It’s rare for NASA to emerge as a campaign issue in Congressional campaigns. One of those rare events was this week, when the NASA budget made a cameo appearance in the Ohio Senate race between incumbent Republican Mike DeWine and Democrat Sherrod Brown. According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, DeWine played up money he has funneled into the Glenn Research Center ($126 million over six years) while criticizing Brown for voting against the space station and NASA appropriations bills during his time in the House. (The article doesn’t give any specifics about Brown’s votes, nor does DeWine’s web site, but he is likely referring to efforts like this amendment to the FY2000 VA-HUD-Independent Agencies appropriations bill that would have transferred ISS funding to other programs both inside and outside the agency; Brown was one of 121 who voted for the amendment.)
Brown’s campaign was dismissive of DeWine’s arguments. “Senator DeWine claims so much credit for the work done at NASA Glenn that he’ll soon say he invented the space program,” a campaign spokesman told the Plain Dealer.
Neither candidate mentions NASA or other space issues much on their campaign web sites: DeWine makes only a passing reference, saying that he “led the charge for research and development programs at NASA Glenn Research Center”; Brown’s site makes no mention of NASA in its issues section.
Glenn Research Center was on the verge of going into the tank thanks to Dewine’s paltry support over the last six years. $126M is nothing compared to the favors other NASA centers have gleaned from their congressional delegations.
Being against the space station, in and of itself, doesn’t mean that you are against space exploration. There are a fair number of people who think that the space station project has substantially set back the American space program. I’m not saying Brown falls into this category- I just thought I’d point it out.