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Former Political Foes Working Together

03/24/2008 10:25:08



COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Within four days in January 2007, U.S. Sen. George Voinovich went from working with fellow Republicans in the Senate and Ohio Statehouse to working with the Democrats who were sworn in as Ohio's junior senator and governor.   

The change presented a challenge for Voinovich, but he's had to work with Democrats during most of his 40-year political career.    Voinovich spent eight years with Republican Mike DeWine as Ohio's other senator and Republican Bob Taft as Ohio's governor. However, the Democratic sweep of November 2006 ended 12 years of one-party rule in Columbus and six years of the same in the state's Senate seats in Washington.   

Democrat Ted Strickland won Ohio's governorship and Democrat Sherrod Brown ousted DeWine from the Senate. So Voinovich had to look to his past to learn all over again how it feels to be in the minority among Ohio's top-three elected officials.

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