2nd District (OH) Primary Final Election-Specific Post: Bill Cunningham Interviews the Winners

As BizzyBlog’s final election-specific act in the Second District Congressional election for the foreseeable future, pending a final personal piece that will probably be posted tonight, I tuned in as local radio talker Bill (Willie) Cunningham, who supported Schmidt in the GOP primary (which makes him a winner in this election, but don’t tell him, because his head is already way too big), interviewed Schmidt and Hackett separately for 9 minutes each in the 1PM hour Wednesday afternoon.

BizzyBlog will limit his comments (in italics) to how the interview was conducted.

(click “more,” if necessary, to read the interview notes)

Schmidt

- Won’t raise taxes.
- Waffled on Social Security a bit. (but Cunningham IMO wasn’t fair on the SocSec questions and was interrupting)
- Schmidt doesn’t know if it’s a good idea to raise retirement age to 69 or raise earnings cap to $150,000. (Club for Growth pulling hair out)
- Says that whatever she ends up supporting, she won’t get into the pockets of everyday taxpayers.
- Cunningham noted that the Cincy Post quoted Hackett saying that biggest danger facing America is George Bush. Schmidt said it’s Al Qaeda, and emphasized importance of protecting borders, especially Mexico.
- Schmidt characterized Hackett’s Bush remark as typical Dem liberal spin.
- Against raising minimum wage.
- Iraq–Supports president’s plan. We need to establish democracy and improve people’s lives, get rid of the thugs, and with thugs gone, people will embrace freedom.
- Gitmo–these are terrorists, we can’t let them loose, keep them there.
- Abortion–on Schiavo, would have supported what Congress did because husband was looking out for his interests not hers.
- Supports tort reform.
- Said McEwen may have conceded but her VoiceMail box was so full she couldn’t get into it.
- Said DeWine conceded and was a gentleman. (why no mention of Brinkman?)
- Hackett wants seven debates, but Schmidt points out that the same people often come to the same debates.
- Will do radio debate with Hackett on Cunningham show.
- Likes Huggins (for out-of-towners and the sports-impaired, he’s the University of Cincinnati basketball coach), would not fire Huggins if she ran UC.

Hackett

- Asked Willie to be nice, be good to a brother Irishman.
- “George Bush being the greatest danger to America” comment was tongue in cheek–was really talking in terms of how unhappy he is with how Bush has led the way of the government getting into the private lives of Americans. It’s dangerous.
- Says AlQ is biggest security threat, and Cunningham should have known that.
- Cunningham countered by saying that Hackett’s fellow Dems talk like that all the time.
- Hackett emphasizes that as a soldier he will lay his life on the line and obey President’s orders.
- If elected he will get out of the reserves, but if he loses he will go back to Iraq.
- In response to Cunningham question about whether Hackett is free as a soldier to speak his mind (out of line question, IMO), Hackett says he wasn’t on orders, so he is allowed to say whatever he wants.
- Abortion–Hackett is prochoice. He says abortion is horrible, but says we need to knock off the rhetoric and educate youth to so that the occasions where abortion might occur will be reduced.
- Parental notification on minor’s abortion–supports under many circumstances, but not others (cited incest).
- Partial Birth Abortion–against it but will concede to it being appropriate sometimes. Says no to total ban. Wants abortions to be safe, rare, legal.
- Social Security–it’s not broken. It’s like a 1940 Chevy coupe that needs a new paint job and struts, but it’s salvageable.
- No to retirement age increase. Quotes Buffett as a “conservative” (objectively Buffett is not a conservative, Willie didn’t challenge) who supports higher earnings limit for SocSec taxes.
- Hackett says the people will decide. Wants 7 debates (town hall forums), in 7 counties, on 7 issues. Says he represents American values, that it’s not a GOP or Dem district.
- Agreed to radio debate.
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Overall: Both candidates sounded competent, confident, and capable. Cunningham drew out the opinions on most of the important issues. There are clear contrasts that I don’t need to belabor.

I would suggest referring back to this post from time to time as a placeholder to see if either candidates’s views drift in the coming weeks.
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UPDATE: Just sent a congratulatory e-mail to the Schmidt campaign, and shamelessly plugged this blogpost.

UPDATE 2–June 30, 11AM: Sixteen days later, OIF Veteran and former 2nd District Congressional candidate Eric Minamyer takes great exception to the Hackett “Bush is greatest threat” statement, indicating that at least as far as he is concerned, Hackett hasn’t sufficiently backed away from the claim.

Go to Pre-Election Collection.