Springfield Republican David L. Hobson was one of the finest legislators Ohioans ever sent to speak for them in Columbus and Washington, D.C.
Hobson, elected to the Ohio Senate in 1982, then to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1990, died last week, at age 87. He was an exemplary advocate for Ohio and all Ohioans, not just his constituents in west-central Ohio.
In the words of a mourning admirer who knew Hobson extremely well, “He just got things done!” That is, the contrast between Hobson and the congressional blowhards in today’s Washington couldn’t be more stark.
Hobson, who retired from Congress in January 2009, was among a generation of Ohio Republicans who advanced constructive government in Ohio rather than promote the socially divisive politics that split the state today.
Hobson’s cohort of forward-looking Ohio Republicans included the late Charles F. Kurfess, of Wood County’s Perrysburg, Ohio House speaker from 1967 through 1972; the late Paul E. Gillmor, of Seneca County’s Old Fort, Ohio Senate president in 1981 and 1982, and from 1985 through 1988, who then won a U.S. House seat; Reynoldsburg Republican Jo Ann Davidson, Ohio House speaker from 1995 through 2000; and Westerville Republican John R. Kasich, governor from 2011 through 2018, earlier, a state senator, and then a key U.S. House member.
They, like Jobs-and-Progress Gov. James A. Rhodes (1963-70 and 1975-82), aimed to focus Ohioans on concrete policies that could better their lives and communities rather than tub-thump on holier-than-thou controversies.
David Hobson, an Ohio Wesleyan graduate who earned a law degree at Ohio State, promoted practical politics in Columbus and Washington by reaching across party-line aisles at the Statehouse and the Capitol. Tributes in his honor, for example, by Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Cleveland Democrat, demonstrate how valued Hobson’s Git-R-Done politicking was in-state, and nationally.
Hobson served in the Ohio Air National Guard. He was a staunch supporter of American servicemen and servicewomen, and of veterans. Hobson was also a highly effective advocate for Clark County, and for Dayton’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, an economic engine of the Miami Valley.
And Hobson collaborated with two key U.S. House Democrats to build the Normandy American Visitor Center, at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. The cemetery “contains the graves of 9,389 of our military dead, most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations,” according to the American Battle Monuments Commission.
Less often recalled, though extremely courageous, was Hobson’s willingness while in the General Assembly to pragmatically and sensitively address the AIDS/HIV pandemic when few officeholders anywhere wanted anything to do with it. Reason: Focusing on the pandemic as a public health challenge rather than as a moral judgment was seen by certain religious critics as gay-friendly.
Heckled on that point by someone sitting in the Ohio Senate’s gallery during 1989 Statehouse debate on his AIDS/HIV proposal (Senate Bill 2 of the 1989-90 General Assembly), Hobson replied, “My God and my Savior says you don’t condemn. Try to help these people. Don’t you pass judgment. He didn’t,” The Columbus Dispatch reported.
The General Assembly approved Hobson’s AIDS/HIV bill in mid-1989. Then-Gov. Richard F. Celeste, a Cleveland Democrat, signed the measure that August.
Among Hobson’s final public service to his hometown and our country was his refutation of Donald Trump’s and running mate J.D. Vance’s despicable lies about the community of Haitian immigrants now living – and working hard – in Springfield:
Thomas Suddes is a columnist, editorial writer and member of the editorial board of The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com.
“Until Trump and Vance did this thing, the town was handling this reasonably well,” Hobson told The Plain Dealer’s Brent Larkin last month. “We had a large influx of immigrants because there were lots of job openings, and it was hard to assimilate so many people at once. But things were going well until the national publicity caused lots of anger. Vance started it. To my knowledge he’s never even been to Springfield since he’s been a senator.”
Hobson’s wife, Carolyn, their three children, and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, survive. They can take great pride in David Hobson’s life. An American patriot, he admirably served his neighbors, our state, and our country.
Thomas Suddes, a member of the editorial board, writes from Athens.
To reach Thomas Suddes: [email protected], 216-408-9474
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