Wenstrup challenges GOP incumbent in new Second District
Lead Summary
By
Rory Ryan-hcpress@cinci.rr.com
After serving for more than a decade in the U.S. Armed Forces and a quarter of a century as a physician, Lt. Col. Dr. Brad Wenstrup wants to expand that service to the halls of Congress.
Wenstrup, 53, has announced his candidacy for Ohio's Second Congressional District, which will soon include Highland County – following months of legal wrangling among state lawmakers.
He is set to face incumbent Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, and U.S. Air Force veteran Fred Kundrata in the March 6 primary election.
Wenstrup is familiar with Highland County, having owned property in the Rocky Fork Lake area for several years. "Several years ago, around 1998, I was looking for a good place to get away and a place I could take a bike and just ride. I looked at other lakes like Cowan and Caesar Creek, but I liked Rocky Fork Lake the best. It's a beautiful state park."
According to his website, http://usabrad.com, Wenstrup was born and raised in Cincinnati. He had his medical training and surgical residency in Chicago and after practicing on his own for a few years, he has been a practitioner with Wellington Orthopaedics. He has been treating patients in southwest Ohio for more than 24 years.
"I bring a set of skills that very few in Congress have," Wenstrup told The Highland County Press during an interview at the newspaper office this week. "I have owned my own business. I have almost 25 years in health care and almost 14 years in the military. Everything I do in my adult life is about leadership. … So few in Congress have real-world experience."
Wenstrup talked about the core values associated with leadership, saying, "The Army has an acronym for 'leadership:' Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless service, Honor, Integrity and Personal Courage (LDRSHIP)."
Wenstrup enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves in 1998, after witnessing what he described as signs of America's freedom being threatened. He accepted an officer’s commission and served in the Medical Service Corps. In 2005, he deployed for a year of active duty in Iraq where he served as a combat surgeon with the 344th Combat Support Hospital. For his service and actions in Iraq, Wenstrup was awarded the Bronze Star and Combat Action Badge.
Wenstrup continues his service in the U.S. Army Reserve as a lieutenant colonel.
Two years ago, following a deployment to Iraq, Wenstrup said he saw a need for strong conservative leadership in Cincinnati and campaigned for mayor of Cincinnati against Democratic incumbent Mark Mallory. Wenstrup garnered 46 percent of the vote in the Democratic-leaning city.
Since 2009, Wenstrup says he has continued to support the war on terror, reducing the size of government and opposing legislation such as "Obamacare."
"We need health care reform," the doctor acknowledge, "but Obamacare is a microcosm of everything that's wrong with government."
Wenstrup then referenced former U.S. Senator and 1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern, who wrote about his dismal private-sector business experiences after leaving Congress.
The liberal former senator had purchased a hotel and restaurant in Connecticut in 1988, only to watch the business sink into bankruptcy. McGovern, writing for The Wall Street Journal in 1992, admitted he had felt the heavy hand of government on his neck – put there by the very laws he had helped pass.
"I wish that during the years I was in public office, I had had this firsthand experience about the difficulties businesspeople face every day," McGovern wrote. It "would have made me a better U.S. senator."
Wenstrup quoted McGovern as saying, "All these years I was passing laws I thought were helping people; instead, I was putting people out of business."
Wenstrup said he would work to ease onerous federal regulations and interference on private business, and repeated his dislike of the federal health insurance regulations.
"Politicians always like to talk about the number of uninsured, but we ought to talk about health care and treatment," he said. "I am in favor of ways to bring people up, rather than bring others down."
Wenstrup also expressed concerns that fewer college students will enter medical school because of the regulatory burdens they can anticipate upon starting a private practice.
"We need government to get out of the way and quit treating business like they're the problem," Wenstrup said. "It's similar to a comment by (former presidential candidate) Tim Pawlenty, when he said about President Obama, 'You can’t be pro-job and anti-business. That’s like being pro-egg and anti-chicken.’
"In the Army, we don't ask people to do something we wouldn't do ourselves," Wenstrup said. "That's part of leadership. I don't think we should have special laws or exemptions for people in Congress. The laws passed by Congress should apply to Congress."
When asked about current members of Congress with whom he agrees on a number of issues, Wenstrup first mentioned Congressman Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican.
"He's a man with reasonable solutions to our problems. He is asking for shared sacrifices in solving these problems in order to make our nation solvent in the future."
Wenstrup added that he "respects Sen. Rob Portman's statesmanship."
On at least two recent congressional votes, Wenstrup said he would have gone against the GOP majority and his incumbent opponent. Wenstrup said he would have joined Ohio Republican Congressmen Mike Turner and Jim Jordan and voted against increasing the federal debt ceiling by more than $2 trillion.
"I would have voted against increasing the debt limit," Wenstrup said. "I would like to see a balanced budget amendment. We need to get serious about what we're doing."
The candidate also said he opposes the "indefinite detention" provision in the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act.
Wenstrup said he is "proud of America's past, pessimistic about our present, and optimistic about our future.
"I never dreamed of running for Congress; but when I got back from Iraq, I started talking about those heroes you don't get to know or talk to. I talked about ethics and leadership and the American spirit, and people started telling me, 'You ought to run for office.' So, I ran for mayor in 2009 and received 46 percent of the votes against a strong incumbent from a political family.
"I'm not looking for a job or going from one election to the next. If I'm going to run, it's going to be something where I can make a difference."
Much like the late educator Jaime Alfonso Escalante Gutierrez who, as the subject of the 1988 film "Stand and Deliver," always challenged his students to exceed expectations, Wenstrup said, "We rise to the level of expectations. We need to have higher expectations. We need to remember our Constitution begins with 'We the people," not 'We the government.'"
Dr. Wenstrup's website is http://usabrad.com.[[In-content Ad]]
Wenstrup, 53, has announced his candidacy for Ohio's Second Congressional District, which will soon include Highland County – following months of legal wrangling among state lawmakers.
He is set to face incumbent Rep. Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, and U.S. Air Force veteran Fred Kundrata in the March 6 primary election.
Wenstrup is familiar with Highland County, having owned property in the Rocky Fork Lake area for several years. "Several years ago, around 1998, I was looking for a good place to get away and a place I could take a bike and just ride. I looked at other lakes like Cowan and Caesar Creek, but I liked Rocky Fork Lake the best. It's a beautiful state park."
According to his website, http://usabrad.com, Wenstrup was born and raised in Cincinnati. He had his medical training and surgical residency in Chicago and after practicing on his own for a few years, he has been a practitioner with Wellington Orthopaedics. He has been treating patients in southwest Ohio for more than 24 years.
"I bring a set of skills that very few in Congress have," Wenstrup told The Highland County Press during an interview at the newspaper office this week. "I have owned my own business. I have almost 25 years in health care and almost 14 years in the military. Everything I do in my adult life is about leadership. … So few in Congress have real-world experience."
Wenstrup talked about the core values associated with leadership, saying, "The Army has an acronym for 'leadership:' Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless service, Honor, Integrity and Personal Courage (LDRSHIP)."
Wenstrup enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves in 1998, after witnessing what he described as signs of America's freedom being threatened. He accepted an officer’s commission and served in the Medical Service Corps. In 2005, he deployed for a year of active duty in Iraq where he served as a combat surgeon with the 344th Combat Support Hospital. For his service and actions in Iraq, Wenstrup was awarded the Bronze Star and Combat Action Badge.
Wenstrup continues his service in the U.S. Army Reserve as a lieutenant colonel.
Two years ago, following a deployment to Iraq, Wenstrup said he saw a need for strong conservative leadership in Cincinnati and campaigned for mayor of Cincinnati against Democratic incumbent Mark Mallory. Wenstrup garnered 46 percent of the vote in the Democratic-leaning city.
Since 2009, Wenstrup says he has continued to support the war on terror, reducing the size of government and opposing legislation such as "Obamacare."
"We need health care reform," the doctor acknowledge, "but Obamacare is a microcosm of everything that's wrong with government."
Wenstrup then referenced former U.S. Senator and 1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern, who wrote about his dismal private-sector business experiences after leaving Congress.
The liberal former senator had purchased a hotel and restaurant in Connecticut in 1988, only to watch the business sink into bankruptcy. McGovern, writing for The Wall Street Journal in 1992, admitted he had felt the heavy hand of government on his neck – put there by the very laws he had helped pass.
"I wish that during the years I was in public office, I had had this firsthand experience about the difficulties businesspeople face every day," McGovern wrote. It "would have made me a better U.S. senator."
Wenstrup quoted McGovern as saying, "All these years I was passing laws I thought were helping people; instead, I was putting people out of business."
Wenstrup said he would work to ease onerous federal regulations and interference on private business, and repeated his dislike of the federal health insurance regulations.
"Politicians always like to talk about the number of uninsured, but we ought to talk about health care and treatment," he said. "I am in favor of ways to bring people up, rather than bring others down."
Wenstrup also expressed concerns that fewer college students will enter medical school because of the regulatory burdens they can anticipate upon starting a private practice.
"We need government to get out of the way and quit treating business like they're the problem," Wenstrup said. "It's similar to a comment by (former presidential candidate) Tim Pawlenty, when he said about President Obama, 'You can’t be pro-job and anti-business. That’s like being pro-egg and anti-chicken.’
"In the Army, we don't ask people to do something we wouldn't do ourselves," Wenstrup said. "That's part of leadership. I don't think we should have special laws or exemptions for people in Congress. The laws passed by Congress should apply to Congress."
When asked about current members of Congress with whom he agrees on a number of issues, Wenstrup first mentioned Congressman Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican.
"He's a man with reasonable solutions to our problems. He is asking for shared sacrifices in solving these problems in order to make our nation solvent in the future."
Wenstrup added that he "respects Sen. Rob Portman's statesmanship."
On at least two recent congressional votes, Wenstrup said he would have gone against the GOP majority and his incumbent opponent. Wenstrup said he would have joined Ohio Republican Congressmen Mike Turner and Jim Jordan and voted against increasing the federal debt ceiling by more than $2 trillion.
"I would have voted against increasing the debt limit," Wenstrup said. "I would like to see a balanced budget amendment. We need to get serious about what we're doing."
The candidate also said he opposes the "indefinite detention" provision in the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act.
Wenstrup said he is "proud of America's past, pessimistic about our present, and optimistic about our future.
"I never dreamed of running for Congress; but when I got back from Iraq, I started talking about those heroes you don't get to know or talk to. I talked about ethics and leadership and the American spirit, and people started telling me, 'You ought to run for office.' So, I ran for mayor in 2009 and received 46 percent of the votes against a strong incumbent from a political family.
"I'm not looking for a job or going from one election to the next. If I'm going to run, it's going to be something where I can make a difference."
Much like the late educator Jaime Alfonso Escalante Gutierrez who, as the subject of the 1988 film "Stand and Deliver," always challenged his students to exceed expectations, Wenstrup said, "We rise to the level of expectations. We need to have higher expectations. We need to remember our Constitution begins with 'We the people," not 'We the government.'"
Dr. Wenstrup's website is http://usabrad.com.[[In-content Ad]]