Former Rep. David L. Hobson, R-Ohio, who served nine terms before retiring after the 2008 elections, died Sunday, his family announced. He was 87.
Hobson, who represented a swath of southwest Ohio that included Springfield, was first elected to Congress in 1990, replacing now-Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. He was a staunch advocate for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in his district, as well as the Springfield Air National Guard Base.
Though a loyal Republican, Hobson had an independent streak, consistent with fellow Republicans DeWine and George V. Voinovich, another Ohio governor who also served two Senate terms.
Along with former Rep. Ralph Regula and former Speaker John A. Boehner, he represented Ohio at a time when state Republicans had heavyweight status in Congress: He and Regula served as Appropriations Committee “cardinals” during the same era.
“Dave Hobson was a great colleague, a great friend and a great Ohioan,” Boehner, who represented a neighboring district, said in a statement Monday. “He accomplished much during his time in public service for his constituents, for the Buckeye State, and for the men and women of our armed services. I loved serving with him.”
He remained fiercely loyal to his hometown of Springfield. Interviewed last month by Cleveland.com columnist Brent Larkin, Hobson expressed dismay about GOP vice-presidential nominee and Ohio Sen. JD Vance’s false claims that members of a burgeoning Haitian immigrant population in his hometown were eating cats and dogs.
“Until Trump and Vance did this thing, the town was handling this reasonably well,” Hobson told Larkin. “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.”
Born in Cincinnati, Hobson went on to serve in the Ohio Air National Guard from 1958 to 1963 before beginning his career in the Ohio state Senate in 1982, serving as president pro tempore and majority whip.
After retiring from Congress, he served as president of Vorys Advisors LLC, an affiliate of the Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease law firm.
‘Call me Dave’
Hobson, who rose through the ranks of the Appropriations Committee to become the top Republican on the old Military Construction subcommittee and later the Energy-Water panel, had an easygoing streak that belied tough negotiating instincts. Upon meeting him, Hobson typically said “call me Dave,” and he was often referred to as “Uncle Dave,” a nickname bestowed upon him by former Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, when the two served together in the House.
While grabbing his share of earmarks, Hobson made it an almost personal point of pride in going toe-to-toe with his Senate Appropriations Committee counterparts — members of his own party included — for what he considered excesses. He tried to curb funding for nuclear weapons labs important in the backyard of then-Sen. Pete V. Domenici, R-N.M., while also trying to establish the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository over the objections of Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
He fought often with the George W. Bush administration over its requests for nuclear weapons, with his subcommittee sometimes opposing several requests, including the heavily sought-after “bunker buster” bomb.
In March 2005, one year after appropriators zeroed out funds for the bunker buster, the administration put in another request for it at $4 billion. Hobson sat down with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Energy Secretary Sam Bodman and other Defense Department leadership at the Pentagon, stunning them by telling them he was the real hawk at the table.”I want us to have a weapon the president could actually use,” he said he told them.
On Military Construction and later upon joining the Defense subcommittee, Hobson made sure to look out for Wright-Patterson. His willingness to stand up for parochial interests extended outside the purview of the Appropriations Committee, including a last-minute stand on Medicare cuts in a 2005 budget reconciliation law that trimmed the impact on medical-equipment suppliers, including a local oxygen-tank manufacturer, by $1.9 billion.
Bipartisan relationships
Hobson enjoyed close relationships on both sides of the aisle, as many old-school appropriators did.
He entered Congress at the same time as Boehner and became one of the latter’s first backers in his bid to return to leadership in 2006 after a several-year hiatus. Hobson also was close to ex-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., with whom he served on Appropriations and became the lone Republican to join her on delegations to the Middle East.
Hobson worked closely with other top Democratic appropriators, including the former panel chairman, David R. Obey of Wisconsin, and the late John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, the longtime top Defense Appropriations Democrat. The three worked together to secure $30 million to construct a visitors center at the American Cemetery in Normandy, France, where there’s a plaque commemorating the three lawmakers’ efforts.
“Dave Hobson was a great Congressman,” former Rep. Tim Ryan, an Ohio Democrat, tweeted Monday. “A powerful appropriator, I considered him a mentor and a friend. He worked across the aisle.”
A ‘throwback’
When Hobson retired, former Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, lamented the loss of Buckeye State clout on Capitol Hill as well as the camaraderie Hobson was known for.
Tiberi told the Dayton Daily News that Hobson’s retirement would have a “huge” impact on Congress but even more so for Ohio. “He is still so effective at what he does and is so good at what he does,” Tiberi said.
“He’s an older brother to many of us — a father figure,” Tiberi added. “He’ll be pretty tough to replace on a daily basis in Washington.”
In an interview Monday, Tiberi said long after Hobson left office, he remained active in trying to find solutions to problems.
During one recent conversation, he asked Tiberi, now the president and CEO of the Ohio Business Roundtable, to put him in touch with one of his organization’s members, the owner of a shuttered restaurant in Springfield. He wanted to connect the owner to the Springfield city manager.
“He never stopped doing what he did,” Tiberi said. “I’m not kidding. He called me all the time.”
His connections were legendary.
Years ago, Hobson and Tiberi were in Kosovo on a congressional delegation trip, walking through a National Guard facility, when Hobson spotted a woman with an Ohio flag hanging in her space. “He knew her father!” Tiberi said.
“He was a throwback to a day gone by when a public servant was there to help people,” Tiberi said. “It wasn’t about the rhetoric on a cable news show or a campaign. He was never about any of that. It was about, ‘here’s a problem, how do we find a solution.’”
Hobson’s self-effacing nature was evident when he described a big reason he decided to call it quits.
“I’m 71,” Hobson told the Dayton Daily News upon his retirement. “I’ll be 72 at the end of this term and I’m thinking about letting the younger people come forward.”
“I’ve always looked at people who are older and thought, ‘Why don’t the old people get out of the way and let the young people come?’ I didn’t want people looking at me in that vein.”
Peter Cohn contributed to this report.
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