His death prompted a bipartisan outpouring of affection and admiration for the Springfield Republican, who represented communities in the region for 26 years, first in the Ohio Senate and then the U.S. House of Representatives, before retiring in 2009.
Hobson is remembered as a friend and mentor, an effective leader, a political moderate, a gifted negotiator committed to bipartisanship, and a person who genuinely loved serving the people of the Springfield-Dayton region and the state, according to two dozen people who were interviewed or issued statements after his death.
“He was a big supporter of Springfield, a big supporter of the Miami Valley. I think he wanted to do things that mattered. He wanted to get things done,” said Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a longtime friend of Hobson’s. “I think he felt he had skills that enabled him to improve the lives of people.”
Hobson played a huge role in saving the Ohio Air National Guard Base in Springfield from closure and he directed hundreds of millions in federal dollars to the region for economic development, health care, education and the Air Guard and Wright-Patterson Air Force bases, according to those interviewed.
Hobson was appointed to the Ohio Senate in December 1982, replacing DeWine, who’d been elected to the U.S. House. Hobson rose through the ranks to serve as majority whip and president pro tempore before being elected to the U.S. House. He took office in January 1991, filling the seat vacated by DeWine when he became lieutenant governor. Hobson served in Congress until January 3, 2009.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
During his time in the state senate Hobson took the lead on state legislation helping people with AIDS/HIV and Alzheimer’s disease and wrote legislation reforming and reorganizing the state developmental disabilities department.
“He had a good heart. He felt an obligation to step into things and come up with good solutions,” said former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican who served with Hobson in Congress. “He was such a good-natured, positive person. It was in his nature to serve.”
In Congress, Hobson served on the House Budget Committee, which Kaisch chaired, and helped negotiate the bipartisan Balanced Budget Agreement of 1997. The bill, signed by President Bill Clinton, resulted in the first balanced budget since 1969.
“In some respects he was almost like an older brother to me,” Kasich said of Hobson, “Kind of looking out for me. He would give me advice.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, also served with Hobson in the House and said Hobson “embodied the best of Ohio” and worked across party lines to get things done, including collaborating with Brown to create the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery for Ohio veterans in Medina County.
“Dave also understood how important the aerospace industry is to Dayton and to our state. He is one of the reasons Ohio is the number one aerospace state in the country,” Brown said. “He always put politics aside to protect our national security and ensure that Wright-Patterson Air Force Base remains the crown jewel of the (U.S.) Air Force.”
The appropriations ‘cardinal’
From his leadership perch as chairman of two House Appropriations subcommittees Hobson had a hand in including $661.4 million in congressional earmarks in appropriations bills between 2002-2008, most benefitting the Springfield-Dayton region, according to data compiled for seven of Hobson’s 18 years in Congress by Michael Gessel, vice president for federal government programs at the Dayton Development Coalition.
“These were earmarks included at the request of Rep. Hobson,” said Gessel, who serves as the region’s top lobbyist in Washington D.C. “Some had other sponsors. Most of them were solely Rep. Hobson.”
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Hobson was a House “cardinal,” the term used for appropriations subcommittee chairpersons, giving him powerful control of the government purse strings at a time when Congressional earmarks directing spending to specific projects or communities were common.
“For Dave Hobson the amount he sent back to the Dayton-Springfield area was unusual even in those days,” Gessel said. “He was very good at this process.”
Critics considered earmarks “pork barrel” spending and in 2005 David Williams, then-vice president of Citizens Against Government Waste, called Hobson “a premier porker for Ohio.” But earmark supporters argue that local legislators are in the best position to know their community’s needs and to target money to those needs.
Hobson always said earmarks were the “number one thing” that made members work across the aisle in a bipartisan way, said friend Barbara Mills, who served as his district director and then became business partners with Hobson and his wife, Carolyn, in CBD Advisors, a consultancy they formed after he retired.
Congress dramatically scaled back the practice of earmarking in 2011.
Gessel said the list of Hobson earmarks, which Gessel put together around the time Hobson retired, does not include all of the ones Hobson was responsible for during his time in Congress but demonstrates the powerful impact he had in directing federal money to the region and in Ohio.
“I tried to distill what was the magic sauce behind Dave Hobson and his ability to bring so much back to the community. First was because he was the chairman of two appropriations subcommittees, first military construction and then energy and water, both of which had responsibility for billions of dollars,” Gessel said.
“Secondly, he was also strategic. There’s lots of members of Congress who know how to throw around the money. But Dave Hobson was careful in how he allocated his dollars,” Gessel said. “And so he was successful in allocating funding for projects that made a difference in the long term.”
Funding Hobson helped obtain for Wright-Patt included money for the National Air and Space Intelligence Center, the Air Force Institute of Technology, the Air Force Research Laboratory, the acquisition management complex and base utilities, Gessel said.
Hobson also helped get funding for NextEdge, a technology park outside Springfield, cleanup of the former Mound Department of Energy site in Miamisburg, and to improve housing, pay, benefits and health care for members of the military and their families, according to those interviewed.
He pushed for new missions at the Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base near Columbus, funding for the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, and worked with Democrats to get $30 million in funding for a visitor center and memorial at the American Cemetery in Normandy, France, honoring U.S. soldiers killed in World War II.
“I admired the way he built relationships with his congressional colleagues and his willingness to reach across the aisle to get things done that mattered,” said Vicki Giambrone, who worked with Hobson on projects when she was an executive at Dayton Children’s Hospital and later bought CBD Advisors.
Battling BRAC threat
Hobson, who served in the Ohio Air National Guard from 1958-1963, was a strong ally in the community’s effort to spare Wright-Patt and the Air Guard base from downsizing or closure during several federal Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) rounds, according to those interviewed.
He regularly attended BRAC independent commission meetings and gave members information about why they should preserve the missions at the two bases.
And when the guard base lost its F-16 training mission Hobson helped get the Dutch military to begin training pilots at the base, said Greg Wayt, a retired U.S. Army major general and former adjutant general/commander of the Ohio National Guard.
Hobson secured $80 million in new construction funds for the Air Guard base over time, money that enabled the base to “become one of the premier bases in the country” and be less vulnerable to closure, Wayt said.
The base is located at Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport, also now home to the National Advanced Air Mobility Center of Excellence and a hub for unmanned aerial systems and electric vertical take off/landing aircraft research, development and testing.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
“He was a tireless fighter for the district and for the people he represented. If you talk to the folks that know what happened at the Springfield air base it’s really because of him that they found a new mission and that they’ve expanded and been so successful,” said retired U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Cincinnati, founder of the Portman Center for Policy Solutions at the University of Cincinnati.
“There’s no doubt he saved the Springfield guard base,” DeWine said. “When Dave made up his mind to try to do something you could bet on it that he would get it done.”
The negotiator
Early in his Congressional tenure Hobson worked to pass legislation providing a federal waiver for the Dayton Area Health Plan, a Medicaid managed care provider that later became CareSource of Dayton.
CareSource President and CEO Erhardt Preitauer extended the company’s condolences to Hobson’s family and praised his “innovative policymaking.”
“Thanks to his leadership and commitment to bettering the quality of life for Ohioans, more than two million people across the nation now receive the health care they need,” Preitauer said. “Their improved quality of life is a fitting tribute and legacy for someone who was both an outstanding leader and remarkable human being.”
When there was a job needing done that Congress couldn’t do, Hobson wasn’t afraid to call on colleagues back home, said Ross McGregor, president of Pentaflex in Springfield and a Republican former member of the Ohio House.
Hobson asked McGregor, then a state legislator, to help get state funding to realign SR 794 further from the airport and military buildings to meet security needs and help the base survive as a military installation. Hobson also asked him to help Rocking Horse Community Health Center get federally qualified health care status. Both efforts were successful, McGregor said.
Hobson got things done by building relationships, being willing to compromise and being a skilled negotiator, according to those interviewed.
“He was respected and was a deal maker,” Gessel said. “Members could negotiate with him. That’s another very important quality for members if they want to get something done.”
Mary Beth Carozza, Hobson’s congressional chief of staff for ten years and now a Maryland state senator, recalled one of his lessons.
“One of my favorite learning moments came when I let him know that we had all the votes we needed to pass an issue he had long supported and that now we could just ‘roll the other side,’” Carozza said. “He looked at me and said, ‘No, we’re not going to do that. We’re going to leave something on the table for the other side as we will be working with them in the future.’”
DeWine said Hobson’s business background was central to his ability to negotiate. Over the years Hobson worked as an attorney and in real estate.
“Dave was terrific at making the deal and working a deal,” said Pete Noonan, a Springfield commercial Realtor who in the 1970s worked with Hobson at a Springfield real estate investment trust company co-founded by Noonan’s father.
Several of those interviewed said Hobson also was a huge proponent of helping local people with problems.
“Constituent service was always Congressman Hobson’s top priority, and I learned so much from him through his complete dedication to serving others, especially those with particularly challenging issues with government agencies or programs,” Carozza said. “He would just keep ‘working the deal’ until they were in a better place.”
Springfield Mayor Rob Rue called Hobson “a remarkable political leader whose dedication to Springfield truly made a difference. His genuine care for the community and unwavering commitment to positive change have left a lasting impact. Mr. Hobson’s leadership and guidance will be deeply missed, and his legacy will continue to inspire us all.”
Staying active in retirement
Hobson never stopped working for solutions for people, said Michael McDorman, president and CEO of the Greater Springfield Partnership.
“You simply cannot replace a Dave Hobson,” McDorman said “Congressman Hobson will be dearly missed and fondly remembered as a hero for Springfield and the Dayton region.”
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
Mills said Hobson loved getting out and talking to people, telling stories and sometimes stopped by to see people visiting his recreated Congressional office at the Clark County Historical Society’s Heritage Center.
DeWine said he spoke to Hobson a couple of weeks ago. Although Hobson hadn’t been able to get out much in recent months he still “did what he always did, which was work the phone really well. He’d be calling people trying to put things together,” particularly regarding economic development, DeWine said.
Hobson also was making calls to help social service agencies find resources to help them cope with the challenges of a growing Haitian immigrant population in Springfield, McGregor said.
An estimated 12,000 to 15,000 Haitians, many of whom are here legally, moved to Springfield in recent years, attracted to the availability of jobs and low cost of living. But the city drew national attention and a flurry of bomb threats on schools and other public buildings after former President Donald Trump and his running mate in the presidential race, U.S. Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, began falsely claiming the Haitians ate pets, and announcing plans to deport them.
“He was very disturbed by what was happening with the Haitian community here in Springfield, the way they were being portrayed and the treatment they were receiving on a national level,” McGregor said. “I don’t think the word ‘distraught’ would be too hard to describe what he was thinking. It frustrated him that he couldn’t do more to help.”
Hobson also was frustrated about the gridlock and hyper-partisanship in Congress, said McGregor and Pat Tiberi, president and CEO of the Ohio Business Roundtable and a former Republican congressman representing the Columbus area.
“Dave and I talked about this frequently. We both know that the current political environment would have no room for us and our type of politics and our way of approaching things,” McGregor said. “He knew this is not an environment where he could operate the way he (did), he couldn’t make the deals, he couldn’t have the cross-party relationships.”
But given the man he was, that likely would not have stopped Hobson from trying if he was still in Congress.
“He was a master at getting things done,” Tiberi said. “The art of getting things done, he could have given a master class.”
Dave Hobson
Born in Cincinnati Oct. 17, 1936
Served in Ohio Air National Guard 1958-1963
Ohio Wesleyan University - bachelor’s degree in politics and government 1958
Ohio State University College of Law - Juris Doctor degree 1963
Ohio Senate - December 1982 to January 1991
U.S. House of Representatives - January 1991 to January 2009
Inducted into the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame 2022
Married to Carolyn Hobson, three adult children, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Memorial service: Nov. 2, 2024 at 11 a.m. at High Street United Methodist Church, 230 East High St., Springfield.
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