Ohio District 1: Roxanne Qualls
Cincinnati Mayor Is "One of Us"
In a year when both parties are complaining about their ability to recruit
quality candidates, Ohio Democrats are crowing about their coup in persuading
three-term Cincinnati Mayor Roxanne Qualls to run against incumbent
Representative Steve Chabot. Environmentalists are similarly gleeful. "She's one
of us," says Sierra Club Political Director Daniel J. Weiss.
Before being elected
to the Cincinnati City Council in 1991, Qualls directed Cincinnati Citizen Action
and its Toxic Action Project. Her appointment as mayor came by virtue of being
the top vote-getter in three successive council elections, causing one local
paper to name her "the most popular politician in Cincinnati." The Sierra Club
has endorsed Qualls in every one of her campaigns.
Two-term incumbent Chabot is clearly worried: early polls showed the two
candidates running neck-and-neck. One reason Chabot is in trouble may be his
pitiful voting record. In 1994-96, he scored a mere 27 percent on the League of
Conservation Voters scale; this session he's languishing at 38 percent, even
cosponsoring a bill that attempted to lower clean-air standards. Qualls, on the
other hand, has had a glowing record on the Cincinnati council, fighting toxics
and urban sprawl, and championing light rail. Qualls' vision extends beyond her
own city limits: last fall she tried to get the council to pass a resolution
supporting the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change.
In addition to her support from the Sierra Club, Qualls is running with the help
of EMILY's List (an organization supporting pro-choice Democratic women
politicians) and the AFL-CIO. Virtually all of Chabot's campaign contributions
are from Cincinnati business leaders and business-oriented political action
committees.
The citizens of Ohio's First District owe a debt to the
nation on this one. The last Cincinnati mayor to go on to national prominence was
television gutter-meister Jerry Springer. It's time to make up for that now with
Roxanne Qualls.
