I made canvassing calls for We Are Ohio the other night. The ballot issue in question is a “citizen veto” of SB5, which is Ohio’s new union-busting law. Technically, the law hasn’t gone in yet, which is why it’s “NO” on Issue Two.
I don’t love making canvassing calls, but I will do it, and once I get started I generally don’t hate it. We had five volunteers making calls. Three of the five were public school teachers.
I was told my “list” was generally favorable to repeal of the law, and that turned out to be true. I spoke to only one really angry conservative, with the rest of my contacts indicating, with various levels of enthusiasm, that they would vote “NO.
Many of my calls were directed to voters who are 70-plus years old. I’m familiar with addresses in the county where I was working because I worked for the Postal Service there at one time, and these were rural route addresses. Combine “Ohio” with “rural route” and “land line” and I think any voter list would skew older.
When making calls, it seems I always encounter at least one really great person. I talked to Mary, who is 78, and voting no on Issue Two, and she told me “working people have to stick together”. See? Is that so hard? Mary gets it in one try, and she’s not even a highly paid political professional or cable TV star.
The polling on Issue Two is tightening, and the conventional wisdom is that Republicans are “coming home” to former Fox News personality and Lehman Brothers executive John Kasich.
Ohio voters support 51 – 38 percent repeal in a November referendum of SB 5, the law limiting collective bargaining for public employees, compared to 56 – 32 percent in July.
While that’s regrettable, (but perhaps not yet troubling) everyone involved here locally assumed the GOP and their privatization allies would throw giant wads of money at capturing, outsourcing or selling the few institutions, services and assets that remain public. We knew it was coming.
jibeaux
You are on the side of the angels. Thank you for your hard work.
BGinCHI
The arc of the moral universe is long in Ohio but it…wait, what were we talking about?
I’m afraid for our political attention span in this country.
It would have been inconceivable, for example, that Rick Perry could be taken seriously as a Presidential candidate back when he was advocating secession (recently), but then he acts serious and the MSM gets a memory wipe. The status quo has never had a greater prop.
evap
Keep up the good work, Kay. I sent a few bucks to We Are Ohio and am crossing my fingers for the good guys!
singfoom
Go get em Kay. Canvassing calls aren’t fun, but it’s the hard boring work like that that ends up getting shit done. Thank you for all your hard work.
Loneoak
CLASS WARFARE! Also too she used weapons of mass destruction, and.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
I saw a prominent new suburban billboard (heavily traveled corner)on teh way home this afternoon.
Reward Teachers
Protect the Middle Class
Save Jobs
Vote YES on Issue 2.
I nearly crashed. That’s an expensive corner, and lots of low info folks will be
deludedpersuaded by such deceptive language. Thank you for all your hard work Kay.Davis X. Machina
Keep on plugging. I fear that as a nation we would rather readily replace the eagle as our totemic animal with either a dog in a manger, or a bucket full of crabs, to loud huzzahs.
AA+ Bonds
Good job – keep it up. You’re doing God’s work.
AA+ Bonds
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
Jesus, that “reward teachers” shit is vicious. It’s like a billboard saying that we should “reward blacks” by resegregating drinking fountains.
General Stuck
OT
Don’t know if you’ve seen this Kay, but it looks like a smart move to me, by the Obama administration, but with some political risks as well.
For the reasons stated in this piece, and other reasons of putting HCR on the front burner before the election, I think this is worth the gamble of Obama making a formal request for the SCOTUS to take up the ACA now, instead of letting it play out with the appeals courts.
They would likely make a ruling in about June of 2012, and putting the pressure on the high court wingers, visa vi them pondering to overturn a century of precedent and putting a big question mark under landmark institutions of all sorts of laws that were created from the interstate commerce clause. Plus, by then, more folks will have experienced the ACA in their personal lives, and realize it is their friend, and not a foe.
But our right wing is crazy right now, and impossible to predict what their robed masters on the SCOTUS will do. Either way, might as well hash it out in the bright light fishbowl of a POTUS election. And draw clear contrasts with the goopers.
kay
Bella-
Jeez. Protect the middle class?
Okay, I am again suprised at how much they’ll lie.
That’s low, even for them.
AA+ Bonds
Related: how do people feel about the Dems turning “job-killing” around on the Republicans?
I’m split. On the one hand, the Republicans are, objectively, the job killers – they are opposed to monetary policy (and thus economics as a discipline), and have stated their desire to make us look like an unsafe investment to the rest of the world. On the other hand, the Democrats don’t need to be piggybacking on Republican talking points going into 2012.
It’s kind of like how the response to Republican anti-Medicaid/anti-Medicare rhetoric sounded like “blah blah blah reform of etc. etc. will allow us to allocate bloopity blahbidy and keep costs low in the fiscal blah” instead of what it should have been:
“The Republicans intend to kill Medicare. They want to kill Social Security. They say it all the time, they’re honest about it, and if you elect Republicans, Medicare and Social Security will die within four years.”
kay
Hi Stuck,
I’ll read it, but I don’t know jack about appellate strategy.
General Stuck
@kay:
You lawyers take knowing jack about something way too serious for the internet.:-)
AA+ Bonds
Here’s one I’d recommend – in fact, I’d say that this needs to be the #1 thing coming out of Democratic attack dogs from now until November 2012:
“[Republican candidate] just isn’t cut out to be [President/Governor/etc.]”
Like this:
“Mitt Romney just isn’t cut out to be President. He was a decent governor for a small state like Massachusetts, but he just can’t stick to his guns like a President should.”
See how nonpartisan that makes you sound? The narrative the Democrats have in their favor is that because of the debt ceiling issue, the national mood is that the Republicans are less professional than the Democrats. This might work for the Republicans in boom times, but it can work against them when people are worried about economic policy.
geg6
Kay, if there is anything I can do from just across the border here in PA, let me know. I’m willing to make calls or even drive out to the Youngstown or East Liverpool areas and knock on doors if you can tell me who to contact.
BGinCHI
@AA+ Bonds: How about: if Mitt Romney can’t even decide what he believes (flip-flopper), how could he ever kill Osama Bin Laden?
Paul W.
“…she told me “working people have to stick together”. See? Is that so hard? Mary gets it in one try, and she’s not even a highly paid political professional or cable TV star.”
I would argue that it is ONLY hard if you aren’t a highly paid political professional or cable TV star (especially the latter).
Kay Dennison
Thank you for your hard work. I’ve been doing what I can here in NE Ohio amid dealing with medical issues — and I received a call from you folks last night — the volunteer was very nice and enthusiastic and I thanked her for the call!
The Sheriff's A Ni-
38 isn’t a good number, not when its a six point shift over the last two months. Kasich’s future is riding on this vote, however, so its balls to the wall time regardless. I’m in on this too.
debbie
Hearing about that Q poll this morning was depressing. But I don’t understand why repeal supporters aren’t more vocal about public employees’ pensions being their major source of support in retirement. I still hear sound bites from detractors complaining that no one’s paying for their pensions. I don’t think people know that public employees don’t get Social Security.
OzoneR
They are debbie, the problem is those who aren’t public employees…many DON’T CARE
They don’t like to be told “but we’re using the money for retirement” Fuck you, what makes you so damn special that you get a retirement…with our taxpayer money!
You should suffer like we all do (speaking rhetorically of course)