Ohio Megathread
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LeBron
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« Reply #325 on: November 21, 2014, 11:50:47 PM »

Going into the next legislative session, Ohio Republicans will have the largest majority in the history of the 99-member Ohio House of Representatives. As it stands, the Ohio GOP will have 65 seats, and Ohio Democrats 34 seats; one seat short of a 2/3rd's majority. But considering Bill Patmon and John Barnes are 2 of the 34 in this small House Dem Caucus, Republicans pretty much have 67 votes. Patmon votes with Kasich 77% of the time while Barnes votes with Kasich 79% of the time btw, so there's no denying that they are in fact Republicans. This means even with a Kasich veto, the Ohio GOP Legislature could actually override a veto if they got the 20 needed votes in the Senate (Senate control is staying the same - 23 GOP, 10 Dem), and the 60 votes needed in the House meaning if they wanted to, they could theoretically pass a bill preventing Kasich from using the Controlling Board to expand Medicaid, and then override Kasich's veto.

Even after the elections ended, we're still facing huge trouble as a party. One of the Democratic State Representative's is suing the Ohio Democratic Party, we lost Chris Redfern as our mastermind ODP Chairman and in the House, and Ohio House Dems elected a perennial loser in Fred Strahorn as the Ohio Minority Leader over a well-respected, phenomenal fundraising champion in David Leland.

Which means at this point, our party is pretty much powerless. We only hold two statewide offices; one of which is in the minority on the Ohio Supreme Court (Bill O'Neill) and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.....and we've seen better days.

This party's best hope in these next two years while they're recuperating is hoping for an intra-party battle with the Ohio Republicans. As we know, Kasich originally took control of the Ohio Republican Party after he used intimidation and bribes to convince enough central committee members of the ORP to turn against-then Chairman Kevin DeWine, and now Kasich has the unwieldy power of a dictator. And it turns out, Kasich did the same thing a few weeks ago. Outgoing House Speaker Bill Batchelder, an ally of Kasich, made a deal with State Rep. Ron Amstutz (R) to clear the field for Ohio GOP establishment pick, State Rep. Cliff Rosenberger. Rosenberger notably has a Kasich 100% voting record, and he sits on the House Finance and Appropriations Committee where he's helped in passing several of Kasich's budgets, so it's clear why he would want Rosenberger leading the House. Kasich is cool with Amstutz to, but he's term-limited in 2016 so Rosenberger the Ohio GOP felt was the next best option.

The Ohio Tea Party, rightfully so, got pissed when they saw Batchelder and Kasich were picking sides in who would replace Batchelder as Speaker come 2015, as voting for party leaders, including Speaker are supposed to be confidential. All 65 incoming House Republicans voted via secret ballots only a week after the general election meaning this was the Ohio GOP's attempt to have as little media coverage/controversy on this as possible. There was backroom dealing to from what I heard, with Rosenberger, Amstutz, Sears, Dovilla and others in the upcoming leadership promising their House GOP colleagues committee seats if they vote for Rosenberger. Despite being an unofficial election for Speaker (the official election takes place in January when the whole House votes on the next Speaker), Rosenberger declared victory anyways and Kasich congratulated him. It would make sense Kasich would want Rosenberger as Speaker in his best interests to, considering Kasich can't afford a Tea Party Speaker at the helm of the Ohio House. Kasich's setting up for 2016 as a Huntsman-like "compassionate conservative" and seemingly wants to run to the left of everyone, but if the Tea Party got their way in Ohio, they would have voter ID planned, stopping federal Common Core standards, enacting the fetal heartbeat bill, blocking Medicaid expansion, among many other very controversial things. Rep. Jim Butler is the challenger to Cliff Rosenberger for Speaker. Butler is Tea Party-backed simply because he's a hardcore conservative. He votes with Kasich less than Rosenberger does, but that's because he's voting to the right of Kasich.

As it stands, there's roughly about 16 Ohio Citizen PAC (Tea Party)-backed State Representatives in the House. 

1) Tom Brinkman - HD-27
2) Jonathan Dever - HD-28
3) Kristina Roegner - HD-37
4) Jim Butler - HD-41
5) Christina Hagan - HD-50
6) Wes Retherford - HD-51
7) Paul Zeltwanger - HD-54
8 ) Ron Young - HD-61
9) Ron Maag - HD-62
10) John Becker - HD-65
11) Tim Schaffer - HD-77
12) Ron Hood - HD-78
13) Kyle Koehler - HD-79
14) Nino Vitale - HD-85
15) Steve Kraus - HD-89
16) Andy Thompson - HD-95

And there you go. There might be a few more that have Tom Zawistowski's unconditional support, but these are the main ones. The point of me posting these was with the 32 Democrats, and Zawistowski's 15-20 member Tea Party Caucus in the House, that's enough votes to block the GOP establishment.

As far as I'm concerned, we as a party need to do whatever it takes to convince the Ohio Tea Party that we have a huge common enemy in John Kasich and his right-hand man Cliff Rosenberger. We don't agree on hardly anything, but the ODP and Tom Zawistowski can agree that whatever Kasich wants, Kasich shouldn't get. It is worth stating though that Ohio Democrats aren't going to accomplish anything in these next two years with a Republican Governor and a blood red legislature, and we still have another month before we find out who our next Chair of the Ohio Democratic Party will be.

So I'm basically saying that this scenario is unlikely, but it would be one of the only ways for the ODP to successfully maneuver around Kasich. Unfortunately Ohio Dems won't have another shot at winning the legislature until the next census, but man, it would really be awesome if we could stop Kasich dead in his tracks these next 4 years.
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TJ in Oregon
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« Reply #326 on: November 22, 2014, 10:41:16 AM »

The state legislature may be able to override a Kasich veto in theory but there are more than 5 Republicans in the House that wouldn't vote to do so on something like Medicaid expansion.

Regardless, the Tea Party is fairly weak in Ohio. Most of the conservatives don't have a problem with Kasich despite a few policy differences. There are a few noise makers like Tom Zawistowski but hardly anyone cares. Also, most people don't know who Tom Zawistowski is in order to ask themselves if they care.

There are going to be a few bumps in the road of course and Kasich may have to sign a fetal heartbeat bill or something like that. But the Ohio House Republicans aren't exactly trying to railroad him. They know he's trying to run for president. And most of them want to win.
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Maxwell
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« Reply #327 on: November 23, 2014, 03:41:09 PM »

Going into the next legislative session, Ohio Republicans will have the largest majority in the history of the 99-member Ohio House of Representatives. As it stands, the Ohio GOP will have 65 seats, and Ohio Democrats 34 seats; one seat short of a 2/3rd's majority. But considering Bill Patmon and John Barnes are 2 of the 34 in this small House Dem Caucus, Republicans pretty much have 67 votes. Patmon votes with Kasich 77% of the time while Barnes votes with Kasich 79% of the time btw, so there's no denying that they are in fact Republicans. This means even with a Kasich veto, the Ohio GOP Legislature could actually override a veto if they got the 20 needed votes in the Senate (Senate control is staying the same - 23 GOP, 10 Dem), and the 60 votes needed in the House meaning if they wanted to, they could theoretically pass a bill preventing Kasich from using the Controlling Board to expand Medicaid, and then override Kasich's veto.

Even after the elections ended, we're still facing huge trouble as a party. One of the Democratic State Representative's is suing the Ohio Democratic Party, we lost Chris Redfern as our mastermind ODP Chairman and in the House, and Ohio House Dems elected a perennial loser in Fred Strahorn as the Ohio Minority Leader over a well-respected, phenomenal fundraising champion in David Leland.

Which means at this point, our party is pretty much powerless. We only hold two statewide offices; one of which is in the minority on the Ohio Supreme Court (Bill O'Neill) and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown.....and we've seen better days.

This party's best hope in these next two years while they're recuperating is hoping for an intra-party battle with the Ohio Republicans. As we know, Kasich originally took control of the Ohio Republican Party after he used intimidation and bribes to convince enough central committee members of the ORP to turn against-then Chairman Kevin DeWine, and now Kasich has the unwieldy power of a dictator. And it turns out, Kasich did the same thing a few weeks ago. Outgoing House Speaker Bill Batchelder, an ally of Kasich, made a deal with State Rep. Ron Amstutz (R) to clear the field for Ohio GOP establishment pick, State Rep. Cliff Rosenberger. Rosenberger notably has a Kasich 100% voting record, and he sits on the House Finance and Appropriations Committee where he's helped in passing several of Kasich's budgets, so it's clear why he would want Rosenberger leading the House. Kasich is cool with Amstutz to, but he's term-limited in 2016 so Rosenberger the Ohio GOP felt was the next best option.

The Ohio Tea Party, rightfully so, got pissed when they saw Batchelder and Kasich were picking sides in who would replace Batchelder as Speaker come 2015, as voting for party leaders, including Speaker are supposed to be confidential. All 65 incoming House Republicans voted via secret ballots only a week after the general election meaning this was the Ohio GOP's attempt to have as little media coverage/controversy on this as possible. There was backroom dealing to from what I heard, with Rosenberger, Amstutz, Sears, Dovilla and others in the upcoming leadership promising their House GOP colleagues committee seats if they vote for Rosenberger. Despite being an unofficial election for Speaker (the official election takes place in January when the whole House votes on the next Speaker), Rosenberger declared victory anyways and Kasich congratulated him. It would make sense Kasich would want Rosenberger as Speaker in his best interests to, considering Kasich can't afford a Tea Party Speaker at the helm of the Ohio House. Kasich's setting up for 2016 as a Huntsman-like "compassionate conservative" and seemingly wants to run to the left of everyone, but if the Tea Party got their way in Ohio, they would have voter ID planned, stopping federal Common Core standards, enacting the fetal heartbeat bill, blocking Medicaid expansion, among many other very controversial things. Rep. Jim Butler is the challenger to Cliff Rosenberger for Speaker. Butler is Tea Party-backed simply because he's a hardcore conservative. He votes with Kasich less than Rosenberger does, but that's because he's voting to the right of Kasich.

As it stands, there's roughly about 16 Ohio Citizen PAC (Tea Party)-backed State Representatives in the House. 

1) Tom Brinkman - HD-27
2) Jonathan Dever - HD-28
3) Kristina Roegner - HD-37
4) Jim Butler - HD-41
5) Christina Hagan - HD-50
6) Wes Retherford - HD-51
7) Paul Zeltwanger - HD-54
8 ) Ron Young - HD-61
9) Ron Maag - HD-62
10) John Becker - HD-65
11) Tim Schaffer - HD-77
12) Ron Hood - HD-78
13) Kyle Koehler - HD-79
14) Nino Vitale - HD-85
15) Steve Kraus - HD-89
16) Andy Thompson - HD-95

And there you go. There might be a few more that have Tom Zawistowski's unconditional support, but these are the main ones. The point of me posting these was with the 32 Democrats, and Zawistowski's 15-20 member Tea Party Caucus in the House, that's enough votes to block the GOP establishment.

As far as I'm concerned, we as a party need to do whatever it takes to convince the Ohio Tea Party that we have a huge common enemy in John Kasich and his right-hand man Cliff Rosenberger. We don't agree on hardly anything, but the ODP and Tom Zawistowski can agree that whatever Kasich wants, Kasich shouldn't get. It is worth stating though that Ohio Democrats aren't going to accomplish anything in these next two years with a Republican Governor and a blood red legislature, and we still have another month before we find out who our next Chair of the Ohio Democratic Party will be.

So I'm basically saying that this scenario is unlikely, but it would be one of the only ways for the ODP to successfully maneuver around Kasich. Unfortunately Ohio Dems won't have another shot at winning the legislature until the next census, but man, it would really be awesome if we could stop Kasich dead in his tracks these next 4 years.

The way things just went, I'm not too sure Mr. Redfern can be defined as a "mastermind".
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LeBron
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« Reply #328 on: December 03, 2014, 02:31:45 PM »

we lost Chris Redfern as our mastermind ODP Chairman

The way things just went, I'm not too sure Mr. Redfern can be defined as a "mastermind".
His first half of his tenure was really good, actually. Under him, we won back all statewide offices except Auditor in 2006, managed to win back the Ohio House in '08 despite gerrymandered lines, managed to survive an attempted coup d'état on his chairmanship and still managed to keep the party united, and he's had some good strategies and campaigning in competing where you wouldn't think the ODP could win. Lou Gentile is a good example of that, in the State Senate. Granted, after the big fails this year though, I guess we do need a new leader, but he wasn't much of a failure when you look at his full tenure.

So anyway, speaking of that, December 16th has been named the date for when ODP's state executive committee will decide the new Chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party in Columbus. There are two frontrunners in this (Pepper and Neuhardt), and the other 3 candidates who have less of a shot.

Declared Candidates for Ohio Democratic Party Chair and Overview:

1) David Pepper - Endorsed by outgoing ODP Chair and State Rep. Chris Redfern as well as State Senator and 2014 Secretary of State nominee Nina Turner. He's well-known in the state party for his great campaign he ran this year against Attorney General Mike DeWine, though unsuccessful. Pepper's also a former Hamilton County Commissioner. Turner wants to focus more on her teaching career and won't run, but Pepper and Turner formed an alliance during the campaign, specifically in promotion of voting rights and Pepper has basically promised if he's elected chair he'll give Turner a spot in the new leadership as well. Pepper's already got a lot of votes secured thanks to specifically the votes of members who were appointed by Redfern and he also has huge, must needed support from Ron Malone who controls more than 20 votes on the ODP Exec. Committee and the support of Bill DeMora, a Redfern loyalist who's the chair of the state party's executive committee, but it's not 100% given yet that he'll win if the Leland-Strahorn race last month has anything to say about it. Jeff Johnson may also be a problem in this mess who's supporting Turner, not Pepper, for chair so Johnson can pursue his own ambitions in 2017 for Cleveland Mayor. I doubt that will make much of a difference though. I really hope Pepper gets picked, and it seems kind of likely at this point.

2) Sharen Neuhardt - Endorsed by U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown. Brown messed up big time by endorsing a DINO, Dennis Wajtanowski, last time around. This time, it's a radical feminist and perennial loser! Yay, just what our state party needs! The endorsement is big of course and he said he endorsed her because she stepped up at a tough time for the state party, has the resources to bring the party forward, and he simply would love seeing the first female chair ever for the ODP. Her profession is an attorney, and that matters, actually. She works at a law firm which is tied to the Greater Cleveland Partnership firm which is tied to Armond Budish, and even moreso to Bill Mason who controls quite a bit of votes on the ODP exec. commitee, so that would be her path to victory.

3) Janet Carson - Head of the Ohio Democratic County Chairs Association. She's been actively campaigning as well for the post and she's looking to make the selection of chair more inclusive, and to include Democratic party chairs from all counties. As it stands, she's a party chair for Geauga County, a county Romney won with 60% of the vote in 2012, and Kasich 75% this year, so it's a very red county. Their Geauga County Board of Commissioners is 3-members, all Republican, but they did nearly elect a Democrat to one of their commission seats this year despite the awful year our state party had and how Atlas blue this county is. So I have a feeling if she's chair, she could definitely continue Redfern's legacy of competing in some of these tough areas, gaining more support and picking up more seats. With attempts being made to have the first female chair in the state party, Neuhardt does outshine her and Carson's chances are pretty slim.

4) Bob Hagan - Endorsed by U.S. Congressman Tim Ryan and Mahoning County Democratic Party Chair David Betras. Hagan is an outgoing State Representative from the Youngstown area, and incoming member of the state school board, district 8. He's also filed paperwork to run against Republican Senator Rob Portman in 2016. He's a veteran in the Ohio General Assembly and going in on the school board strongly opposes charter schools and wants more accountability. He's known to be a staunch liberal and vocal opponent of Kasich. He's voted against income tax decreases, voted against SB5, voted against SB310, voted against the Jim Crow bills, voted against the rich-favoring state budgets, voted against JobsOhio, voted against abortion restrictions, supports gun control, supports gay rights, sponsored bills to legalize marijuana, sponsored a bill for Kasich's recall, has received NARAL, AFL-CIO, and Sierra Club endorsements, and a lot more. In other words, he's a really awesome guy. Him and Tim Ryan have 2 votes on the ODP exec. committee so he's guaranteed those at the very least, but it's worth mentioning that Betras endorsement is pretty big as well. Betras declined interest in running for ODP Chair, but Redfern hand-picked him as a worthy and possible successor so Hagan might get some connections and votes that way. A win from him would be unlikely though.

5) Antoinette Wilson - Former Assistant Secretary of State to the Ohio SoS and general consultant for over two decades for tens of Democratic candidates including John Kerry, Jennifer Brunner and Richard Cordray. She owns a firm that works in strategic communications and has good organizational skills. She's pretty irrelevant in this race for the most part, and doesn't stand a real chance.
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LeBron
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« Reply #329 on: December 05, 2014, 11:58:47 PM »

An update from Wednesday with 10 days until the executive committee determines our party's future.

It turns out Janet Carson, who was previously in the running for ODP Chair and definitely could have helped expand this party's limits if she did win, dropped out and endorsed Sharen Neuhardt. Neuhardt also now has union backing and was endorsed by DINO Mayor Mike Coleman, who Neuhardt said if elected chair, would reflect her governing style off of him which gave me some shutters. She's basically running this whole campaign off of endorsements = votes, and promises for more time, resources and efforts for the party.

She has Carson's, Burga's, and Whaley's votes down pat (Coleman isn't on the committee). Like Pepper said before though, one or two endorsements or votes doesn't decide this and "anoint" the new leader on their own. It's simply about who's best for the job in fundraising skills, defending our candidates and parties, and getting this party back on track at state and local levels.

That leaves Neuhardt, frontrunner David Pepper, Bob Hagan, and Antoinette Wilson. Hagan's committed to staying in and he'll at least get a couple of votes on the committee. He's the liberal, heavily anti-Kasich candidate from Northeast Ohio, but he won't win. It might be for the best that, that happens because he is a very controversial figure.

As it stands, Pepper nearly has this thing in lock. There's roughly 150 Democrats on the executive committee who will vote on this, and Pepper's camp has about exactly half of those votes locked up for himself. Even more-so, Pepper has the support of Redfern and Committee Chairman DeMora. In other words, it's basically impossible for Neuhardt to win, and she needs to come to that reality so we can unite behind one strong candidate who can take our party on the right road.
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« Reply #330 on: December 06, 2014, 01:14:37 AM »

Huh. Would've pegged you as a Neuhardt guy.
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LeBron
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« Reply #331 on: December 07, 2014, 02:14:19 AM »

I've never really been a fan of Neuhardt. If you ever hear her speak, she doesn't exactly excite the Democratic base and around the media and even around voters and volunteers, to be honest she can be just...intolerable, to say the least.

Pepper sealed the deal for me when he promised to provide Cleveland representation in the new ODP leadership. Not only that, but with being ODP Chair comes the responsibility to bring success for us. Sharen as previously mentioned is a perennial loser, but Pepper has managed to get elected countywide in Hamilton County before, and his impressive record this year (outraising DeWine, running high quality ads, tons of donors and volunteering on his behalf, union endorsements, aggressive campaigning etc.) is definitely encouraging.

We need someone young and confident like Pepper to step up and say enough is enough. Restore order in the party in keeping the Redfern establishment at the head of the party and get the ball rolling again going into 2015-2016.
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Vega
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« Reply #332 on: December 07, 2014, 08:51:09 AM »

Ideologically I'd support ) Bob Hagan, but David Pepper seems like the most likely one to win and he's okay.
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Vega
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« Reply #333 on: December 07, 2014, 10:34:21 AM »

Also, who is the "executive committee" made up of?
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Chancellor Tanterterg
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« Reply #334 on: December 07, 2014, 06:48:40 PM »

I've never really been a fan of Neuhardt. If you ever hear her speak, she doesn't exactly excite the Democratic base and around the media and even around voters and volunteers, to be honest she can be just...intolerable, to say the least.

Pepper sealed the deal for me when he promised to provide Cleveland representation in the new ODP leadership. Not only that, but with being ODP Chair comes the responsibility to bring success for us. Sharen as previously mentioned is a perennial loser, but Pepper has managed to get elected countywide in Hamilton County before, and his impressive record this year (outraising DeWine, running high quality ads, tons of donors and volunteering on his behalf, union endorsements, aggressive campaigning etc.) is definitely encouraging.

We need someone young and confident like Pepper to step up and say enough is enough. Restore order in the party in keeping the Redfern establishment at the head of the party and get the ball rolling again going into 2015-2016.

What we need is someone who can raise a sh!t load of money and isn't aligned with the whacktivist crowd.  It'd be better if Pepper could win without Turner (who is basically a bone to the whacktivists and the Cleveland African-American political machine), but if that's the only way to beat Neuhardt, so be it.
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TJ in Oregon
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« Reply #335 on: December 07, 2014, 07:57:34 PM »

Yeah you guys need it to be Pepper rather then Neuhardt. I mean, obviously I don't have an interest in the Ohio Democratic Party winning and think Pepper is a hackish bloviater, but Neuhardt becoming ODP Chairman would not exactly be the first step toward building a winning coalition.
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LeBron
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« Reply #336 on: December 07, 2014, 09:42:44 PM »
« Edited: January 10, 2016, 08:47:04 AM by LeBron FitzGerald »

Also, who is the "executive committee" made up of?
148 Democrats.

Here's the full list of everyone on the exec. committee who will be voting on the next chair. The committee itself ranges in huge variety from someone as low-key as a Shaker Heights City Councilman to a DNC delegate to the leader of the OH AFL-CIO to U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown himself.

As stated before, the exec. committee is pretty much controlled by Redfern. 65 of the 148 seats on the committee are at-large and were appointed by Redfern himself and they're prepared to vote for Pepper. The other seats on the committee are made up primarily by those who also sit on the state party's central committee.

There's also a lot of rising stars on the committee - Kathleen Clyde, Dan Ramos, Nan Whaley, Alicia Reece, Bill Healy, Matt Patten, P.G. Sittenfeld, Armond Budish, Jeff Johnson, Tim DeGeeter, and the list goes on and on. And it only seems fitting because they are this party's future, and their opinions are heavily valued for the party's direction.

The very powerful Malone and Rugola families also sit on the committee. Aside from Redfern, they also control the path to becoming ODP Chair, essentially.

@X and TJ, I personally like Turner, but yeah I agree whatever it takes to make sure Neuhardt doesn't become chair. Leave Pepper to the fundraising and Turner to get out the vote operations because the two of them, respectively are very good at those two key elements to a successful ODP.

As for Neuhardt, she brings nothing to the table except breaking the gender barrier in the party chairmanship. She wasn't even the initial pick to be Ed's running mate IYRC, and she just alienates the base and lacks big time in public speaking which......you kind of need in the role of the ODP Chairman. As for Pepper, well see for yourself.
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« Reply #337 on: December 13, 2014, 11:26:46 AM »

This shouldn't be a race about a power-lock, but about a race of rallying behind one candidate (David Pepper) who our party has faith in.

Yeah, maybe it works as well as rallying behind FitzGerald. Portune, hilariously, would've been a much better candidate.
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TJ in Oregon
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« Reply #338 on: December 13, 2014, 11:29:40 AM »

This shouldn't be a race about a power-lock, but about a race of rallying behind one candidate (David Pepper) who our party has faith in.

Yeah, maybe it works as well as rallying behind FitzGerald. Portune, hilariously, would've been a much better candidate.

In this case though the shoe is one the other foot though and Pepper would be better at running the ODP than Neuhardt.
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LeBron
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« Reply #339 on: December 15, 2014, 05:09:13 PM »

Neuhardt is out of the running, and is declaring her support for Pepper. She says she realizes our party has a better future with Pepper, and that he has the votes to win this thing, but a lot of fixing and reforming needs to be done with the party now from the losses this year to the party's lack of transparency.

Veteran Dem. political consultant Antoinette Wilson also dropped out recently as well leaving David Pepper as the de facto candidate and essentially Chairman-elect of the Ohio Democratic Party. Nina Turner, however, who was aligned with Pepper in this fight won't be the next vice chair of the party. Former Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin plans to stay in power in that regard, but Pepper still plans to bring Turner into leadership somehow.

Both of them did great with fundraisers this year, can really energize the base, they have very strong work ethics and strong connections with powerful unions/activists, have a good geographical and cultural distinction between Southern and Northern Ohio, and plan to focus on issues that Ohioans actually care about like living wages and education to get voters out to the polls in 2016 and 2018 just like in 2008 and even 2011.

Had everyone who voted "no" on whether or not to keep the collective bargaining law in 2011 showed up to vote in 2014 for the pro-union candidate, we would have a Governor-elect FitzGerald. We need those voters. Those voters who the subsequent year re-elected one of the most liberal members of the Senate.

And with Hillary expected to run in 2016, Redfern working for her campaign in Ohio, and Pepper-Turner at the helm to have strong successes for 2016, this is our opportunity to really get young voters out to defeat Portman. If we can do that, build-up our rising stars in a quick, but efficient manner, and we realize what's at stake in 2018 with the redistricting process at stake, then our party should have good recruitment effort for the 2018 statewide elections. Our party is in the worst possible situation right now in terms of offices, and it can only get better from here.

Luckily, for the sake of our party, I was right that we would have a Chairman Pepper, and not a Chairwoman Neuhardt. I'm glad Neuhardt's ready to stand united with the party and give Pepper the chance to prove himself these next few years.
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« Reply #340 on: December 16, 2014, 05:44:46 AM »

Yeah, when you are trying to rebuild a state party from multiple losses, it's probably best not to pick a perennial looser (Neuhardt) as your Chairperson.
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TJ in Oregon
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« Reply #341 on: December 16, 2014, 11:54:52 PM »

Ohio Senate passes a redistricting reform for state legislative seats. The proposed amendment will go to the voters for approval or rejection in November 2015.
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LeBron
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« Reply #342 on: December 17, 2014, 01:21:02 AM »

And Pepper officially will be the next ODP Chair! Cheesy He'll take the office in January. Pepper and Turner undoubtedly have great futures ahead of them, and Redfern has stated he might make a comeback in the future to politics as well. I can only hope Pepper continues on with Redfern's legacy of leading the party. He needs to travel the state and meet with young voters and candidate hopefuls. 2016 will give a lot of reason to turnout with Hillary, but we need someone at the top of the ticket with her to fight against Portman on Pepper's and Ohio's behalf. That will be a major early test. Fundraising shouldn't be much of a problem anymore because Pepper's remarkable at that, but candidate recruitment also lacks if this year was any indication. FitzGerald aside, we had no Democrat facing off against Bob Gibbs in OH-7 (who's a pretty weak incumbent), and we had no one facing off against the very vulnerable Mike Dovilla in OH HD-7 for a few examples. We need to change that. Encourage Democrats to run for these seats and throw money into some of these winnable races. It's a sure-fire path to victory.

Another problem we might have is not having enough new ideas for the party. We may have went too much on the attack this year, but we didn't bring enough positive alternatives to the table. Instead of attacking Senate Bill 5 which a lot of Ohio voters have forgotten unfortunately, work on efforts to raise the minimum wage, promise to keep tuition costs down and fight for more state funding, promise higher tax breaks for the middle class, and of course the all-important social rights. Sure the Ohio Republicans are beyond terrible, but give Ohioans the right message that Ohio Democrats have what it takes to turn Ohio around on the right path. Otherwise, I like the direction our party is continuing in, and I have a feeling Pepper won't let us down.
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Vega
Junior Chimp
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« Reply #343 on: December 17, 2014, 08:26:22 AM »

Let's see how he can do, I have high hopes.
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LeBron
LeBron FitzGerald
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« Reply #344 on: December 25, 2014, 12:00:55 AM »
« Edited: March 24, 2015, 07:56:57 PM by LeBron FitzGerald »


!!!!!

I found this out on the College Dems of Ohio page. And it's about dang time! The bans should have been lifted by the Sixth Circuit Court, but unfortunately this circuit is filled with a bunch of God awful, homophobic Bush and Reagan appointees. With this headed to the Supreme Court now, one can only hope Justice Kennedy actually does side with justice.

I don't want Ohio to be the last state to legalize marriage equality Sad.....that distinction should go to Alabama. Tongue
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LeBron
LeBron FitzGerald
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« Reply #345 on: February 06, 2015, 05:33:48 PM »

Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins, 70, has died following a fatal car accident. After the tragic death, City Council President Paula Hicks-Hudson is serving as the temporary acting mayor.

An Independent, he ousted union busting Mayor Michael Bell in 2013 with the help of Ohio Democratic Party and labor support and for the past year has been fighting tirelessly for cleaning of the pollution of Lake Erie.

RIP Sad
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LeBron
LeBron FitzGerald
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« Reply #346 on: February 08, 2015, 02:51:48 AM »

So Governor John Kasich has officially outlined his budget for the 2015-2016 fiscal year. It's below average in that he's continuing his failed tax policy of cutting progressive taxes and raising the burdensome sales tax, with a few good proposals.

This article by the ODP leadership sums it up best. The new state budget will cut state funding from about 50% of Ohio school districts, and places continued tax burdens on senior citizens and the working class. The wealthy benefit here yet again as the top income tax bracket decreases by 23% over a two year period. Businesses also luck out and many will see their income tax abolished.

On a small bright side, the budget does address the college affordability and lake issues in positive ways. There will also be a raise in the tobacco tax which will generate nearly $1 billion in revenue and it's expected to keep thousands of young adults in Ohio from smoking or to stop smoking. He also set forth a proposal that would ban smoking on college campuses, which admittedly would be awesome from my perspective as an Ohio college student.

That $1 tax increase was blocked last time in the Assembly, though it's needed now to make up for the lost revenue. Kasich also wants a 6.5% fracking tax increase which is bound to face opposition from the right in the House if it's not lowered.

Luckily, this proposal discourages oil and gas drilling on land and about 20% of the revenue if this tax is passed goes to local governments.

Now as for Medicaid, Speaker Rosenberger even though he formerly opposed Medicaid expansion now is expressing his willingness to reauthorize it. Republicans are talking about cutting healthcare insurance programs for women and attempting to keep more people off Medicaid enrollment because of affordability costs, so we'll see what bull they try to pull on this front.

Kasich won't have to reach across the aisle to get this passed. In the past, he's passed his budgets with very, very few Democratic votes and now he's ready to ram this through after the arch-conservative Assembly amend this budget to their liking.

I give the proposal a D+. It needs improvement, but this is the best Ohio's going to get if not worse.
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LeBron
LeBron FitzGerald
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« Reply #347 on: February 18, 2015, 02:18:47 AM »

Ohio Republicans are barely a month into the session already and they're about to go on their war on women again. It would ban abortion at earliest after six weeks with the only exception being life of the mother. If this did pass though (and it may be held off until the budget passes), it would either be struck down in court or if not, it would be defeated at the ballot box just as the union busting law was.

This bill already has 50 cosponsors including Speaker Rosenberger in the House. That's enough votes to pass this time after just narrowly failing last time.

As for the Senate, former State Senate President Tom Niehaus was a vocal opponent against several of these attacks on women including heartbeat, de-funding Planned Parenthood and the ultrasounds. However, he's since been term-limited and replaced by Keith Faber as President. Faber has his doubts about passing fetal heartbeat in his chamber, but he is one of the most pro-life and strongest Kasich loyalist's you will find. His chamber does have the votes to pass it, and Sen. Kris Jordan would be more than happy to sponsor it.

But it doesn't end there. You would think after closing six of the fourteen abortion clinics left in Ohio, imposing irrational gag rules, and facing possible court challenges they would stop. If they can't get their heartbeat bill, then they instead have plans to ban abortion after 20 weeks, and close down even more clinics.

There are a few Ohio Democrats actually tagging along with this to. One, Bill Patmon, who previously sponsored a license to discriminate bill signed on as a cosponsor of this and believes women's healthcare should be restricted as much as possible. Cecil Thomas will sign on as a cosponsor in the Senate if it makes it to that chamber.

So I can only hope our party recruits better candidates to run against these guys in their next primaries (Patmon's in 2016 and Thomas isn't until 2018). Sharon Cole is considering running against Patmon again and in case P.G. Sittenfeld does drop out, would be a very strong candidate to primary Thomas. Patmon and Thomas to sum them up are embarrassments who frankly make themselves look like they're to the right of the ORP with their social conservative views and constant anti-ODP establishment tyrades.

But anyways, if this does pass and that might be a big if depending on what happens in the upper chamber, it will go down one way or another. There is a point to be made though that the Ohio GOP is really that bad.
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LeBron
LeBron FitzGerald
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« Reply #348 on: March 24, 2015, 08:55:47 PM »

The "fetal heartbeat" bill passed an Ohio House Committee today and is now set to go to the floor of the House for a full vote (and it's expected to have the 50 votes needed to pass). Worth noting there's no exception in the case of rape. So if a woman is raped, not only can she not consult with a rape counselor about what to do, but she only has less than two months to get an abortion all while the state government keeps on shutting down more abortion clinics. Our tax dollars at work.

To no surprise, Chairman Derickson who cosponsored a bill last session that would have allowed businesses to deny LGBT people entry, voted for this misogynistic piece of legislation.

So a 99.99% chance this passes the House. The chances this reaches the Senate? Slim. Kasich doesn't want this bill to reach his desk due to the dilemma that would throw him in. He notably does have a lot more leverage over the State Senate, and it's ultimately up to him, though Kasich I imagine would settle for a 20 week abortion ban instead.

Kellie Copeland is actually planning to come speak to our local Democratic club about this Thursday, and her group is prepared to fight this in court should it for whatever reason pass in the next four years.
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LeBron
LeBron FitzGerald
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« Reply #349 on: March 25, 2015, 04:15:21 AM »

It turns out that wasn't the worst thing Ohio Republicans did yesterday. In a Senate transportation funding budget, they added an amendment supported by Senate President Faber that if passed could disenfranchise thousands of out-of-state college students from voting. Specifically, over 100,000 ranging from Ohio State to Kent State to the University of Toledo and smaller universities in the state would be negatively impacted.

It places huge burdens on out-of-state Ohio college students that could prevent them from voting at their campus addresses. Our state is already pretty hostile to Ohio college students when it comes to financial costs. Public colleges in Ohio have some of the highest tuition rates in the nation, and this would add on fees that could total over $100 for ridiculous requirements to vote. Obviously, with the additional costs and how hard Ohio Republicans have been making it for young people to register to vote, this would continue their goal of managing to get even more Millennials off the voter rolls.

I've always been an Ohioan and I luckily do have an Ohio's driver license so I won't be affected by this should it pass, but I do have a few out-of-state college friends and man, this would suck bad if this passes.
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