Flags will fly at half-staff to remember former Cleveland mayor, Ohio governor and U.S. Sen. GeorgeVoinovich, who died suddenly over the weekend at 79. And some are saying his bipartisan approach to politics demonstrates how different things are since he retired from elected office in 2010.
GeorgeVoinovichcertainly viewed himself as a conservative on major issues such as spending 鈥� which he talked about in an interview with Ohio Public Television as he was leaving the U.S. Senate in 2010.鈥淲e are borrowing ourselves into oblivion. Our national debt and our budgets that are not balanced; we are in a fiscal crisis today. And it鈥檚 not sustainable.鈥�
His record asgovernor
And as governor, Voinovichracked up criticism for budget cuts, including some welfare benefits, his support for school vouchers and what some environmentalists saw as inaction on out-of-state trash coming into Ohio and construction of a hazardous waste incinerator in East Liverpool. But some of those who most closely followed his career feel he wasn鈥檛 as conservative as many claimed.鈥淚鈥檒l always remember George Voinovich as a moderate Republican.鈥�
鈥淚 think Voinovich was a centrist.鈥�
What it means to be a conservative
Retired Ohio Public Radio reporter Bill Cohen and former Columbus Dispatch reporter and editor Mike Curtin covered Voinovichas the Republican who succeeded DemocraticGov. Dick Celeste in 1991. And since that time, the definition of what is means to be conservative Republican has changed, says John Green of the Bliss Institute for Applied Politics at the University of Akron.鈥淭he Republican Party has moved very decisively to the right, so that people like George Voinovich who, when he first came into office, would have been viewed definitely on the conservative side of the spectrum seemed somewhat out of play.鈥�
Reaching across the aisle
Former Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Tom SuddesnotesVoinovichcame up as the Republican mayor of a heavily Democratic city 鈥� Cleveland, and says as governor he had to work with the powerful Democratic Speaker of the House .Suddes, now a columnist for Cleveland.com and a journalism professor at Ohio University, agrees that the political climate has changed.鈥淪omeone is either a hundred-thousand percent one thing or a hundred-thousand percent the other thing. Anyone in between is somehow a sellout or a traitor or a RINO or a 鈥榮quish鈥� or something. And I think that鈥檚 a problem he could overcome because he knew how to debate and argue and negotiate with people of different perspectives. And I think that quality is diminishing because of polarization, unfortunately. It鈥檚 kind of hard to find someone whose attitude is 鈥淚 want to solve problems鈥�, not preach an ideology.鈥�
Voinovich on Trump
Brent Larkin was a Plain Dealer reporter and later the paper鈥檚 editorial page director. He sat down with Voinovichnot long ago to talk about what he was planning on doing with regard to Donald Trump, his party鈥檚 likely nominee. And Larkin saysVoinovich鈥檚concern with Trump may have been personal as well as political.鈥淗e volunteered he has nothing (in common) with this presumptive Republican nominee for president. I mean, they could not be more different. He didn鈥檛 have a crude, vulgar bone in his body.鈥�
The importance of partyloyalty
Voinovich held positions on hot-button issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, the Affordable Care Act and green energy that most would call conservative. And he certainly was a prominent figure in the Republican Party. But he didn鈥檛 talk much about party loyalty. In that 2010 interview with Ohio Public TV, he talked about voting against Republican-backed tax cuts while in the U.S. Senate.鈥淚f you look at my record, I鈥檇 say that I鈥檓 right of center. I think with the American Conservative Union or whatever it is, I think I鈥檓 a 70 or 75 percent. Now a lot of my colleagues are a 95 percent. But I try to do what I think is right. I鈥檝e been in this business a long time.鈥�
And though Voinovich had his critics, he also had many supporters. He won re-election to the governor鈥檚 office in 1994 by the largest margin in state history, and was one of only two senators to win all 88 counties. The other was his Democratic colleague, John Glenn.
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