Ohio's Blackwell Points To Futre of GOP (First Black Gov, A Republican?)

COLUMBUS, OHIO—As he runs for governor, Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has been telling audiences about the values he learned from his parents that guide him to this day.

“I was raised in a Bible-believing, church-going, hardworking [family],” Blackwell told me as we drove through downtown Columbus to a campaign event at the Nationwide Arena. “My dad ... worked a couple of jobs. He worked as a meatpacker, and he served parties on the weekends for some of the affluent families in the greater Cincinnati area.”

“My mom was, for the most part, a stay-at-home mom,” he said. “She had been a drop-out. She had gone back and got a GED and became a practical nurse. But she was a stay-at-home mom. She had a big belief in the accelerating power of education.

“My dad was a devotee of Booker T. Washington’s philosophy. So his thing was work, work, work, save, work.”

“They believed in self-sufficiency,” said Blackwell. “They believed in economic independence. And even though my dad never ever—he died when he was 56 years old—owned his own home, he preached nothing if he didn’t preach: Own your own home.”

The Blackwells always kept their eye on the American Dream. “They both believed that they could make sacrifices, they could work, they could save, they could invest in their boys and their boys could do better.”

Now their son, Ken, who made a fortune investing in a chain of radio stations, and who has served as Cincinnati mayor, U.S. undersecretary of Housing, U.S ambassador to the UN Human Rights Commission, Ohio treasurer and Ohio secretary of state, is seeking to become governor of the swing state that determined the last presidential election—and could determine the next.

More excerpts:

But Blackwell is no new-comer to the conservative movement. For almost three decades, he has been working to advance conservative causes and principles in local, state and federal government. He is an outspoken champion of both the free market and cultural traditionalism. He has been in the front lines of the movements to cut taxes and unnecessary regulation and to protect marriage and the lives of unborn babies.

“On the Internal Revenue Service Building in Washington, there is a quote that says: ‘Taxation is the cost of a civilized society,’” Blackwell said that year. “We’re paying too much for too little civilization.” In 2000, when he chaired Steve Forbes’ presidential campaign, he again argued for a flat tax.

“First,” he said, “that the individual is at the center of our political system, not the state, not government. I believe in limited government. I actually believe that free men and free women and free markets can overcome any kind of economic challenge.” “I trust in people to make good decisions,” he said. “I understand there are things, but only a limited number of things, that government can do that individuals and communities of individuals cannot do by themselves.” One thing he insists government must do is defend the God-given rights of its citizens.

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