Jean Schmidt Totally Explained

Everything about Jean Schmidt totally explained

Jeannette Marie "Jean" Hoffman Schmidt (born November 29, 1951) is a member of the United States Congress. A Republican, she represents Ohio's 2nd congressional district, stretching from eastern Cincinnati to Portsmouth. Schmidt gained national attention two months into her first term for stating on the House floor during a debate about the Iraq War: "...give a message to Congressman Murtha: Cowards cut and run; Marines never do." The comment was directed at Congressman Jack Murtha of Pennsylvania, a veteran of the United States Marine Corps.
Schmidt is the second Ohio Republican woman to be elected to Congress without succeeding her husband and the first woman to represent the Cincinnati area in the House. She won her seat in a special election on August 2, 2005, by 3.5 percentage points over Democrat and Iraq War veteran Paul Hackett, amid national attention to the race because of Hackett's strong views on the Iraq War. The margin of her victory led many Democrats to claim a victory for their party, since the district had been reliably Republican for the past 30 years, and to forecast trouble for the Republicans in 2006. Despite these forecasts, Schmidt defeated former representative Bob McEwen in a hard-fought Republican primary in May 2006 and Democrat Victoria Wells Wulsin, a medical doctor, in the November 2006 general election.

Background

Schmidt, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, is a lifelong resident of Clermont County's Miami Township, along the eastern shore of Little Miami River near Milford and Loveland.
   One of four children (two daughters, two sons) of Augustus ("Gus") and Jeannette Hoffman, she's a twin sister, Jennifer Black. Her father made his money in the savings and loan industry, then ran an auto racing team that competed in the Indianapolis 500. Schmidt loves the sport: "I'd rather smell ethanol than Chanel No. 5," she told The Cincinnati Enquirer in 2005
   She earned a B.A. in political science from the University of Cincinnati in 1974. Schmidt worked in her father's bank, the Midwestern Savings Association, as a branch manager from 1971 to 1978. Schmidt was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1984. She was a fitness instructor from 1984 to 1986, when she began a four year career as a schoolteacher but quit in order to nurse her ailing mother, who died in 1990.
   Schmidt is a member of the Clermont County Chamber of Commerce, the Clermont County 20/20 Committee, Clermont County League of Women Voters, the Clermont County Agricultural Society, Clermont County Township Association, and the Milford-Miami Township Chamber of Commerce.
   She was elected chairman of the Greater Cincinnati Right to Life organization in 2005. Schmidt is a trustee of the Clermont County Library, having previously served from 1980 to 1992 and 1994 to 2000. She was reappointed to the board in 2005. She is also a director of the Mercy Hospital Clermont

Foundation Board.
Schmidt, a Roman Catholic, has been a member of Elizabeth Ann Seton Church since 1978. She is a marathon runner, having competed in fifty-four races including thirteen runs of the Boston Marathon. She and her husband, Peter W. Schmidt, a stockbroker, have one child, a daughter, Emilie (born in 1978).

Local politics

Schmidt was elected as a Miami Township trustee in 1989,

Committee assignments

In the House she served on the Finance and Appropriations; Human Services and Aging; Banking, Pensions and Securities; and Public Utilities Committees. She was excited to be in the Statehouse: "Oh my God, I'm really a state representative" she was overheard telling a fellow freshman.". In 2002, she was elected to the 125th General Assembly without opposition in both the primary and general elections.

Active legislator

The Cincinnati Enquirer wrote she introduced and passed bills "remarkable in number and quality for a neophyte lawmaker." She sponsored legislation on the Clermont County courts, limiting the ability of public employees to collect a pension and a salary ("double dipping"), urban townships, and protecting townships from annexations of their territory by cities, all of which were passed into law. She also pushed legislation on the health of women, suicide prevention, abstinence education, and to "lock killers away for good" by making it easier for judges to sentence murderers to life terms. Schmidt also supported Ohio's concealed carry law.

Ohio Senate

In 2004, she ran for the 14th District seat in the Ohio Senate to replace Senate President Doug White, who was retiring. The Senate seat included Clermont, Brown, Adams, and Scioto Counties and part of Lawrence County. Her opponent for the Republican nomination was Tom Niehaus, a fellow member of the Ohio House from New Richmond whose 88th District represented the half of Clermont County outside her district plus Brown and Adams Counties to the east. Schmidt told the Enquirer "The fear from many of the people I meet is that because the next senator will come from Clermont County, that'll be underrepresented. But if you know anything about me, I don't under-represent anybody." She also said she worried about the state budget: "We do have a history of overspending in Ohio. But it's not just recent history. It's a 40-year-old habit." The Enquirer was dismayed by advertisements from the Ohio Taxpayers Association "twisting the two candidates' voting records to Schmidt's advantage" and endorsed Niehaus.
Schmidt had endorsements from key state leaders such as Ohio State Treasurer Joe Deters and Speaker of the Ohio House Larry Householder. The campaign was marred by allegations that Householder's staff had improperly tried to obtain Niehaus's withdrawal from the race and that Household had told Niehaus's supporters to donate money to Schmidt's campaign. In the initial count of the Republican primary vote on March 2, 2004 she led by just 62 votes. A recount was automatically ordered, which reversed the outcome. Schmidt ultimately lost by just twenty-two votes: 17,076 (49.97%) to Niehaus's 17,098 (50.03%). She told The Cincinnati Enquirer on election night "This is the way my whole life has been — one tough race after another."

2005 election to Congress

Primary campaign

When President George W. Bush nominated Rob Portman, who had just been elected to a sixth full term, to be Trade Representative on March 17, 2005, eleven Republicans entered the race for his seat.
   Schmidt launched her campaign for Congress in Montgomery on April 11, the first candidate from outside Hamilton County to declare. She emphasized the need for all parts of the district to be represented: "We must always balance the interests of Hamilton County, which is more urban, with those of the more rural part of our district." She said of her predecessor, "While I know that I can't fill Rob's shoes, I know that I'm the right person to continue the tradition of leadership and character." Early polling showed Hamilton County Commissioner Pat DeWine leading at 42%, with Schmidt tied for third at 7%.
   In her campaign, Schmidt ran on a conservative platform. In one mailing to voters, she promised to "reduce our taxes", "keep our nation safe", advocated "a responsible energy policy", and for "promoting family values." The tag line on the mailer was "continuing a tradition of character and leadership." Schmidt's campaign literature noted her pro-life voting record, her opposition to gay marriage, her high ratings from the National Rifle Association, and that she "opposes an activist court system that acts against our conservative values." The literature also featured her endorsement by Phil Fulton, a pastor who fought the court ordered removal of tablets containing the Ten Commandments from the grounds of schools in Adams County.
   A major factor in the primary campaign was DeWine's marriage. In 2004, DeWine's opponent ran ads calling attention to DeWine leaving his pregnant wife and their two children for a mistress working as a lobbyist. Schmidt made it a point in her stump speech to emphasize how long she'd been married to her husband: "I am a woman of character who has been married for twenty-nine years."
   Schmidt won the endorsement of The Cincinnati Enquirer, the only major newspaper of the district. The paper commented positively on her record in the Ohio House and her fifteen year record "learning local and regional issues."
   Despite being far outspent by DeWine, on June 14, 2005, Schmidt finished first in the Republican primary, with 31% of the vote. McEwen finished second with 25%, Brinkman was third with 20%, and DeWine had 12%. Two days after the primary, an editorial cartoon in the The Cincinnati Enquirer, commenting on DeWine's marriage being such a factor in the primary, showed Schmidt asking Paul Hackett, who had won the Democratic primary, "You have a good marriage. I've a good marriage. What the heck are we going to campaign about?" Many politicos blame Dewine's barrage of attacks on McEwen as the main reason for Schmidt's win.

Special general election

Running in a Republican district

Schmidt faced Democratic nominee Paul Hackett, described by The New York Times as six foot four and "garrulous, profane, and quick with a barked retort or a mischievous joke" in the August 2, 2005, special election. Hackett had organized the recall of a councilman in Milford in 1995 and was elected to the council in his place, serving three years. He had also just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq and referred to his combat experiences in the campaign.
The district was reliably Republican, the Cook Political Report calling the Second District the fifty-seventh most Republican in America. The district had been in Republican hands for all but nine years since 1879, and no Democrat had held the seat since Thomas A. Luken's narrow loss to Willis D. Gradison in 1974.
John Green, a political science professor at the University of Akron told USA Today "It's a real steep uphill climb for Hackett. It is such a Republican district." Jane S. Anderson, an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati who has unsuccessfully run for the Cincinnati city council and the Ohio House as a Democrat, told the Associated Press � It's definitely worth it to the Democrats to put in the effort if only to keep the party energized. Even if Paul Hackett loses, it's very important for the party for him to do well. It could be seen as a sign of opportunities for Democrats in other GOP strongholds.

Martin Gottlieb of the Dayton Daily News wrote a Republican landslide in the district was "a self-fulfilling prophecy": � It is so overwhelmingly Republican that Democrats typically don't make a real effort as a party. A candidate puts himself up, but generally it's somebody who has no political strengths and gets no financial contributions or volunteer help to speak of. The campaign gets little attention. And the prophecy gets fulfilled.

Schmidt's independence and ethics attacked

Schmidt was criticized by Hackett as a "rubber stamp" for Governor Bob Taft's "failed policies". Hackett claimed she'd continue in that role for George W. Bush if elected. At their debate at Chatfield College, Hackett said "If you think America is on the right track and we need more of the same, I'm not your candidate" and asked "Are you better off today than you were five years ago?", echoing Ronald Reagan's question in his debate with Jimmy Carter in 1980. "Rubber stamp" was Hackett's catchphrase throughout the campaign. Hackett even appeared in front of the Hathaway Rubber Stamp store in downtown Cincinnati on July 27 to emphasize the point. "If you think America needs another career politician steeped in a culture of corruption who does as she's told and toes the line on failed policies, then I'm not your candidate," he wrote in a guest column for The Cincinnati Post. However, Schmidt was proud to be associated with Bush, sending campaign mail with a photograph of them together in the Oval Office.
   A month before the election the inspector general of the Ohio General Assembly announced he was investigating three legislators for accepting gifts and failing to report them. Schmidt was implicated in this, but couldn't be investigated because she was no longer a member of the Ohio house. (The others were Representatives Jim Raussen of Springdale, Michelle G. Schneider of Madeira, and Diana M. Fessler of New Carlisle.) On October 24, 2004, the legislators had accepted dinner at Nicola's Ristorante on Sycamore Street in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood and Cincinnati Bengals tickets from a lobbyist for pharmaceutical company Chiron. Schmidt said she thought her $644 gift was from former Bengals player Boomer Esiason, who was, like Chiron, interested in cystic fibrosis. Hackett on June 12 went to the restaurant to call attention to Schmidt's ethics. "What will she do in Washington when she's around real big money?" Hackett asked.
   Schmidt repaid the lobbyist for the cost of the entertainment. Her spokesman told The Columbus Dispatch "Jean specifically asked if this was a reportable gift. We immediately corrected it by paying the full price of the tickets." Her former colleague Raussen blamed the lobbyist. "Here we've a lobbyist who was extremely sloppy."
   Hackett hammered on Schmidt's ethics. When she denied she knew or ever met Thomas Noe, at the center of the Coingate investment scandal at the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation, Hackett produced minutes from a meeting of the Ohio Board of Regents that showed Schmidt had indeed met with Noe, once a regent. On July 29, the Toledo Blade reported on a 2001 e-mail from Governor Taft's assistant Jon Allison complaining Schmidt was "bugging" him about setting up an Internet lottery for Cincinnati businessman Roger Ach, who gave her a $1,000 contribution the next year. Schmidt spokesman Fritz Wenzel said the candidate didn't recall any conversations with the governor about Ach's business.

Few debates

The candidates participated in only two debates. The first was held on July 7 at Chatfield College in St. Martin in Brown County, moderated by Jack Atherton of WXIX-TV, the Fox Network affiliate in Cincinnati. Hackett told the audience his opponent was "a rubber stamp for failed policies" and "if you think America is on the right track and we need more of the same, I'm not your candidate." The second debate was held July 26 at the Ohio Valley Career and Technical School in West Union in Adams County. Howard Wilkinson of The Cincinnati Enquirer said Hackett in the second debate was "trying to paint Schmidt as a Taft-Bush robot." The two also made joint appearances on WCET-TV's Forum on July 28 and WKRC-TV's Newsmakers on July 31.

Both candidates wealthy

The Cincinnati Enquirer ran a front page story on July 2 reporting on the candidates financial disclosure statements that revealed both were millionaires. Schmidt was worth between $1,700,000 and $6,800,000, most of her wealth in the form of a real estate company owned with her three siblings, RTJJ, LLC. Hackett was worth between $650,000 and $1,600,000. (These figures didn't include the value of either's home. The Clermont County Auditor valued Schmidt's home on two-thirds of an acre at $138,510 and the Hamilton County Auditor valued Hackett's home on five acres at $552,800.)
Schmidt used her own wealth in the campaign. She told The Cincinnati Post the week before the election she put $200,000 of her money in the campaign that she'd planned to use to buy a condominium in Florida. The paper noted the median household income in the district was $46,813.

On the issues

Environment

Both candidates talked of the environment. Schmidt called for reducing America's dependence on foreign oil by increasing use of ethanol and drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which Hackett opposed. Schmidt told The Cincinnati Post "What's really important is to adopt an environmental policy that advances the American economy and national security. I supported the energy bill recently passed by the U.S. House that will expand the use of alternative energy sources and additives like ethanol."
The League of Conservation Voters, a nonpartisan PAC, gave Jean Schmidt a lifetime average of 6 on a scale of 0 to 100. In 2005, she was rated at 0.

Taxes and spending

Schmidt supported the tax cuts championed by President George W. Bush, which Hackett opposed. Schmidt called for additional changes to the Internal Revenue Code, such as adopting a flat tax and repealing the estate and capital gains taxes. Schmidt also professed to be a fiscal conservative, as did her opponent. A mailing sent to voters listed four examples of "wasteful spending in Washington," which included "$45,000 to buy gold plated playing cards for Air Force Two!" and "$1.2 million to study the breeding habits of a woodchuck!"

Abortion

Schmidt is strongly pro-life — when she launched her candidacy, she was president of the Right-to-Life of Greater Cincinnati.

Committee Assignments

Agriculture Committee
- Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research
- Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
- Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
- Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment

Resolutions introduced or supported

In Congress, Schmidt sponsored non-binding resolutions that states hit by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita should adopt a uniform statewide building code (H. Con. Res. 285); that the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance were not an unconstitutional endorsement of religion (H. Res. 453); and supporting Gold Star Mothers (H. J. Res. 61). As of 2005, she was the original sponsor of one bill, H.R. 4180, a campaign finance reform measure "to require communications that consist of prerecorded telephone calls to meet the disclosure and disclaimer requirements applicable to general public campaign communications transmitted through radio." She cosponsored bills to provide ultrasounds to pregnant mothers (H.R. 216); to require women having abortions be "fully informed regarding the pain experienced by their unborn child" (H.R. 356); to allow free mail from families to servicemen in Iraq and Afghanistan (H.R. 923); to require the Food and Drug Administration withdraw its approval of the abortifacient drug RU-486 because of safety concerns (H.R. 1079); the "District of Columbia Personal Protection Act", which would repeal District of Columbia law forbidding residents from owning guns (H.R. 1288); to ban human cloning (H.R. 1357); to repeal the excise tax on telephones (H.R. 1898); to forbid Federal courts from hearing cases on the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance (H.R. 2389); and to limit the use of eminent domain by the states, a reaction to the Supreme Court ruling in Kelo v. New London (H.R. 4128).

"Coward" controversy

On November 18, 2005, the House debated a Republican-sponsored resolution, H. Res. 572

, calling for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. It was prompted by the call of John P. Murtha, Jr., a Democrat from Pennsylvania, who introduced H.J. Res. 73, which called for the redeployment of American forces as soon as possible. In response, Armed Services Committee chairman Duncan L. Hunter of California introduced H. Res. 572, which the Republican leadership admitted was intended to demonstrate that calls for troop withdrawal were "out of the mainstream." Democrats in turn roundly criticized the Hunter resolution as a sham that misstated Murtha's position.
During debate on adopting the rule for debating the resolution, H. Res. 563

, Schmidt said:
� Yesterday I stood at Arlington National Cemetery attending the funeral of a young Marine in my district. He believed in what we were doing is the right thing and had the courage to lay his life on the line to do it. A few minutes ago I received a call from Colonel Danny Bubp, Ohio Representative from the 88th district in the House of Representatives. He asked me to send Congress a message: Stay the course. He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message, that cowards cut and run, Marines never do. Danny and the rest of America and the world want the assurance from this body — that we'll see this through.

Schmidt's remarks threw the House into an uproar. Many Democrats saw it an attack against Murtha, a 38-year Marine Corps veteran. After she said "cowards cut and run, Marines never do," angry Democrats nearly drowned out her words. Victor F. Snyder of Arkansas demanded that Schmidt's remarks be "taken down." Under this disciplinary procedure, the House clerk would have re-read Schmidt's words and the presiding officer (at the time, Michael K. Simpson of Idaho) would have ruled whether they were parliamentary.
After 10 minutes, Schmidt asked for and received permission to withdraw her remarks and apologized to Murtha. Had she not done so, she'd have been barred from speaking again for the rest of the day unless the House gave her permission by motion or unanimous consent.
A spokeswoman for Bubp said that the state representative "did not mention Congressman Murtha by name nor did he mean to disparage Congressman Murtha" and that he felt "the words that Congresswoman Schmidt chose didn't represent their conversation." The Cincinnati Enquirer reported Bubp said "he never mentioned. . . Murtha . . . by name when talking with Schmidt, and he'd never call a fellow Marine a coward."

Plagiarism accusation

On September 22, 2006 the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) reported Schmidt published "an op-ed about Medicare Part D in the Community Press and Recorder that's almost identical to a press release issued by Congresswoman Deborah Pryce (R-Columbus) on July 10 2006."

Re-election bid in 2006

Schmidt faced Democrat Victoria Wells Wulsin, a doctor from Indian Hill in the November general election. She only won by 2,800 votes (out of almost 240,000 votes cast)--a margin of 1.26%. This was the closest a Republican had come to losing the seat in 42 years. Schmidt was only able to hold onto her seat by winning her home base in Clermont County by almost 8,000 votes.
During Schmidt's re-election bid there were several controversies, which affected her campaign. One was a March 2006 report about Schmidt's past claims that she'd a B.A. in secondary education from the University of Cincinnati, awarded in 1986. Schmidt's defenders pointed out that neither her current official or campaign website had the second degree posted, and said that Schmidt had completed the requirements for the degree but never filed the paperwork to be awarded a diploma. On April 27, five days before the May 2 primary, the Ohio Elections Commission voted 7-0 to issue Schmidt a public reprimand for "false statements" for her claiming to have that second degree. The Commission also found that Schmidt had made false claims of being endorsed by several organizations, but that these didn't warrant any reprimand.
Schmidt won the Republican primary with 33,314 votes to 29,611 votes for Bob McEwen, the former congressman who finished second in the special primary in 2005. The other two candidates received slightly fewer than 7,000 votes. In the Democratic primary, Wulsin received 10,250 votes, 37% of the total vote in that primary.

2006 controversies and criticism

Endorsements

On March 8, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported Representatives Tom Tancredo of Colorado and Steve Chabot of Ohio stated they hadn't endorsed Schmidt even though Schmidt's campaign site claimed they had. Chabot later said he'd endorsed both Schmidt and her primary opponent. Schmidt also claimed an endorsement from the Family Research Council, which was repudiated by the organization. After a review, the Ohio Elections Commission found that the Tancredo and Family Research Council endorsement claims were false but didn't warrant any reprimand.

Second bachelor's degree

WLW-AM reported on March 28 that Schmidt had, since 1989, claimed a B.A. in secondary education from the University of Cincinnati awarded in 1986. Schmidt had previously listed two degrees on candidate guides, her official Ohio House bio, and past campaign websites. But after her election to Congress, neither her current official or campaign website had the second degree posted. Schmidt's chief of staff, Barry Bennett, told The Plain Dealer Schmidt had completed the requirements for the degree but never filed the paperwork to be awarded a diploma. "I think it's fair to say that she earned it and never collected it," Bennett said, though it's unclear what Bennett could have meant, since it isn't necessary for one to "collect" a degree in order to list it - if, in fact, it was earned.
On April 27, five days before the May 2 primary against McEwen, the Ohio Elections Commission voted 7-0 to issue Schmidt a public reprimand for "false statements" for her claiming to have a second undergraduate degree from the University of Cincinnati that she wasn't awarded. The Commission wrote in its letter of reprimand that Schmidt had "reckless disregard for truth."
She easily defeated term-limited State Representative Tom Brinkman, who spent tens of thousands of dollars of his own money to defeat Schmidt. Schmidt will face Victoria Wells Wulsin in the fall in a closely-watched rematch.

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