Mike DeWine

Richard Michael "Mike" DeWine (born January 5, 1947) is a former Republican senator from Ohio.

Born in Springfield, Ohio, to Jean and Richard L. DeWine, DeWine lives in Cedarville but grew up in neighboring Yellow Springs, Ohio. DeWine earned a bachelor's degree in education from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in 1969 and a Juris Doctor degree from Ohio Northern University in 1972.

On July 22, 2009, DeWine announced his candidacy for Attorney General of the state of Ohio.

He and his wife Frances have had eight children, one of whom died in an automobile accident in 1993. Hamilton County, Ohio, Commissioner R. Patrick DeWine is Mike DeWine's son. Ohio Republican Party Chairman Kevin DeWine (R-Fairborn) is DeWine's second cousin.

Political career
At age 25, DeWine started working as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for Greene County, Ohio, and in 1976 was elected County Prosecutor. In 1980 he was elected to the Ohio State Senate and served one term.

Only two years later, 7th District Congressman Bud Brown retired after 26 years in Congress; his father, Clarence Brown, Sr., had held the seat for 26 years before that. DeWine won the Republican nomination, assuring him of election in November. He was reelected three more times from this district, which stretches from his home in Springfield to the Columbus suburbs. He even ran unopposed in 1986 during what is regarded as a bad year for Republicans nationally.

DeWine gave up his seat in 1990 to run for Lieutenant Governor of Ohio as the running mate of George Voinovich. The Voinovich-DeWine ticket was easily elected.

In 1992, DeWine unsuccessfully ran against the former astronaut and incumbent Senator John Glenn. His campaign used the phrase, "What on earth has John Glenn done?" .

In 1994, DeWine ran for the United States Senate, defeating prominent attorney Joel Hyatt (the son-in-law of the then-incumbent U.S. Sen. Howard Metzenbaum) by a solid 14-point margin, largely on the coattails of Voinovich's landslide reelection bid for governor. DeWine was reelected in 2000, defeating former U.S. Rep. Frank Cremeans in the primary and Ted Celeste (brother of former Ohio Gov. Dick Celeste) in the general election.

DeWine was defeated in the 2006 midterm elections by Democrat Sherrod Brown.

On July 22, 2009, DeWine announced his intention to run for Attorney General of the State of Ohio.

Social issues
DeWine is pro-life. He sponsored the Federal Marriage Amendment but opposed State Issue 1, Ohio's Defense of Marriage Amendment, due to the technical wording of the measure, which he felt would restrict the rights of heterosexual partnerships as well.

DeWine is a supporter of gun control laws, and in 2004 he co-sponsored an amendment to renew the ban on common semi-automatic weapons. This earned him 'F' ratings from the National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America. On July 29, 2005, he was one of only two Republican senators to vote against the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act , which banned lawsuits against gun manufacturers, distributors and dealers for criminal misuse of their products.

DeWine has also broken with his party on issues such as funding for Head Start programs, the federal minimum wage and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

After President George W. Bush nominated White House Counsel Harriet Miers on October 3, 2005, for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, DeWine said "I think the fact she doesn't have judicial experience will add to the diversity of the Supreme Court... There is no reason everyone has to have that same (judicial) background." Opposition from conservative groups unhappy with Miers' resume ultimately sank her nomination.

Senate Committees
DeWine sat on both the Senate Judiciary and Select Intelligence committees.

Controversy and criticism
On July 14, 2006, DeWine's campaign began airing TV commercials depicting a smoking World Trade Center. "The senator was notified... by a reporter at U.S. News & World Report that the image of the burning Twin Towers could not have depicted the actual event because the smoke was blowing the wrong way." DeWine's campaign admitted that the video was actually a still photo of the World Trade Center with smoke digitally added. He also was criticized for using an emotionally charged image to attack his challenger.

Another of DeWine's ads suggested that opponent Sherrod Brown didn't pay his taxes for thirteen years. This claim led to the Associated Press reporting on October 19 that, "Several Ohio television stations have stopped airing a Republican ad because state documents contradict the ad's accusation that Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown didn't pay an unemployment tax bill for 13 years." Brown produced a commercial citing these facts. DeWine's ads were changed to state only that he had failed to pay his unemployment taxes until legal action was taken against him.

DeWine has also been criticized on the issue of national security. Pundit Bob Geiger has noted that DeWine, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has missed nearly 50% of that committee's public hearings. Rand Beers, an intelligence critic and expert who has served during the Bush and Clinton administrations, asserted that DeWine's attendance at the Committee's closed meetings has not been better, charging that "he is not a particularly active member."

2006 bid for re-election
DeWine faced conservative Republican challengers William G. Pierce and David R. Smith for the nomination of the Republican Party in the May 2006 primary. DeWine won with 71.82% of the votes.

DeWine's Democratic opponent in the November 2006 general election was 13th District Congressman Sherrod Brown, who won 78.05% of Democrats' votes in the primary, defeating truck driver Merrill Samuel Keiser, Jr. Iraq War veteran Paul Hackett dropped out of the Democratic race earlier in the election cycle.

Most political watchers believed DeWine was one of the Senate's most vulnerable incumbents in the 2006 elections. Democrats poured resources into the Ohio race due to considerable anger at corruption in the Bob Taft administration. In addition, many conservative Republicans felt that DeWine was too "liberal" and "out of touch with conservative values" for their liking.

At first, the GOP worked hard to keep DeWine in office. However, according to an article in the October 16, 2006, edition of The New York Times, top Republican officials on the national level determined that DeWine would probably be defeated and moved financial support from his race to other Republican senatorial candidates they felt were more likely to win.

DeWine lost by a margin of almost 12%, as below:

DeWine did well in most of his home region of western Ohio, but Brown dominated almost all of the eastern half of the state, along with the Lake Erie shore out to Toledo.

Post-Senate Career
DeWine accepted positions teaching government courses at Cedarville University, Ohio Northern University and Miami University. In 2007, he joined the law firm Keating Muething & Klekamp as corporate investigations group co-chair. He also advised the Ohio campaign of John McCain's 2008 presidential bid.