[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 16]
[Senate]
[Pages 23131-23132]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                       TRIBUTE TO MICHAEL DAWSON

 Mr. VOINOVICH. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to 
Michael Dawson, who, over the past 11 years, has been my press 
secretary, one of my most trusted advisors, and a man whose judgement 
has been a key component to my success, from the campaign trail, to the 
Statehouse of Ohio and to the Capitol of the United States. But most of 
all, Mike Dawson has been, and will always be, my friend.
  I first got to know Michael in 1989, when I was pursuing the 
governorship of Ohio and he was working as a top aide to then-
Congressman Mike DeWine during his campaign for Lieutenant Governor. I 
was immediately struck by his work ethic and his tenacity. During that 
campaign, it was reported that if Mike saw the lights on in the offices 
of our opponent when he was leaving the office, no matter what time it 
was, Mike would turn around, go back inside and continue to work. Mike 
refused to allow them to get the upper hand by putting in more time or 
effort.
  Once the election was over, and I was elected Governor, there was 
little doubt in my mind that one of the people I had to have on my 
executive team was Mike Dawson. Since then, Mike has been with me 
through thick and thin and through good times and bad. Whatever the 
situation, and no matter how rough things got, Mike was always there 
providing me sound advice.
  I will never forget Mike's dedication and professionalism during the 
Lucasville prison riots in April of 1993--a period I consider to be the 
darkest days of my administration. For eleven days, Ohio held its 
breath as the Lucasville prison erupted in violence. As I worked to 
find a peaceful solution to the crisis, one of the people I depended 
upon most for assistance was Mike Dawson. Not only did Mike serve as 
press secretary at that time, but he was also my executive assistant in 
charge of emergency management operations. In that position, Mike had a 
strong hand in working with the Department of Rehabilitation and 
Corrections, the Ohio Highway Patrol, and several other agencies in 
helping to put an end to the siege at the prison and restoring order. 
Mike initiated a task force to review what had gone wrong at Lucasville 
and to make recommendations on how to avoid similar Lucasville 
situations in the future. A special emphasis of the task force focused 
on the proper role of the media in covering prison situations.
  Mike's service in emergency management operations was not limited 
just to the Lucasville riots. He was instrumental in Ohio's efforts to 
coordinate assistance to flood-ravaged areas of Ohio in 1997 and 1998, 
and was always right in the middle of things whenever Ohio was faced 
with an emergency situation during my two terms as Governor.
  But no tribute to Mike would be complete without mentioning the work 
he has done as my press secretary. Mike has a relationship with Ohio's 
press corps and editorial writers that is legendary. All you would have 
to do, Mr. President, is ask any reporter who has covered my two terms 
as governor or my first two years in the Senate to find out what kind 
of a professional Mike really is.
  Throughout the entire time that he has been my press secretary, Mike 
has always been accessible, always wiling to go the extra mile to 
furnish the information that will make a reporter's job easier and he 
has made it a point to be able to provide an answer to whatever 
questions the press ask. If Mike does not know an answer, he will find 
it, and he will make sure that he understands the entire issue well-
enough to be able to explain it. Mike has always been relentless in 
wanting to guarantee that the press gets the story right the first 
time.
  Of course, the Ohio press corps could write volumes of examples of 
Mike's tenacity in wanting a story reported correctly. If Mike felt he 
was right, he would argue his point until that reporter understood what 
he was talking about and where he was coming from. If Mike knew he was 
right, he would be relentless in his effort to not only convince the 
reporter to see his point of view, but to agree with it as well.
  Mike's style has earned him the respect of reporters from all across 
Ohio. In fact, when I left the Governor's office to come to the Senate, 
Mike was lauded in a column written by Joe Hallett in the Cleveland 
Plain Dealer for how diligently he served as press secretary during my 
administration: probably the highest compliment any press secretary can 
receive from his peers.
  That column put in print what I already knew and what I told millions 
of Ohioans on the night I was elected to the Senate--that Mike Dawson 
was the best press secretary in America. It was true then, and it is 
true today. In all the years I have known him, and in the hundreds, if 
not thousands, of stories that Mike handled for my gubernatorial 
administration, as well as here

[[Page 23132]]

in the Senate, he has always kept the best interests of Ohio at heart. 
I have been truly blessed to have had Mike provide me such tremendous 
professional service over the years.
  As I have been blessed with Mike's service, he has been blessed even 
more so with a wonderful and loving family. To witness the love that 
Mike has for his wife Laurel and his son Will makes it evident that 
they are the most important priorities in his life, and to see them all 
together makes it easy to realize that God's love truly shines upon 
them.
  Mike is an Ohioan to the core, and he has always considered it his 
distinct privilege to work on behalf of the people of his state of Ohio 
in an effort to improve government and make government work more 
efficiently, and for the benefit of all Ohioans. When serving the 
people of Ohio, Mike was the first to arrive in the morning and the 
last to leave at night, and it was a given that Mike was on-call 24 
hours a day, 7 days a week.
  Today, though, Mike's responsibilities are focused a little more 
closer to home, and he and Laurel have decided to go back to their 
roots and raise Will in the Buckeye State. And while I am losing a 
valued member of my staff, I take great comfort in the knowledge that 
my friend Mike Dawson's service to the people of Ohio will continue. 
Mike has gone back to work for his former boss and my very dear friend, 
Senator Mike DeWine. I know that he will be successful in this new 
endeavor.
  I consider myself a better person and a better public servant for 
having the opportunity to know Michael Dawson. He has been a loyal 
friend and a sage counselor whom I will truly miss.

                          ____________________