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Candidate for Congress rails against 'politics of no'
(by Joan Demirjian - February 10, 2010)
Candidate for Congress rails against 'politics of no'
By JOAN DEMIRJIAN
South Russell resident Bill O'Neill will challenge incumbent U.S. Rep. Steve LaTourette for the 14th District Congressional seat. The 14th district includes all of Geauga, Lake, and Ashtabula counties and parts of Cuyahoga, Summit, Trumbull and Portage counties.
Mr. LaTourette, a Republican from Bainbridge, is serving his eighth term in Congress.
Mr. O'Neill, a Democrat, made his announcement with supporters gathered at the end of the Rapid Transit Authority blue line at Van Aken Boulevard in Shaker Heights. The line ends there. His announcement at the Van Aken line was designed to demonstrate the "absurdity of the fact that not one 1 inch of track has been set in this congressional district in 90 years.
"Every major metropolitan area provides a transportation infrastructure that works," he said. "There is no reason my grandfather could take a train to Solon and I cannot."
Mr. O'Neill said he believes that Mr. LaTourette needs someone to hold him accountable for his voting while in office. "He can't sit there and say no to everything and expect people to benefit," he said. "He votes against mass transit, health-care reform and banking regulations," he said.
There needs to be a change from the "politics of no" to the politics of "yes, we can," Mr. O'Neill said.
Mr. LaTourette has served on the Transportation Subcommittee, "and we are yet to see commuter rail in his district," Mr. O'Neill said.
Every other city understands that, if they want job growth, it means getting workers to the jobs, he said.
While governments should not create jobs, they should create a climate where jobs can grow, Mr. O'Neill said. "That's what is missing."
There are federal government grant funds for development of rail lines for commuters within the state.
There should be new commuter train track, Mr. O'Neill said. "The Rapid Transit blue line could go right out Northfield Road to Solon and Aurora," he said.
"Let's do high-speed between Columbus and Cleveland and have commuter service from Cleveland to Mentor," Mr. O'Neill said. There could be rail service between Solon and Cleveland, he said.
The only transportation solutions put forth so far include "pouring more concrete," for roads, Mr. O'Neill said. "It's time we stop pouring concrete and start using our head."
Other issues important on his agenda include health care. "Universal health care is the biggest issue of this decade," he said.
Mr. O'Neill is retired as a judge of the 11th District Court of Appeals. He is also retired as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army. He is a registered nurse and is on call in the pediatric emergency department of Hillcrest Hospital in Mayfield Heights.
He said he served for 10 years as a judge in five of the seven counties in the 14th District and never lost a Democratic primary in any of them.
In 2008, he took in just short of 40 percent of the vote when he challenged Mr. LaTourette. "This time is going to be different," Mr. O'Neill said.
Mr. LaTourette was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1994, and is a member of the House Appropriations Committee. Prior to his election to that seat, he was Lake County Prosecutor from 1987 to 1994.
He said that in 2008, a year in which the Democratic Party won the White House and added to its majority of 21 seats in the House of Representatives, he defeated Mr. O'Neill, taking 58 percent of the votes.
Mr. LaTourette said in a statement, "This election will fortunately have sharp differences between myself and Mr. O'Neill. He would have supported the bailout of the banks and Wall Street. I did not. He would have supported the trillion-dollar stimulus bill. I did not.
"He would support the job-killing cap-and-trade legislation, raising the debt limit and the health-care bill that will cost billions and force people from their health-care coverage, and I most certainly will not," Mr. LaTourette said. "And although I haven't heard him address the president's $3.6 trillion budget, I assume he will support it, meaning more record spending and huge deficits, and I will not."
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