NEW YORK, Nov. 6 -- Joel Hyatt '72, political pundits say, has three character traits that are liabilities in this year of angry voters: he's a lawyer, a politician and a Democrat.
Hyatt is currently losing the battle to replace his father-in-law, Senator Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, who is retiring. He is trailing Republican Mike DeWine, Ohio's lieutenant governor, by large margins in recent polls.
The South Euclid, Ohio, native has made health care reform and elimination inefficient federal programs the major campaign points in his battle against the more conservative Republican candidate, who launched a failed 1992 campaign to unseat Senator John Glenn, D-Ohio.
Hyatt has said he wants to eliminate the capital gains tax to stimulate small company investments and that he wants to make education a priority and supports a balanced budget amendment and a presidential line-item veto.
In 1977, Hyatt, founded Hyatt Legal Services, which offers low cost legal services to about 2.5 million people in the United States.
Hyatt was president of his class at Dartmouth and a member of the College's judiciary council, he recently told The National Jurist. He also founded a volunteer program where students help teach low-income children from the inner-city. Hyatt was not available for comment.
