FINDLAY - U.S. Rep. Michael Oxley (R., Findlay) was preaching to the choir, and his message was delivered with as much passion as that of a revivalist preacher.

Speaking yesterday in his hometown of Findlay to members of the Hancock County Republican Party, Mr. Oxley's message was simple: As many Republicans as possible must be elected nationwide on Tuesday.

“There is a very, very close contest for control of the House and the Senate,” Mr. Oxley said. “The margins are very, very thin, and the stakes are incredibly high.”

Mr. Oxley, who is up for re-election to his 11th term in office against a political novice, Democrat Jim Clark of Wapakoneta, said he has been traveling the country in recent weeks stumping for Republican candidates and has been pleased to see President Bush and his cabinet members doing the same.

Mr. Bush's appearances at campaign rallies shows “the kind of commitment to maintain Republican control [in the House] and get it back in the Senate.”

He had nothing but praise for the President, saying Mr. Bush's decisive action in initiating tax cuts means the recession was “shallower and shorter” than had been anticipated and the fight against terrorism is showing concrete results like terrorist cells destroyed in several U.S. cities and more than $115 million in terrorist assets frozen.

Mr. Oxley said the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has moved quickly to back Mr. Bush, passing a bill months ago that will form a Department of Homeland Security, which will eliminate bureaucratic overlap across 100 different agencies, only to see it “hung up in the Senate” because of issues involving public employee unions.

The delay is “an outrage that endangers the lives of every American citizen,” Mr. Oxley said.

Mr. Clark said he was saddened to hear of Mr. Oxley's attacks on the Democratic-controlled Senate.

“I've never separated people by being bad or good or whether they're Republican or Democrat. I judge people by getting to know them and what they stand for and [if elected] I'll represent Republicans, Democrats, and independents.”

Mr. Oxley is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and said his goals in that job have been to protect investors, promote competition in financial services, and keep the U.S. capital markets the best in the world.

The congressman came to national prominence this summer when his name was attached to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, designed to make corporations more responsible. The measure includes a provision to set up an accounting oversight board.

William Webster, former head of both the FBI and CIA, was named this week as the board's first chairman. His appointment has been criticized after it was disclosed Thursday that Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt did not reveal that Mr. Webster was chairman of the audit committee of a company being investigated for possible fraud.

Mr. Oxley did not address that controversy directly, but he said this week that the country is fortunate that Mr. Webster agreed to be the oversight committee's first chairman because, with his law enforcement background, he “knows how to investigate wrongdoing ...

“There was a fair selection process set forth in the legislation, it was followed, and now the board can start with the task of implementing that part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.”

First Published November 2, 2002, 11:36 a.m.