties in northeast Ohio's Mahoning Valley...
. Cafaro was granted immunity in 2003, when she testified in the federal trial of Richard Detore, who was eventually acquitted of trying to bribe Traficant. Cafaro and Detore worked together at Virginia-based USAerospace, a company her father, J. J. Cafaro, started in an ill-fated attempt to develop laser technology for airport runways. Cafaro was not charged with any wrongdoing, but still is seen as having too close a connection to past scandal for an election in which Republican corruption figures to be a dominant theme. Capri Cafaro testified that she did not conspire with Traficant, but noted the "gray area of impropriety."
Emily's List
EMILY's List
EMILY's List is a political action committee in the United States that aims to help elect female candidates to office. It was founded by Ellen Malcolm in 1984....
supported Betty Sutton over Capri Cafaro. Cafaro is quoted "complaining that the real reason for the Emily's List snub is her support for parental notification of abortions performed on minors, although she otherwise supports women's right to choose. Sutton is more unqualifiedly pro-life." Frustrated with her opponents connecting her to Trafficant, Cafaro threatened to sue her rivals for impugning her character based on her grant of immunity to testify.
In March, the National Rifle Association
National Rifle Association
The National Rifle Association of America is an American non-profit 501 civil rights organization which advocates for the protection of the Second Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights and the promotion of firearm ownership rights as well as marksmanship, firearm safety, and the protection...
(NRA) endorsed Cafaro.
On March 31, The Plain Dealer endorsed Sawyer, followed a few days later by the Akron Beacon Journal
Akron Beacon Journal
The Akron Beacon Journal is a four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning morning newspaper in Akron, Ohio, United States, and published by Black Press Ltd.. It is the sole daily newspaper in Akron and is distributed throughout Northeast Ohio. The paper places a strong emphasis on local news and business...
.
Sutton was able to frame the race in terms of corruption. This played well in Ohio, in particular, with various state scandals, in addition to the indictment and conviction of Bob Ney
Bob Ney
Robert William Ney is an American politician from the U.S. state of Ohio. A Republican, Ney represented Ohio's 18th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 until November 3, 2006, when he resigned...
from Ohio's 18th district, relating to the Abramoff scandal. Between Cafaro's ties to Trafficant, and still lingering resentment about Tom Sawyer
Thomas C. Sawyer
Thomas Charles Sawyer, usually known as Tom Sawyer, is a Democratic member of the Ohio Senate, who has represented the 28th District since his appointment in February 2007. He served as a U.S. representative from Ohio from 1987 to 2003.- Career :...
's support of NAFTA, Sutton had a winning combination. Additionally, Sutton "charged that Sawyer “went on 34 different junkets” from 1996 through 2000 and availed himself of more free trips than any other Ohio congressman during that time."
In the last two weeks of April, Sutton gained 11 points in the polls. Soon after that, The Ohio AFL-CIO, who had backed Cafaro in the 2004 race (in a different district), endorsed Sutton.
Robert Novak wrote: "Not only is Cafaro the candidate of the NRA, she is also the candidate Republicans believe will be the easiest to defeat -- probably the only one in the field they could beat in a district like this one. She ran a lackluster campaign in 2004 against neighboring Rep. Steven LaTourette (R), and her grant of prosecutorial immunity in exchange for testimony in the trial of former Rep. James Traficant (D) remains mysterious. Only if she wins will Lorain Mayor Craig Foltin (R) have a chance in November."
GOP
Official results| Candidate | Occupation | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Craig Foltin | Mayor, Lorain, Ohio | 12,088 | 37.46% |
| David McGrew | 7,079 | 21.94% | |
| Joe Ortega, III | 6,536 | 20.25% | |
| Paul S. Burtzlaff | 4,261 | 13.20% | |
| C. J. DeLorean | 2,306 | 7.15% |
Democratic
Official results| Candidate | Occupation | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Betty Sutton | former State Representative | 21,268 | 31.29% |
| Capri S. Cafaro | 16,915 | 24.88% | |
| Thomas C. Sawyer | former Congressman | 14,837 | 14.55% |
| Gary J. Kucinich | 9,891 | 14.55% | |
| Bill Grace | 3,537 | 5.20% | |
| Michael Lyons | 1,030 | 1.52% | |
| John L. Wolfe | 949 | ||
| Norbert G. Dennerll, Jr. | 495 | 0.73% |
Note: As of May 4, 2007, the Ohio Secretary of State web site ignores the John L. Wolfe vote when calculating the other candidate vote percentages.
General election
This was a Democratic seat to begin with. Normally, Democrats would have very little trouble holding this district. But Republicans appeared to have scored a coup by recruitng Lorain Mayor Foltin, a popular figure in a city that gave George W. Bush only 27% of the vote. Foltin's personal base in a Democratic stronghold gives Republicans a glimmer of hope. Sutton, who won the Democratic primary after a very nasty campaign, generates little excitement, though she is a very viable contender. But one of her defeated opponents, former Congressman Sawyer, not only refused to endorse her but filed a campaign finance violation complaint with the Federal Election CommissionFederal Election Commission
The Federal Election Commission is an independent regulatory agency that was founded in 1975 by the United States Congress to regulate the campaign finance legislation in the United States. It was created in a provision of the 1975 amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act...
.
Making matters for harder GOP candidate Foltin, Sherrod Brown
Sherrod Brown
Sherrod Campbell Brown is the senior United States Senator from Ohio and a member of the Democratic Party. Before his election to the U.S. Senate, he was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Ohio's 13th congressional district from 1993 to 2007...
, the incumbent in the district, is leading in his race for Senator as of October, and Democrat Ted Strickland
Ted Strickland
Theodore "Ted" Strickland was the 68th Governor of Ohio, serving from 2007 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the United States House of Representatives, representing ....
leads in his race for U.S. Senator from Ohio, though both races are close. Combine that with the statewide troubles of Ohio (the guilty plea of Governor Bob Taft, Coingate, and the guilty plea of Congressman Bob Ney
Bob Ney
Robert William Ney is an American politician from the U.S. state of Ohio. A Republican, Ney represented Ohio's 18th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 until November 3, 2006, when he resigned...
), and prospects get even harder for Foltin. When the Mark Foley scandal
Mark Foley scandal
The Mark Foley scandal, which broke in late September 2006, centers on soliciting e-mails and sexually suggestive instant messages sent by Mark Foley, a Republican Congressman from Florida, to teenaged boys who had formerly served as congressional pages...
broke in late September, many observers decided that there were too many obstacles for Foltin to overcome.
As of June 30, the most recent date for which figures currently are available, Sutton had raised $802,000, while Foltin had taken in $373,000.
On October 11, AP reported that the GOP scaled back their expenditures in this race. Cook Political Report rating: Likely Democratic. CQPolitics rating: Democratic Favored.
General
Official results| Candidate | Occupation | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Betty Sutton | former State Representative | 129,290 | 61% |
| Craig Foltin | Mayor of Lorain | 81,997 | 39% |