the May 3 primary, after Linda S. Reidelbach, an unsuccessful independent candidate for Congress in the 15th District in 1992, withdrew from the race despite filing nominating petitions. Johnson received 15,271 votes in the primary. On November 8, he faced Democratic nominee Christina L. Cox, a trustee in Blendon Township. Cox was also unopposed in her primary. She filed a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission because Johnson ran television advertisements calling for voters to "re-elect" him. "A key issue in this campaign is the fact that Bruce Johnson has never been elected to anything." Cox told The Columbus Dispatch. "He was appointed by the Downtown influence peddlers, but he's trying to make the people think they elected him." However Johnson won the endorsement of the Dispatch. Johnson won the general election, 53,290 (61.78%) to 38,974 (38.22%). First term work Johnson in 1995 called for reform of tax incentives and financing for corporations, saying it was political and unfair. "Why do we want to subsidize one competitor over another?" he asked... "I believe the market should dictate where the jobs will be," he told The Columbus Dispatch. He sponsored legislation that would limit prisoners given a sentence of death to a single appeal and to speed up the appellate process by eliminating review by the district courts of appeal. (The latter was authorized by a constitutional amendment approved by voters in 1994.) The legislation passed the Senate and House easily and was signed by Governor George V. Voinovich. Johnson in 1996 chaired a special committee examining tort reform. The resulting bill which passed the Senate, would in the words of The Columbus Dispatch, "cap noneconomic and punitive damages, impose additional time limits for filing lawsuits and protect defendants in multidefendant cases from being liable for unpaid portions of a judgment." The minority party was unhappy, the paper reported, "Democrats blasted Republicans, saying they were catering to business at the expense of the victims of their negligence." Senator Jeffrey D. Johnson, a Cleveland Democrat said "Somewhere along the way we have shifted away from concern for the victim to concern for business," but Bruce Johnson defended the legislation. "What we've done is tried to strike a balance. Lawsuit abuse threatens to close the doors of many small businesses in our state." To make it easier for cities to take property owners to court for violations of zoning and building codes, Johnson