It’s that season again when politicians finally start doing what the constituents want them to be doing. Their jobs are at stake. The campaigning is feverishly gaining speed as we race toward the May 2 Primary. A lot of legislative work is all of a sudden getting done. The state legislature passes some “feel good” proposals, such as House Bill 530, a budget re-appropriation measure which includes a couple of pro-life amendments put forth by State Representative Jim Hoops (R-Napoleon). It is of course a good thing that pro-life legislation gets included, but the cynic inside wonders if such motives are really pure since Hoops is in a tight race for an open Senate seat in the 1st District with Steve Buehrer from Delta, whose abortion reporting bill was also rolled into HB 530.

   In another, higher profile race the incumbent U.S. Senator Mike DeWine is catching up on some traditional values positions of his own. Just less than 48 hours after Phil Burress, President of Citizens for Community Values chastised both DeWine and U.S. Senator George Voinovich for their reluctance to support the Federal Marriage Protection Amendment, DeWine came out saying he will be a co-sponsor of the proposed Constitutional Amendment, to be brought up for a vote in the Senate in June.

   Christians new to the political scene should not be so naive as to be duped by career politicians like DeWine who suddenly remember their Christian values the year of an election to only forget them the next 5 years of their term.

   Burress gave DeWine and Voinovich the tongue lashing during CCV’s annual Spring Partnership Banquet at Xavier University to a room full of well-heeled conservative traditional values supporters. Speculation suggests that some DeWine supporters in that room may have given the long term Senator a heads up that core values folks are getting restless and there are other choices on the Primary ballot.

   In fact, at least one choice, David Smith of Mason, is starting to give a pretty good showing. His conservative family values are getting the attention of some key conservatives across the state. However, the prevailing political posturing of some republicans is that we have to support DeWine in the Primary, because if he does not come out with the strong republican nomination, then Democrat Sherrod Brown may win the general election, and a moderate to sometimes left-of-moderate republican is better than an extreme liberal democrat.

   To that, we say hog wash! It’s time for leaders to be leaders. Working behind closed doors to try and sway a politician may work sometimes, but unless there is a heart change, that politician will swing back to his or her own core belief (or lack thereof).

   Christian conservatives in Ohio have been feeling the disconnect since shortly after the 2004 republican victory when Republican National Chairman Ken Mehlman informed us that Jo Ann Davidson was being picked as the co-chair of the RNC because she “helped direct a historic grassroots effort that enabled President Bush to win Ohio by a decisive margin.” Gee, we thought it was the Values Voters who helped get the over 500,000 signatures that enabled Issue One, Ohio’s marriage amendment to get on the ballot, which brought out the voters that voted for President Bush. That was the largest single voter turn out in the history of Ohio and more people voted for the marriage amendment than voted for the office of President.

   Conservatives, particularly social conservatives who tend to be faithful to tradition Judeo-Christian values, are starting to feel more and more disconnected from the “party” especially those Republican Party elected officials who rely on us to get them in office, and then ignore us when they are forming public policy that we have to live with.

   Professional politicians had better start paying attention. We got out of the pews and we got to polls. Next we will be running for your seat!