Report from Eastgate

Reporter Howard Wilkinson reports from the Jean Schmidt fundraiser:


House Speaker Dennis Hastert wrapped up two days of campaigning for GOP congressional candidates in the Cincinnati area with a campaign fundraising luncheon for Rep. Jean Schmidt, who is locked in a GOP primary battle with one of Hastert’s former House colleagues.

Hastert, a 10-term congressman from Illinois, made it clear Tuesday that in the battle between Schmidt and former congressman Bob McEwen, whom he served with in the House in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he is on the side of the incumbent.

Schmidt, Hastert told about 200 supporters gathered at the Eastgate Holiday Inn, “earned her spurs’’ last year by winning tough battles in the special primary and general elections to replace former Rep. Rob Portman.

“What I like to see is somebody who lives in the district, works in the district, raises a family in the district,’’ Hastert said. “I like a member who comes home on the weekends and goes to the grocery stores, goes to the hardware stores. That’s what I call retail politics. Jean does that.’’

Schmidt’s $125-a-plate fundraising luncheon came at the end of a two-day swing through Cincinnati that included a Monday night fundraising event at a private home in Indian Hill for 1st District Rep. Steve Chabot and a Tuesday morning fundraiser in Crestview Hills for Geoff Davis, the GOP incumbent in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District.

Among the crowd at the Schmidt fundraiser were Clermont County commissioner Bob Proud, Keith Maupin, father of missing U.S. soldier Matt Maupin; John and Barbara Willke, the Cincinnatians who founded the national right-to-life movement in the early 1970s; and Ken Johnson, the Adams County minister who led the battle to keep the Ten Commandments on display at several Adams County schools.

Schmidt thanked Hastert for coming and told the crowd they were in the presence of someone “very important.’’

“That’s evidenced by all the armed men in the room,’’ said Schmidt, motioning to the House speaker’s four security men positioned in the four corners of the room. “So watch out.’’

E-mail hwilkinson@enquirer.com