Who can forget the Jack Abramoff scandal of yesteryear? The lobbying scandal rocked Capitol Hill, taking with it several higher-up Republican incumbents. One of whom was Bob Ney, the representative for Ohio’s 18th Congressional District – my district.

Instead of re-electing Ney, the powers that be selected Zack Space, a Democrat, to fill the seat. Space ran on a campaign promising to clean up Washington and to represent the people residing in the district instead of the lobbyists, which is great and how government should function.

Two years later, has Space really represented the people?

I argue that he has not.

First of all, the representative voted yea for the $700 billion bailout farce for Wall Street. (I could go on and on about how the bailout is bad for the nation, but that is neither here nor there. ) The last I checked on the Times Reporter’s Web site, the daily newspaper for Tuscarawas County, their poll had 65 percent against the bailout. In fact, that’s the same percentage of citizens in the nation who were against the bill. What is our representative doing voting against his constituents?

Two words: “career voting.” He voted the party line in hopes of Speaker (or Fuhrer) Nancy Pelosi giving him a bone, maybe letting him sit on – or even chair – an important committee. He forsook his constituents because he is not afraid to piss us off. Why is he not afraid? Because he has the cat eviscerated and tied tightly in the bag, a lockbox, if you will. He has amassed well over a million dollars to defeat Republican contender Fred Daily. His war chest is filled to the brim with more than enough ammunition to sink Daily’s small campaign.

While Space has done some things a good representative should do – such as disclosing the majority of his donations and appearing on “The Colbert Report” – he has done a lot more that is detrimental to his constituents. His support of Bush’s civilian wire-tapping bills is nothing short of totalitarian. What’s worse is that he campaigned saying we should not be in Iraq, but in town hall meetings he has said Iran is “one of the most threatening entities of our day.”

No, we should not be in Iraq, and no, we should not head over to Iran, leaving bodies dripping with freedom along the way.

Fiscally, he has constantly voted for higher taxes and a bloated $3 trillion state budget. Maybe even more sinister, he voted against a bill that would have put a hold on earmarks until the parties can fix the earmark process.

Cleaning up Washington indeed!

Rep. Space may not be the worst politician out there, but he is far from the best. Tuscarawas County, at least, deserves someone better. Someone who might represent our interests instead of taking $22,000 from the American Electric Power company in his hands while talking about being on our side.

Maybe Zack Space is a good guy and really thinks he is doing the best for his constituents. But if that is what he thinks – he is wrong.

Ted Hamilton is a senior magazine journalism major and a columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him at < ahref=”mailto:[email protected]”>[email protected].