Entrepreneurship is something Beagle, 45, picked up on early from his father as the family bounced from Syracuse, N.Y., and Chicago before settling in North Olmsted, Ohio, by the time Beagle was a teenager.
Don Beagle provided for his family by selling coffee for LaTouraine Coffee Company and could work a room like you’d expect from a good salesman.
Don rarely talked politics, Bill recalled, but stamped working-class ideals into his children, including making them pay half of their college tuition. Bill made it through Miami University, where he met Karen during his sophomore year in the early 1980s.
Those lessons, and a desire to carry on his father’s entrepreneurial flair, propelled Beagle to the statehouse — making the leap from Tipp City councilman to representative of Dayton, Huber Heights, Trotwood, Harrison and Jefferson townships and Miami County and a portion of Darke County in the Ohio Senate.
Beagle caught the state Republican Party’s attention in May after winning the primary and by Election Day, the party had put more than $550,000 into his campaign against incumbent state Sen. Fred Strahorn.
“He has a sense of service and humility I think voters are looking for,” said Kevin DeWine, state Republican Party chairman. “People will soon realize he has the right mentality to be an effective legislator.”
The 5th District has long been Democratic territory. Prior to Strahorn, the district was represented by Tom Roberts and Rhine McLin, who later became Dayton’s Mayor.
Bursting onto the political scene
Beagle’s quick political rise did, in fact, happen almost overnight.
Beagle spent the last 10 years as a stay-at-home dad, giving up a commercial banking career after the family’s elderly baby sitter died in 1999.
Beagle helped found Dayton Dads at Home, an organization of stay-at-home dads who would meet to share parenting tips and talk about local issues.
Beagle also volunteered his time at Tipp City and earned an appointed position on the planning board. In 2003, he was appointed to the Tipp City Council to fill a vacant seat. In 2005, Beagle was re-elected.
“I talked to a few other Council members on how they ran their campaigns and I also read a book about campaigning, though it was written for a larger effort,” Beagle said. “But I enjoyed it, getting out and talking to voters.”
Beagle decided not to run for another term in 2009 and told his wife, Karen, he might have larger aspirations.
It’s not often that a candidate goes from small-town councilman to state senator in a heavily urban district. But Democrat Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin’s loss in 2009 to Gary Leitzell, largely due to dormant Democrats, convinced Beagle he could unseat Strahorn.
Strahorn had never run in the district. He was appointed to the Senate seat in 2009 after then-Sen. Tom Roberts was appointed by Gov. Ted Strickland to the Ohio Civil Rights Commission. Strahorn had previously represented parts of Dayton, Trotwood and Huber Heights in the statehouse.
Beagle raised less than $20,000 on his own, compared to about $200,000 in Strahorn’s chest.
But, bankrolled by the Republican Party, Beagle trounced Strahorn in Miami County on Election Day, getting 75 percent of the 35,000 votes cast there. In Montgomery County, Democratic voter turnout was low and Strahorn received about 5,000 fewer votes than Democrat Roberts did in 2006. Beagle won nearly 52 percent of the more than 93,000 votes cast in the district.
“It’s not fair to say the (Democratic Party) left Fred Strahorn hanging, we just didn’t have the financial resources,” said Mark Owens, Montgomery County Democratic Party chairman. “We put in the resources we could afford.”
Not lockstep with Kasich
Beagle is excited for freshman senator orientation Nov. 14-17, but said, “I am not expecting to get a corner office.”
He said much of his time in the coming months will be spent getting to know elected officials in Montgomery County where he is now a wild card for local leaders waiting to see how the state trims its $8 billion budget deficit.
Beagle has separated himself from Gov.-elect John Kasich, not fully supporting Kasich’s announcement to support the 4.2 percent income tax cut halted by the legislature last year.
“I want to get more information and see the whole budget before making my decision,” Beagle said. “If we can protect and deliver services and cut the tax rate, I am for it. But I am not jumping on the bandwagon and say we should cut taxes if we can’t afford it.”
Kasich also signed the “no-new-taxes” pledge, which Beagle didn’t do.
When asked why before the election, Beagle said, “I’m a practical person.”
Beagle doesn’t support the current high-speed rail plan to connect Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus and Cleveland because he said he’s not sure the state can afford it even with the $400 million in federal stimulus funds dedicated to the project.
“I am anxious to see Kasich’s budget proposal because the candidates weren’t real specific during the campaign,” Beagle said. “I do agree we need to overhaul the state’s economic development team because we are losing too many jobs to other states. We’ve got to do better.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2494
or lsullivan@Dayton DailyNews.com.
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