Iraq war veteran in uphill fight for U.S. Congress

Iraq war veteran in uphill fight for U.S. Congress

By John Whitesides

Five months after leaving the battle zones of Iraq, Democrat Paul Hackett is waging an uphill fight to make political history in a special election for the U.S. Congress next week.

Hackett, a major in the Marine reserves who served in hot spots like Ramadi and Fallujah, hopes to become the first Iraq war veteran in Congress and the first Democrat to win the heavily Republican 2nd House of Representatives District in southwestern Ohio in more than 30 years.

He is up against tough odds, however, in Tuesday’s election to replace Republican Rob Portman, who resigned to become U.S. trade representative. Hackett faces a well-known former state legislator, Jean Schmidt, in a conservative district where Portman regularly rolled up more than 70 percent of the vote.

But his military experience and tough attacks on President Bush’s conduct of the war have energized a short seven-week campaign that otherwise would have been a sleepwalk.

Hackett has criticized Bush’s decision to invade Iraq and backs intensified training for Iraqi security forces by pairing them with U.S. troops. He condemns Bush’s failure to ask Americans at home to share the burdens of war, complaining about politicians who “use the war to wrap themselves in the American flag.”

“You can’t fight three wars, support the troops and have a tax cut. It’s irrational,” he said in an interview, calling the administration’s approach “patriotism light.” Prolonged engagements in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans have strained the economy and military, he said, and “the only people sacrificing are the ones over there.”

On the campaign trail, Hackett highlights the seven months he spent as a civil affairs officer in Iraq and the unique perspective it would give him in Congress.

“Anybody who served in Iraq has a better view of what’s going on over there than a politician in Washington,” said Hackett, a lawyer whose only previous political office was a stint on a city council.

But Schmidt, who sticks close to most of Bush’s political positions and reminds audiences of her conservative views on hot-button issues like abortion and gay marriage, said in an interview Hackett’s experience in Iraq does not make him uniquely qualified to discuss the war.

“I don’t believe it’s a viable perspective, I’ve heard from many people who served in Iraq who have a totally different view,” she said. “I stand with the president.”

The sprawling House district covers all or parts of seven counties in Ohio, stretching east along the Ohio River from the affluent eastern suburbs of Cincinnati to poorer rural areas dotted with small farming towns.

Schmidt scored a surprise win in a crowded Republican primary in June when early favorite Pat DeWine, son of Sen. Mike DeWine, stumbled badly to a fourth-place finish. Democrats hope low Republican turnout and a grass-roots effort to get Hackett voters to the polls will pay off on Tuesday.

BUSH LOOMS LARGE

In a district where Bush won 64 percent of the vote last year, both candidates have run television ads featuring the president. Hackett’s first ad makes no mention of the fact he is a Democrat, showing Bush saying “there is no higher calling” than military service.

But Schmidt said the district is too conservative for a Democrat, even one like Hackett.

“You know I’m pro-life,” Schmidt told a crowd of about 100 people at a contentious radio debate on Tuesday night in the small town of West Union. “There is a clear difference between my opponent and myself on moral issues.”

While Hackett supports abortion rights, he frames the issue as part of his libertarian belief in limited government — a stance that also lets him stress his support for gun rights.

“I want to keep the government out of your bedroom, out of your personal life and out of your gun safe,” he said.

Hackett has tried to tie Schmidt to Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, whose popularity plummeted in the midst of recent ethics controversies. He referred often during the debate to the “Taft-Schmidt administration,” repeatedly calling Schmidt a “rubber stamp” for Taft and Bush.

Schmidt supports making Bush’s tax cuts permanent, which Hackett opposes, and frequently uses phrases from Bush’s campaign stump speech. She told the crowd in West Union that Bush was “a bold man” and “democracy is on the march” in the Middle East.

Hackett disputed the notion, saying U.S. troops had to finish the job in Iraq but “it’s not Hollywood, it’s not pretty and we’re not spreading the seeds of democracy. It’s a misuse of this great trained skilled force to do feel good things like paint schools.”