Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Tom Ganley of Brecksville will make a stop in Jefferson today to pitch his fiscally and morally conservative position to local GOP members.

Ganley is scheduled to appear around 2:30 p.m. at the local party’s annual picnic, which will be held at the Expo Center on the county fairgrounds in Jefferson. Tickets are $5 each and will be sold at the door. The menu includes pulled pork sandwiches, but Ganley is a candidate with no fondness for the political variety of the meat.

“We absolutely have to learn fiscal discipline; it’s been so lacking in Washington,” said Ganley in a telephone interview Friday.

This is Ganley’s first venture into politics. He said that with George Voinovich, the state’s Republican senator, announcing that he would not run for re-election, there will be a need for a conservative voice in the Senate to provide balance to Democrat Sherrod Brown’s liberal stance.

“I’ve been very unhappy with what’s been going on in Washington,” said Ganley.

Ganley’s name is familiar to northeast Ohio consumers: He owns 32 eponymously named auto dealerships with more than 1,000 employees. The successful businessman has deep pockets and has said money won’t be issue in running his campaign.

He opened his first dealership, Eastway Rambler, in 1968 at the age of 24. Ganley grew that kernel into the largest automotive group in Ohio. His interests also include Heritage Acceptance Corp., one of the largest independently owned auto-finance companies in the nation, and an insurance company. He is a director of Independence Bank, a profitable bank that didn’t need to be bailed out.

The business owner wants to apply the same conservative policies he used to build his businesses, to the nation’s economic doldrums and deficit spending.

“No businessman in business for himself can use the term ‘deficit’ and be in business very long,” he said.

His approach to bringing down the deficit and national debt would be to create American jobs, something Ganley says he is experienced at doing as a business owner. He’d do that by giving employers a one-time $2,500 tax credit for every unemployed worker they call back. Employers that create new jobs would get a $5,000 tax credit for each hire, and those who return an overseas job to the United States would get a $10,000 tax credit.

Ganley claims the credits would be “revenue-neutral” but would benefit the economy and increase income-tax revenues.

On the subject of health care, Ganley said the system needs fine-tuning, not a major overhaul. He doesn’t buy the idea that health care is not accessible.

“Everyone has access to health care in one form or another,” he said.

He said lawmakers need to go slow on health-care reform and read every word of the bill, and understand it, before voting.

“As a businessman, I never sign a contract until I’ve read it two or three times,” he said.

Ganley said the way the Cash for Clunkers program was handled ought to be taken as indication of what to expect if the government administers health care. Ganley, whose dealerships are awaiting $4 million in rebates from the government, called the program’s execution a “fiasco.”

A popular speaker at TEA (Taxed Enough Already) parties, Ganley is pro-life and anti-illegal immigration. He said the concept of career politicians is alien to what the Founding Fathers of the nation envisioned, and he’ll go to Washington as a “citizen legislator,” not someone looking for a second career.

“I’ll come in without any ties to any outsider,” he said.

Ganley will face former U.S. Rep. Rob Portman in the primary.