U.

Wednesday, November 08, 2000

U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland overcame Republican opposition Tuesday night to win re-election to his Sixth District House of Representatives seat.

With 719 precincts reporting, Strickland finished the southern Ohio race with 134,913 votes, 58 percent, to Republican challenger Mike Azinger’s 94,600. Libertarian candidate Kenneth R. MacCutcheon received 4,539 votes.

The race at times became heated, with Azinger making frequent campaign stops throughout Scioto, Lawrence, Gallia and other counties.

Strickland sparred with the Republican at an October voter rally in Ironton, even though he had to appear via satellite because the House remained in session late this year to deal with the federal budget.

Issues and debates in the congressional race closely followed each party’s national campaign platforms.

Strickland stuck to his Democratic guns, promising to help put Social Security in a "lock box" and make sure the program continues.

Azinger favored the Bush plan to put 90 percent of the budget surplus into Social Security and give the 10 percent back to the people through tax cuts.

Strickland followed with commitments to support tax cuts, but not Bush’s that gives 47 percent of all tax cut benefits to the richest 1 percent of the people in the country.

Azinger added that he would put power back into the people’s hands by favoring more tax cuts than Democrats.