U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton Finding Success In Congress: Her 'Cash For Clunkers' Idea Is A Hit

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U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton Finding Success In Congress: Her 'Cash For Clunkers' Idea Is A Hit

A junior congresswoman from Northeast Ohio has been responsible for more car sales over the past month than any auto dealership in America.

A wildly popular "cash for clunkers" program that Rep. Betty Sutton steered through Congress sold nearly 250,000 vehicles in its first four days. Formally called the Car Allowance Rebate System, it provides government rebates of up to $4,500 to buyers who trade in gas guzzlers for fuel-efficient models.

An initial $1 billion round of rebates were exhausted within a week, so Congress piled an extra $2 billion into the program. That money is expected to last through Labor Day.

"Betty, thank you for hanging in there, for believing that this idea was worthwhile," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said at the program's kickoff ceremony. "Without your efforts, we would not be here today."

In her own speech at the event, Sutton touted the bill's economic importance to her Northeast Ohio congressional district, noting that more than 2,000 people work at Ford's Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake. She stressed that consumers who buy fuel-efficient cars will spend less money on gas, and will help the environment by emitting less air pollution.

Although some criticized the program, saying it bailed out an undeserving industry at taxpayer expense, Sutton noted that many of those critics approved of a massive bailout for banks. She said "cash for clunkers" puts money directly in the hands of consumers, allowing them to buy something they need but would have a hard time purchasing during a recession.

"Though it's called the CARS Program, it's really about people," said Sutton, who drives a union-made Pontiac Vibe that gets more than 20 miles per gallon. "It's about your friends and your neighbors and those in your communities who depend on this wonderful industry in this country for a job."

Since entering Congress in 2007, the 46-year-old Sutton has had a remarkable string of legislative successes for a junior member of an institution where more senior members typically do the heavy lifting.

"Some people hit the ground running, but Betty Sutton hit the ground running at 1,000 miles per hour," observes Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who heads the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

"When she sets her mind on something, she achieves it," says Toledo Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the longest-serving member of Ohio's congressional delegation.

During the last Congress, Sutton wrote a bill that became law which gave extra pay to members of the armed forces who were kept in the military past their enlistment dates. Anti-dog-fighting provisions she authored were part of an agriculture bill that became law last year.

This year, legislation she authored to give the Food and Drug Administration power to recall unsafe foods became part of a food safety bill that passed the House of Representatives and is awaiting Senate action. A separate bill she authored that would establish grants to put cardiac resuscitation devices in elementary and secondary schools has also passed the House.

A compliment from the Speaker

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi attributes Sutton's successes to perseverance and negotiating abilities she honed as a state legislator and labor lawyer striving on behalf of working families.

"She had a good idea and she was able to promote it and prevail in negotiations," Pelosi says of Sutton's role in the "cash for clunkers" bill.

Although Sutton is a loyal Democratic vote in Congress and her political campaign has given more than $150,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Ohio Republicans say she's willing to work with them. Her district is seen as safely Democratic, and she's garnered more than 60 percent of the vote in both congressional elections.

Dayton's Mike Turner says she used her past position on the House Judiciary Committee to advocate on behalf of his southwest Ohio constituents who were losing thousands of jobs when express shipper DHL announced it was closing its air freight hub in Wilmington. He says Sutton obtained information for the community that it couldn't get from other sources.

"She's one of my heroes," says Turner.

"I always respected her tenacity, even though she's on the left and I'm on the right," adds Urbana GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, who worked on tort reform and children's services issues with Sutton when both were state legislators. "We both take the same view that you come here and fight for your principles."

Other Republicans criticize her as part of a Democratic-controlled Congress that's creating problems for the country. Ohio Republican Party spokesman John McClelland said voters in Ohio have "had it with the reckless spending and socialist policies being rubber stamped by Rep. Sutton and her colleagues without even as much as a debate, and the accountability for that arrogance is coming."

Sutton sometimes ruffles feathers even within her own party. Last December, she decided she wanted to trade her posts on the Judiciary and Rules committees for a seat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, which is handling some of the most important issues before Congress this year, including health care reform and climate change. She said being on that committee would give her a chance to present Northeast Ohio's perspective on those issues.

But Dover's Rep. Zack Space wanted to be on the same committee, and the jockeying between them grew heated, creating tension among Democrats in Ohio's congressional delegation who had to recommend one of their number for the seat. Pelosi resolved the issue by putting both on the committee, explaining that she thought "the views of their constituents were very important to be heard."

Kaptur says Pelosi's gesture dissipated any angst that was generated. When asked about the episode, Space replied: "Betty is a hard-working member of the delegation, and Ohio is lucky to have two members on the Energy and Commerce Committee."

High staff turnover for a demanding boss

Sutton's hard-driving personality also has contributed to high turnover on her staff, former aides say. In less than three years, nine different employees have handled her media queries. No other Ohioan who entered the House of Representatives at the same time as Sutton has had more than two. Former staffers describe Sutton as a demanding employer who can be harsh when her expectations aren't met. They say the departures hurt her effectiveness because workers take their knowledge of issues with them when they leave.

Sutton has a different view. She says she hires workers who get picked off by other employers because they're talented, not because they're ill-treated, and that having ex-employees all over Washington is a positive thing for constituents "because it expands our network."

"I think it is a good thing if we have people that do a great job and have opportunities where they can maybe affect more in a different, positive way," says Sutton.

The Barberton native says she was inspired to go into public service by the work of Mitch Snyder, an intense, confrontational Washington, D.C., advocate for the homeless who committed suicide in 1990. After his death, she saw a television interview with his former girlfriend in which she described how Snyder was saddened that the extent of homelessness never seemed to diminish no matter how many warehouses he could convert into shelters.

"I still find his work to be extraordinarily inspiring and I think it is important that we do everything we can to try and reduce the mountain," Sutton says. "But I also feel it's very important not to give into the sadness and just keep moving ahead and making a difference. It is important for me to use my life in a meaningful way to try and help."

Sutton, a willowy blonde whose mother was a librarian and father was a boilermaker at Babcock & Wilcox, says she set out to educate herself "to be an advocate for the people" by obtaining a degree in political science from Kent State University and a law degree from the University of Akron.

She launched her political career as a city councilwoman in her native Barberton. After that, she was on the Summit County Council and an Ohio state legislator. She met her husband, federal mediator Doug Corwon, when she was in the Statehouse and he was lobbying the legislature on behalf of firefighters. The pair live in Copley Township, with their dog, Cody, a yellow Lab the couple adopted from a shelter.

"I feel I am an unlikely story, getting to Congress as the youngest of six kids from a working class family that didn't come from wealth or privilege," says Sutton. "I feel a tremendous sense of responsibility to advocate on behalf of other people who share the sort of experiences that my family had and who are sometimes not widely heard from. I just take the opportunity I have to be their advocate to heart and that is why I persist. At the end of life, it is not about the money you accumulated or the position you achieved. It is about what you did to help people. And that is what drives me."

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