Two statements, one from former Fox News personality John Kasich:
TOLEDO — About 75 protesters, some of them angry and all of them soaked, stood outside a bar in driving rain last night chanting “our town, union town.” And so began Gov. John Kasich’s ground game to defend Senate Bill 5. Kasich’s first official campaign appearance in support of Issue 2 — the ballot measure for this fall’s referendum on Republican-backed limits to collective bargaining — took place in the Omni, a banquet, bar and concert hall next to the University of Toledo.
About 150 GOP supporters, many of them in ties and jackets, filed into the bar where AC/DC, Journey and Motley Crue cover bands play on weekends, to hear Kasich speak — many of them jeered by the drenched union crowd as they walked into the building. It was the exact contrast that Kasich and the Republicans are trying to avoid in this fall’s fight over Senate Bill 5: the working class pitted against the elite.
“I believe in unions. I believe they have a place,” Kasich said, standing on stage with Toledo Mayor Mike Bell.
And, one from the leader of a county Tea Party organization in Ohio that was sent to me by a Balloon Juice reader. The Tea Party leader asked that his email be forwarded, so she did that.
When we pass, Issue 2, and the Democratic Party and the Unions are defunded, they will not have the money to compete in Ohio next year. Barack Obama and Sherrod Brown will lose Ohio and be thrown out of office in November 2012.
The Governor and the Ohio Legislature will be emboldened and thus willing to introduce more conservative legislation like Workmans Comp reform, Right to Work, School Choice, and much more.
“Right to work” is, of course, the conservative legislation that destroys private sector unions. I’ll leave it to you decide which person is telling the truth on the conservative agenda here, former Lehman Brothers executive and Murdoch mouthpiece Kasich, or the local Tea Party leader. This was not then and is not now about the budget. It was a careful multi-state strategy to annihilate unions, the last remaining organized, effective opposition to moneyed interests in Ohio and other states.
Early voting in Ohio has begun. Democrats, liberals and assorted other allies gathered 317,000 signatures, one at a time, to protect early voting. Republicans and the Tea Party attempted to limit early voting. Which side is afraid of a voter referendum on their agenda? Which side tried to limit the opportunity to Vote No On Issue Two?
Early voting for the Nov. 8 election begins today, and today is also the start of “golden week,” the name given the five-day period when people can register to vote and cast a ballot at the same time. The registration period ends Tuesday, Oct. 11.
The Republican-dominated legislature tried to get rid of “golden week” as part of an election reform bill that limited the number of days voters can cast ballots before election day. But the law was put on hold last week because of a petition drive that seeks a statewide referendum on House Bill 194 for November 2012. With the law on hold, the previous 35-day early voting window was left intact.
Origuy
In Colorado, the SOS is refusing to allow absentee ballots to be sent to registered military voters that didn’t vote in 2010.
soonergrunt
Give ’em hell, Kay!
You’ve read my email by now, I’m sure. You can see what we’re dealing with here in union-hate country. Don’t let Ohio become the next Oklahoma.
rikryah
origuy,
I read that. what kind of public servant wouldn’t DEFEND MILITARY VOTERS?
ellie
I live in Toledo and as cynical as I am, I can’t believe our double-dipping mayor Bell is campaigning for Issue 2. What an asshole. I didn’t vote for him but I didn’t think he would be this insane. It’s the clearest cut case of “I got mine, screw you!” I have ever seen.
kay
@ellie:
He seems to have some ethical issues cropping up, so maybe it’s for the best.
He can be a Republican, instead of a fake “Independent”. They can have him :)
Splitting Image
Fairly optimistic, I’d say. Obama has a big bankroll already and can probably win without Ohio. (Which is, of course, why this is a multi-state strategy).
I think it is revealing how far they are trying to push and how fast. Remember the sense of urgency to pass some kind of health-care reform a couple of years ago? How if the Democrats didn’t get anything done it would be 20 years before they’d get another shot? I’m sensing the same kind of urgency now from the Republicans.
The analogy does suggest, however, that repealing all of this could turn out to be as difficult as repealing the ACA.
kay
@soonergrunt:
I did read it and thank you. I don’t know what it’s going to take. Kasich has now set “middle class voters” against OTHER middle class voters, which I guess is the game plan. If they’re squabbling over crumbs, they won’t notice who’s making off with the big bucks.
I do think it’s interesting that they’re terrified of being labeled “anti-middle class”. That’s a big (positive) change from even six months ago. That he’s even bothering to lie about “supporting unions” means he thinks he’s on the wrong side of that issue.
Napoleon
@ellie:
What is the story with that guy? If someone runs against him in the primary I will donate to them, and I live in Cuyahoga County.
Napoleon
@ellie:
PS, oh and everytime I see that teacher from Baltimore Ohio in those ads sticking a knife in the back of other teachers all the while saying how good issue 2 will be for teachers I want to strangle him.
kay
Here’s the early vote locations.
Look, we can’t make this any easier for you :)
dollared
Kay, can we get you to write ads for the Democrats?
The Dangerman
I’m missing something on “Right to Work”; as I understand it, it means you aren’t required to join a Union.
All well and good; if one doesn’t want to join a Union, it seems reasonable that one wouldn’t have to do so…
…but what would happen to the benefits derived from Collective Bargaining? Would those go to the non-Union employees, too?
If the answer is yes, what asshole would join the Union to get benefits one could get at no cost?
Or are Republicans lying to me?
Roger Moore
@rikryah:
One who is worried they might vote for the Democrats. I assume some of it is that he wants to prevent all the voters who failed to vote in 2010 from getting their ballots and thinks he’ll get in worse PR trouble if he protects one group but not another.
Linnaeus
What is it with wingnuts and their Superfluous Capitalizations in the Middle of a Sentence? I mean, yeah, people did that in the 17th century…ah, never mind.
Linnaeus
@The Dangerman:
That’s usually the best answer.
Yutsano
@Linnaeus: Usually my default option.
Djur
Does anyone know what they mean by “workman’s comp reform”? Is worker’s comp in Ohio somehow not the miserly and draconian system it is in most states, or is the issue that it exists?
Roger Moore
@The Dangerman:
I think you have it about right. Employees who opt out of the union still get the benefits of union negotiated collective bargaining but without the cost. The goal of “right to work” is to undermine the union by creating a free rider/prisoner’s dilemma/tragedy of the commons type problem. Employees are better off as a group when they’re defended by a union but better off as individuals when they aren’t members. If the union isn’t allowed to enforce membership, the selfishness of individual employees tends to undermine the union and the collective good.
El Cid
Speaking of arrests, the Center for Constitutional Rights and Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman et al get a bit of a victory over St Paul & Minneapolis police & the Secret Service for brute-handling them for committing the naked crime of using unfettered techniques of journalism in covering the 2008 Republican Convention.
That silly placeholder in front of the 2nd Amendment continues to get in the way of Lawnorder and Fitintur.
kay
@Djur:
They want to privatize it.
We could save a lot of time :)
Ask me anything. The answer is, “they want to privatize it”. Public schools, public universities, workers comp, public libraries, public safety…..it’s vitally important that a private entity skim 15% in profit off the top of any service or asset.
You can see why. It’s profitable!
Napoleon
@The Dangerman:
You are never required to join a union, but you could be forced to pay the fee related to their collective representation (basically anything other then what they spend on political operations). Right to work allows you to also escape the fee, creating a free rider problem for unions.
@Djur:
I can’t read his mind but I am 50 years old and every 10 years or so, starting with, at least to my memory, the mid 70s there has been floated a privatization scheme for Ohio WC. Other then large companies who are permitted to self insure Ohio is pure government (ie, single payer if you will) system. Every time it has come up both business and labor have joined together to defeat it becuase both have realized it just allows rent seeking private insurance companies to divert businesses contributions and labors bennies.
Ash Can
Perish the thought.
ellie
@Napoleon: He is the former fire chief who ran for mayor as an Independent. He draws his pension plus his salary.
debbie
I’d love to see a group of demonstrators throw Kasich’s line back at him: “If you don’t want to get on the bus, get out of the way.”