GOP sheriff asks Democrats to help resolve AK Steel lockout

1/20/2007, 1:34 p.m. ET
The Associated Press

MIDDLETOWN, Ohio (AP) — The Republican sheriff of Butler County, unable to get help from his own party to end an 11-month lockout at AK Steel's Middletown Works, is turning to newly elected Democrats in Columbus and Washington.

Sheriff Rick Jones has written letters to Gov. Ted Strickland and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, both Democrats who won GOP-held seats on Nov. 7, and asked them to intervene.

"It is of the utmost importance that you intervene in the negotiations to bring this 11-month-old lockout to a productive conclusion. Our community needs your help and support," Jones wrote. "I know it's very strange that a local Republican sheriff would ask two of the most powerful Democrats in the state of Ohio to do something, but I am."

Jones said Friday that he was frustrated that former Gov. Bob Taft, a Republican who served the maximum two consecutive terms, and former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, defeated by Brown in November, were not able to end the lockout. He said the toll the strike has taken on the county's residents is getting to him...

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