Vote a Conservative Congress, Part 3 – Bob Latta

For a Conservative Congress

This will be part of an on-going series, which will identify key races where we either need to retain strong conservatives or to elect strong conservatives. My personal feeling with being faced with two inferior candidates for President offered by our major political parties, we must turn our attention to insuring more conservative American-values oriented persons are elected to the U.S. Congress.

THE RACE

The next congressional race that we will highlight is Ohio District 5. Bob Latta is the Republican incumbent from Ohio (Northwestern Ohio) I lived in District 5 previously. It was exactly one year ago today,September 5, 2007, that long-time District 5 Congressman Paul Gillmor passed away in his apartment in Washington, D.C. and Bob Latta eventually won the election to serve the remainder of Gillmor’s term. Because of the fact that Rep. Latta is not fully pro-life, I cannot wholeheartedly endorse his candidacy. He apparently favors killing babies in the case of rape or incent.

Here is a profile of Congressman Latta from the Washington Times:

Bob Latta, a social and fiscal conservative, started his political training as a boy while tagging along with his father. Delbert Latta spent 30 years in Congress, from 1959 until he retired and left office in 1989. Along the way, he taught his son the conservative values they now share.

A quiet conservative, the younger Latta concentrated mainly on taxes and crime issues while in the Legislature. He was chairman of the House Criminal Justice Committee. Latta in 2000 successfully pushed for a cut in estate taxes, saying it would protect family farms and small businesses trying to pass their assets from generation to generation. He also sought to ban elected officials from receiving both their salary and their pension payments by retiring after being re-elected and then taking their old job back.

He sponsored bills that increased sentences for young people who used guns and increased penalties for repeat drunken drivers. Latta also sponsored a bill requiring all convicted felons to submit DNA samples so that the DNA collected could be used as evidence in unsolved crimes. Prisoner and crime-victim advocates argued that the state database of DNA samples could be abused for profiling witch hunts.

Latta proudly pointed out that he never missed a vote while he was in the (State) Legislature . . .

THE OPPONENT

Latta is running against Democrat George Mays, whose campaign website is very sketchy. The one thing I gleaned from his website is one of his quotes, "I am not as interested in America being a super power as I am a super country." What does that mean Mr. Mays? Does it mean you will follow in Bill Clinton’s footsteps and weaken our national defense?

THE REALITY

Bob Latta has an excellent chance to maintain his seat in the Congress. Like Ohio District 4, it is conservative leaning district.