WILMINGTON, OHIO — Finally given a chance to address Sen. John McCain, Mary Houghtaling choked up Thursday and began to cry.
Wiping away her tears, she told the presumptive Republican presidential nominee how a controversial corporate deal he backed in 2003 as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee -- the sale of Airborne Express cargo service to a German conglomerate that owns DHL and the subsequent expansion of the air freight hub here -- had gone horribly wrong.
Now, its business in a tailspin, DHL wants to combine operations with rival United Parcel Service and close its huge hub here. If the merger goes through, community officials and union leaders warn, staggering job losses will eviscerate the economy and the social fabric of nine struggling counties in southeast Ohio.
"Never before have so many people been abandoned at once," said Houghtaling, who runs a local hospice. "It is inconceivable to think about losing 10,000 jobs in the first wave, and the estimates run in the 30,000 range as the wave continues."
Houghtaling first warned McCain of the pending catastrophe July 9 when he campaigned nearby. The candidate vowed to return and bring help.
But on Wednesday, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, previously worked as a lobbyist for the German group, Deutsche Post World Net, and was paid $185,000 to help engineer the 2003 deal, plus another $405,000 for other work.
Davis helped Deutsche Post overcome objections in the Senate when the German company was negotiating the purchase, the paper reported. As head of the commerce committee, McCain fought back proposed amendments in a defense spending bill that would have barred a foreign-owned company from flying U.S. military equipment or troops.
McCain said he objected to restricting the Pentagon's options, and to using a spending bill to set military policy. But his position angered some lawmakers and DHL competitors that sought to keep the U.S. air freight business in American hands.
McCain's campaign said Thursday that Davis has not lobbied for DHL since 2005 and had no role in the current controversy. He took a leave of absence from his lobbying practice to run McCain's campaign.
But the politically sensitive case has embarrassed McCain, who has railed against the role of special interest groups in Washington, and it threatens to undermine his efforts to capture this crucial state in November.
