Candidates continue religious wrangling, job talks

By William Hershey

Staff Writer

COLUMBUS | Ted Strickland comes prepared these days when Ken Blackwell's supporters cast doubts on Strickland's credentials as a minister.

Lara Mastin of Montgomery County, chairman of Republican Blackwell's campaign for governor, is a doubter. After Strickland began running ads on religious radio stations last month, Mastin fired out a fundraising plea that said in part, "Mr. Strickland, who claims to be a minister..."

For Mastin and others, Strickland, the Democratic candidate for governor, has a letter from Bruce R. Ough, resident bishop of the Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church that says:

"As the Resident Bishop of the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church, I write to confirm that Mr. Strickland is an ordained minister of the United Methodist Church in good standing."

The ads on religious radio stations weren't Strickland's only venture into faith and politics, a realm recently dominated by Republicans, perhaps most successfully by Blackwell.

Just last week Strickland, a U.S. House member from Lisbon, held "Vision for the Common Good" faith outreach gatherings in homes in 12 cities around the state. He spoke to participants in a conference call.

The sessions prompted a predictable blast from the Ohio Republican Party.

"Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland continues to campaign behind a smoke screen of tax returns and faith-based conference calls in an effort to avoid laying out a substantive agenda for Ohio," a GOP press release said. Strickland, in case you missed it, last week also released his federal income tax returns for six years while Blackwell declined to release his returns.

While Republicans weren't impressed with Strickland's house parties, political scientist John Green, an expert on faith and politics, was.

Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, said that the reference to the "common good" should appeal to voters who are religious liberals and moderates because it is the way they think about the connection between faith and politics.

Democrats too often in the past have done a poor job of cultivating support among such voters while Republicans, especially Blackwell, have done a good job of appealing to religious conservatives, Green said.

"Strickland is doing things differently," Green said in an e-mail.

Blackwell, meanwhile, has been saying less about faith and more about creating more jobs.

Strickland, of course, also talks about the need for jobs.

Both candidates probably agree that more of them would serve Ohio's "common good."

More: The latest on the 2006 election

Chatterbox: Should politicians discuss religion during campaigns?

Contact this reporter at (614) 224-1608 or whershey@DaytonDailyNews.com.