Ohio giving voice to broader economic concerns

BROOK PARK, Ohio -- Sitting in Henry's Bar and Grill, with the first shift at the Ford Motor plant across the street done, James Thomas tapped the bar for another shot of gin.

As with most autoworkers these days, the drinks are mixed with as much worry as hope.

Thomas' three kids likely won't get their usual trip to Disney World this year: He's got to think about putting them through college someday. Ford has already idled, at least temporarily, one of the engine plants across the street and is talking about closing the casting plant, too. That would leave just one plant open.

"Morale," Thomas said, "really sucks."

On Tuesday, Ohio voters like Thomas will be standing in for Michigan residents who were stripped of any meaningful Democratic contest. The state's Jan. 15 primary violated party rules and the state was stripped of its convention delegates. Now, it falls on the Buckeye State to represent the economic woes of the industrial Midwest.

Chris Redfern, an Ohio legislator from Catawba Island and chairman of the state Democratic Party, said Friday that voters are asking two questions: "Who wins in November?" and "Who's going to stand up for me in January?"

Last week, at the debate at Cleveland State University, NAFTA — a free-trade agreement with Canada and Mexico produced by Bill Clinton's administration and widely denounced by industrial workers as having sent jobs south of the border — was a point of contention, but not much of one.

Both candidates said while they weren't ready to pull out of NAFTA, the threat to do so would allow them to negotiate changes that would protect American workers.

"People really don't understand the devastation that that one thing caused," said Allen Huguely, 55, of Dayton. Huguely once worked for bankrupt GM parts maker Delphi, which has slashed payroll and cut thousands of jobs. Now, he commutes every week nearly two hours to an Allison Transmission plant — sold by General Motors to two investment firms last year — in Indianapolis.

He's voting for Obama.

"Dayton is not the same city as when I came here in 1972," said Huguely. "Everything was booming. ... But now, everyone is walking around with their head down. I can definitely identify with someone who's talking about hope."

It's not all doom and gloom.

In Lordstown, on the northeast end of the state, the General Motors plant is working two shifts, six days a week, producing the compact, fuel efficient Cobalt and Pontiac G5.

"We're very fortunate here in Lordstown to be building a car that sells well when gas prices go up," said Jim Graham, president of UAW local 1112.

But even when the news is good, it isn't all good.

Cobalt and G5 production might move to Mexico. And technology — and the loss of a van production line — has cut the the number of workers to about 3,300.

"We're always living in fear of change down there," said Judith Hall, 66, the village clerk an avid Clinton supporter.

Across the state in Lima — about 80 miles south of Toledo — Dale Jones has it pretty good now for an entirely different reason: George W. Bush and the Iraq war.

An electronics technician at a General Dynamics plant making Abrams tanks, Jones, 61, voted for Bush eight years ago, thinking a hawk would help keep them open.

"He went into Iraq. That saved us," said Jones, a member of UAW 2075 and a registered Republican.

He's considering voting Democrat this time around — hoping a Democrat will work to improve the nation's industrial base.

"I never made as much money in my life as I'm making now and it doesn't go anywhere," he said.

Back in Brook Park, a Cleveland suburb, James Thomas and his pal Kevin Hawkins both work for Ford — and it's not all worry.

But they are sitting in a bar that used to be so jammed at lunchtime that two cooks and two bartenders tended to the crowd. Now, Cindy Brostek, 45, the day shift manager, is cook and bartender both.

"I'm too old to start over, so I'm going down with the ship," said Hawkins, 54, of Ford.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur, a Toledo Democrat, hasn't decided how she'll vote Tuesday.

"A primary allows you to use your vote to send the loudest message and one ought to ponder how to do that," she said. "Don't give your vote lightly."