Off
the Cuff: Tim Hagan
This week’s Off the Cuff features Tim Hagan, Democratic Candidate
for Governor of Ohio.
I’ve
heard you’re for state sanctioning of civil unions for gay
couples. Seems like that might be a pretty unpopular position in
a Republican-dominated state like Ohio. How’d you come to
that decision?
If
I only took popular positions I wouldn’t take half of the
ones I have now. I believe very strongly that human beings are entitled
to commit themselves in an adult relationship with whoever they
choose. Discrimination against anyone is just discrimination. If
adults are consenting, they should be allowed to decide [how to
live their lives]. The way to do that is through civil unions.
You’re
also against capital punishment?
Yes,
I oppose capital punishment. I do not believe you enhance human
life when society collectively does what we would condemn an individual
for doing. I understand when somebody responds emotionally when
someone takes another life. But there’s no indication that
the death penalty is any deterrent on those kinds of crimes. In
addition to that we now know, thanks to DNA testing, that in America
we have put innocent individuals to death. I would rather let 99
people guilty of the crime go free than to have one innocent person
put to death.
Besides
the advantage of being the incumbent, Governor Bob Taft has around
nine times as much to spend on this race than you do and a political
family legacy going back to William Howard Taft, 27th president
of the United States. Republicans have won every statewide election
in Ohio for the past eight years. Yet people are saying it’s
still too early to call this election. Why is that?
I
think it has much to do with the referendum on Taft. Ohio ranks
41st in the number of college graduates, 48th in the development
of new business. The average Ohioan makes $1,500 dollars less than
the average American. Our schools and higher education are in total
disarray. If they’re going to take responsibitlity for the
sunshine, they have to take responsibility for the rain. And it’s
raining in Ohio.
Governor
Bob Taft has said it’s “too soon” for your economic
recovery plan. What’s he missing?
Well,
what he’s missing is that he’s been the governor of
Ohio for four years, he’s got a four million dollar deficit,
and he wants to delay making any decisions until the election. Take
the four years he’s been governor — if he was CEO of
a company, and bankrupted the company, they’d throw him out.
He has no plan, because we have to assume that his plan was what
he did for the last four years.
I understand
your wife played Captain Kathryn Janeway on “Star Trek: Voyager.”
Has her fame helped your campaign?
My
wife’s professional success has been very helpful. Many of
her friends and many of the people who admire her have been very
supportive, in Ohio and around the country.
Okay,
the war in Iraq. What do you think?
I
think that President Bush, who never served a day in his life, is
prepared to make a decision that the majority of American people
will regret. We should not, without U.N. sanction, make any move
on Iraq. I think it’s just fundamentally wrong for Bush to
change the policy of this country, which has never held that we
should attack when unprovoked. The only way we can make any action
against Iraq would be through the sanction of the U.N.
Last
question. What would your governorship mean for a little college
town like Oberlin?
Well,
I hope that my Governorship would first address the clear issues
that are the social inequity of the society we live in. Certainly
seniors on fixed incomes, give them the possibility to buy perscription
drugs at 40 50 percent of what it is now. I would have an urban
policy that would be responsive to small cities like Oberlin. And
I’d be supportive of the private institutions like Oberlin
that are vitally important for the economic viability of of the
community.
Thanks
a lot. Good luck.
Thank
you.
Interview
conducted by News Editor Greg Walters.
Who
would you like us to interview? Email news@oberlinreview.org.
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