http://www.citybeat.com/2002-09-12/news.shtmlVol 8, Issue 44 Sep 12-Sep 18, 2002
Some voters might not like what State Rep. Tom Brinkman Jr. stands for, but at least they can count on him to be consistent. .....
Brinkman, the one and only
Brinkman isn't afraid to go it alone, even when it irritates his own party. In 2000 he called Gov. Bob Taft, a fellow Republican, a "liar." Brinkman complained that Taft had changed his stance on concealed weapons.
Brinkman is determined about saving tax money. In 2000, he says, he thought he was being elected with a bunch of conservatives who would get the state budget under control. He found out he was wrong.
"There's not a huge crowd up there at this point, because the money was so fun to spend for 10 years," he says.
Last year the state legislature increased spending on "odds and ends" programs that added up to $30 million, according to Brinkman. He says he was the only House member who voted against it.
In another case, Brinkman says,
environmental activists got together with the non-fossil fuel aggregate industry -- such as limestone quarries and gravel pits -- to find better ways of monitoring its environmental impact. He chose the unpopular route and voted against the proposal because it would have meant the state, rather than the industry, picking up the additional cost of inspections.
"The fee should have gone up -- not keep the fee the same and put the burden on the Ohio taxpayer," Brinkman says.
To balance the state budget, Taft wanted the authority to make cuts to libraries and local government funds and increase taxes. Brinkman voted against the bill.
"
I'm not going to vote for any tax increases," he says. "I never have. I never will."
Brinkman, who is the father of six and owns a printing business, says he believes it will take a maverick to turn the state around.
"The governor is a decent guy," he says. "He really is. But he doesn't have what the state needs to lead us into the future. I wouldn't say we're all the way gone, but we're so far behind it's phenomenal.".....
Extremism and core principles
The Republican leadership in the Ohio House of Representatives is so aggravated with Brinkman that they've said anything with his name on it will get killed, according to Schaff. [his opponent in 2002]
"I can pick up the telephone and call my Republican friend and get something done," he says. "Tom Brinkman can't even pick up the telephone and call his fellow Republicans to get anything done."
Brinkman, 44, says that many times when he votes against something he doesn't think is right, other political figures tell him they wish they could do it, too. But, they tell him, you have to go along to get along.
"Screw that," Brinkman says. "I will not do that.
That's why when the lobbyists and political insiders rank me, they rank me last, because I won't play ball with them. I see people crack all the time under the pressure."
Brinkman's positions aren't necessarily predictable. For example,
he doesn't take a hard-line approach to drug crimes. "We have prisons that are too full," he says.
Some people in prison who committed victimless crimes should be let out to save money, according to Brinkman. Taxpayer money would be saved by sending addicted people to drug intervention at a cost of about $4,000 per year rather than warehousing them in jail at the rate of about $22,000 a year, he says.
"People who are addicted, we need to help them, we don't need to punish them," he says.
When asked to compromis principles, Brinkman says his reponse is, "Screw that."
Brinkman even encouraged Cincinnati City Council to pass a resolution against the death penalty.
"I'm 100 percent pro-life," he says. .....
Brinkman introduced a bill to allow concealed weapons, requiring no training and no cards. That goes too far, according to Schaff.
"I actually support 'concealed carry,' but I don't support this extreme version that doesn't require any training, doesn't require any registration for guns," he says.
But for Brinkman, the issue is clear. He said he would support allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons -- just as the governor once did.
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People have to believe when you say you're going to do something," Brinkman says. "You have to do it. If you don't have some core principles, people can't trust you're going to do the right thing." ©
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