Buckeye Breakthrough

Both state constitutional amendments on the ballot in Ohio last night passed overwhelmingly as voters in the Buckeye state approved the right to abortion, and legalized marijuana for recreational use.

Ohio voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to enshrine protections for reproductive health services, including abortion, in the state constitution — the latest in a post-Roe streak of ballot box wins for the abortion rights movement.

The Associated Press called the race less than two hours after polls closed, and early counts showed the abortion rights initiative leading by double digits.

The results follow a long, bitter and expensive campaign that shows the continuing resonance of the issue more than a year after Roe v. Wade was overturned and the strength of ballot measures as a tool for advancing abortion rights in GOP-dominated states.

The resounding victory comes despite a myriad of advantages for the anti-abortion camp heading into Election Day.

Gov. Mike DeWine cut ads for the “No” campaign calling the ballot measure “extreme,” and suggested he would push the legislature to add rape and incest exemptions to the state’s six-week ban if the referendum were defeated.

The official website for the GOP-controlled state legislature published posts claiming the amendment would “legalize abortion on demand at any stage of pregnancy” and allow for “the dismemberment of fully conscious children” — echoing the disputed talking points of the campaign against the amendment.

Secretary of State and Senate hopeful Frank LaRose also crafted a ballot summary that abortion rights supporters decried as biased and misleading — including changing the word “fetus” to “unborn child” and removing references to protections for non-abortion services like contraception and fertility treatments.

LaRose also spearheaded August’s failed special election that would have made it more difficult to amend the state constitution and his office purged tens of thousands of inactive voters from the rolls after early voting for the November election was already underway and the deadline to reregister had passed.

Anti-abortion groups campaigning against the amendment focused on many of the same arguments that failed in six other states’ abortion ballot fights last year — including claims, disputed by their opponents, that the measure’s passage would strip away parental consent laws and all limits on abortions later in pregnancy.

But Ohio conservatives also shaped their strategy in response to those 2022 losses. They invested, for example, in targeted outreach to Black voters, students, and people who identify as “pro-choice” and encouraged early and absentee voting.

They were outraised, however, by abortion rights groups, which raked in triple the donations and purchased significantly more TV time. Most of the money on both sides came from out of state, with a group affiliated with Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America providing more than half of the funding for the anti-abortion campaign and several national groups pouring millions into the abortion rights campaign’s coffers, including the ACLU, the Sixteen Thirty Fund and Open Society Policy Center.

Ahh, but with Republicans controlling all three branches of government in Ohio, the fight is far, far from over.  Expect massive amounts of hoops for women to jump though, if not the existing six week ban to be ruled constitutional somehow.

These are, after all, Ohio Republicans, the most crooked state party in America.

The Battle Of The Buckeye State, Con't

With under a month to go until elections here in Kentucky for Governor, there's also a lot of attention on Ohio's abortion rights ballot measure, and the anti-choice MAGA dirtbags are pulling out all the stops to ensure women are second-class citizens in the Buckeye State.

Anti-abortion groups are banking on Ohio to end the movement’s run of state-level losses and create a blueprint for battles in 2024 and beyond.

In four weeks, voters in the Buckeye State will decide whether to enshrine abortion protections into the state constitution or be the first to reject an abortion-rights measure since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

“Ohio is the first of a lot to come in the year ahead,” said March for Life President Jeanne Mancini, who flew to Ohio last week for a rally against the referendum. “That’s why we’re looking even more closely at Ohio: It could easily set the standard.”

Six states voted last year on abortion referendums. In all six, including deep-red Kansas, Kentucky and Montana — the anti-abortion side lost, and it wasn’t particularly close. The losing streak continued this year, as state supreme court races and special elections that became proxy wars over abortion swung decisively in favor of abortion-rights advocates.

The anti-abortion movement needs Ohio to be different, and as early voting begins Wednesday, they’re holding rallies, canvassing, phone-banking, and airing TV, radio and digital ads to ensure that November’s referendum doesn’t become the latest proof-point for a hardening narrative that opposing abortion rights is a losing issue for the conservative movement.

Conservatives also see Ohio’s referendum as a bellwether for 2024, when abortion rights could be on the ballot in Arizona, Florida, and Missouri and will feature heavily in Democratic efforts to hold the White House, and win a swath of state and federal seats.
“Ohio is a classic test market state,” said Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican seeking the nomination to challenge Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown next year. “People know that, ‘Hey, if my product sells in Ohio, then I can sell it other places.’ The same logic applies politically.”

 

The "product" they are selling in Ohio is second-class citizenship for half the population. And there are a lot of buyers.

In many ways, Ohio conservatives are running the same playbook that failed in other states’ abortion ballot fights, with messaging focused on parental rights, gender-affirming care and abortions later in pregnancy. But the leaders of the anti-abortion campaign insist they’ve learned lessons from those losses and see several factors working in their favor heading into November, including more time to plan than their peers had in other states, an anti-abortion governor on their side and more targeted outreach to students, Black communities and other groups that lean towards Democrats.

“It’s important to win here so that we can demonstrate to the rest of the nation how you win ballot initiatives,” said Peter Range, the CEO of Ohio Right to Life and a board member of Protect Women Ohio — the coalition leading the campaign to defeat Issue 1. “The nation is watching what happens here.”

The abortion-rights groups pushing for the amendment’s passage see equally high stakes in Ohio, but insist the same messaging of freedom from government interference that helped their side win in six states last year will work again.

“We’re very similar to other states,” argued Sri Thakkilapati, the executive director of Preterm, an abortion provider based in Cleveland, and a leader of the pro-Issue 1 campaign. “Americans have shown, again and again, that this is not a partisan issue, that there’s wide support for abortion rights. Ohio is not unique. People understand what’s at stake.”
Still, Ohio’s anti-abortion leaders pointed to several reasons why they’re confident the state will tip in their favor.

Ohio has the only state referendum on abortion this year, meaning national anti-abortion groups like Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and Students for Life can focus their resources. Ohio conservatives also had more time to plan and fundraise than their counterparts in Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan and Montana last year who had to scramble to mount a campaign in the few months after Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Both of those factors could equally benefit their opponents. But unlike several purple states that voted on abortion last year, Ohio has a popular Republican governor campaigning against the measure. Mike DeWine, who in 2019 signed the six-week abortion ban, hosted a “Vote No” rally at the Ohio Republican Party’s headquarters around the corner from the state capitol on Saturday, and has given speeches and interviews calling the proposed amendment “radical.”

“I’m voting no and I’m certainly urging everyone to vote no,” DeWine told GOP staff and volunteers at the Saturday event. “Whether you’re pro-life or pro-choice, Issue 1 just goes much, much too far.”

 

Ohio Republicans like Mike Dewine believe that women with control of their own bodies is "radical" and "just too far". I hope Ohio voters remember this in 2024 too.

Vote Yes on Issue 1.

The Road To Gilead Goes Through Ohio, Con't

Ohio Republicans are so terrified that voters will vote for a referendum to add an abortion rights amendment to the state constitution that they are going to change a century-old rule to keep the referendum from actually passing.

 

Proponents of abortion rights in Ohio have drawn up a proposed constitutional amendment patterned on the one approved in Michigan. They are in the process of gathering enough signatures to qualify the initiative for the November ballot. An Ohio bill banning abortions after six weeks has been blocked in the courts.

If they succeed, they will need the support of 50 percent of voters plus one to make it part of the state constitution. Ohio has recently moved toward the Republicans, but the majority of public opinion appears to favor abortion rights, as is the case nationwide. Still, it is doubtful the abortion ballot measure could achieve a three-fifths majority.

Shortly after last November, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Rep. Brian Stewart, both Republicans, called for raising the threshold for passage of proposed amendments to the constitution to 60 percent. LaRose did not talk about the issue during his reelection campaign. Nonetheless, he and other proponents recommended the state legislature move swiftly to enact the change during a lame-duck session.

LaRose said the proposal was designed “to help protect the Ohio Constitution from continued abuse by special interests and out-of-state activists.” Later, Stewart said explicitly in a letter to fellow Republicans in the state House that the reason for the new proposal was because the left was trying to do “an end run around us” to put abortion rights into the state constitution and to give “unelected liberals” and allies on the state Supreme Court power to draw legislative districts.

That lame-duck session effort failed. But it has come back during the current legislative session in an even more restrictive fashion. Not only would the measure raise the threshold for passage to a three-fifths majority, it also would put a much heavier burden on the process of gathering signatures to qualify citizen amendments for the ballot.

The current rule is to gather signatures from at least 5 percent of registered voters in 44 counties. The new measure would extend that to all 88 counties in Ohio and would eliminate the curing period, or the time given to correct for faulty signatures. LaRose opposed these signature-related changes, saying they could disadvantage “truly citizen groups” using largely volunteer labor and give an advantage to corporate or other special interests who could afford paid signature gatherers. (The signature gathering changes would not take effect until next year so would not apply to the proposed reproductive rights amendment.)

There is one other wrinkle in all this. Ohio recently did away with its August elections (except in a few cases) on the grounds that they were costly and generally resulted in low turnout. Having failed to enact the rules change measure in the lame-duck session late last year, the first opportunity to take this to the voters would be next November, in which case it would not apply to the reproductive rights amendment.

So now, proponents of raising the threshold for passage of constitutional amendments also want to authorize an August election. State Senate President Matt Huffman (R) said recently that spending $20 million on an August election is worth the money “if we save 30,000 lives as a result.” The Ohio Health Department reported that there were less than 21,820 abortions performed in the state in 2021.

 

So yes, Ohio Republicans will do anything to keep their corrupt supermajority in power so that they can pass any law they want to, and they will do whatever it takes to do it. I remind you that the most corrupt state GOP party in America continues to ignore all rulings from Ohio's state Supreme Court concerning the GOP's unconstitutional gerrymander, you know, the one currently giving them unchecked power in the state.

Ohio Republicans will continue to make new rules and move the goalposts until nobody can ever challenge their power again, and several other state GOP legislatures will follow suit. One-party rule across the country, localized theocratic white supremacist fascism, with tens of millions given little to no voice, recourse, and no rights.

They aren't going to stop until we stop them.

Going Off The Rails

The story of a train derailment last week near East Palestine, Ohio is getting more and more bizarre, and more and more dangerous by the day. The Norfolk Southern train was carrying potentially dangerous chemicals and an axle broke, spilling cars and chemicals all over the place. The train caught fire, residents were evacuated, a controlled burn of vinyl chloride was conducted, and resident are now back.

And here's where things really start to go off the rails.

Days after a train carrying hazardous materials went off the tracks in northeastern Ohio, burst into flames and stoked fears of a “potential explosion,” authorities assured evacuated residents that it was safe to return to town.

More than a week after the derailment, Maura Todd is not convinced.

The headaches and nausea her family experienced at their house last weekend and the pungent odor that reminds her of a mixture of nail polish remover and burning tires told her otherwise, Todd said.

On Saturday, she was making plans to pack her bags and move away from East Palestine, Ohio, to Kentucky with her family and her three miniature Schnauzers — at least temporarily, Todd said.

“I’ve watched every news conference and I haven’t heard anything that makes me think that this is a data-driven decision,” Todd, 44, told The Washington Post. “We don’t feel like we have a whole lot of information.”

After the derailment, federal and local officials repeatedly told residents that the air quality was safe and that the water supply was untainted.

But more than a week after the Norfolk Southern train derailed — causing an explosion that sent flames into the air and a cloud of smoke across parts of the village, and leading authorities to release a toxic plume — residents told The Post that they had yet to see a full list of the chemicals that were aboard the train when it lost its course.

Without much information, residents and experts told The Post that they question whether it’s safe to return to their homes a week after contaminants flowed into local streams and spewed into the air. In some waterways, dead fish had been spotted, a state official confirmed at a news briefing, and residents returning to homes in a neighboring Pennsylvania town were advised by state officials to open their windows, turn on fans and wipe down all surfaces with diluted bleach.

“The biggest question remaining is what, if anything, is still being released from the site, first and foremost,” said Peter DeCarlo, an environmental health professor at Johns Hopkins University. “If there are still residual chemical emissions, then that still presents a danger for people in the area.”

It was 9 p.m. on Feb. 3 when 50 cars of a 141-car Norfolk Southern train derailed, igniting a large blaze near the hazardous chemicals that kept firefighters away for days. The derailment, which caused no injuries, probably was caused by mechanical issues on one of the rail car axles, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has said.

The incident caused further alarm nearly 48 hours after the crash, when changing conditions in a rail car caused authorities to warn of a possible “major explosion.” Officials on Monday conducted a “controlled release” of vinyl chloride to prevent a blast, and on Wednesday they allowed residents to return.

Some nights, resident Eric Whitining told The Post, the air smells like an “over-chlorinated swimming pool” and his eyes burn. He returned to his house the day authorities lifted the evacuation order. He can’t move his family of five out of their home, so he says he has no choice but to stay put and follow authorities’ instructions.

“For a small town, we have to trust them, because what else do we have to do?” Whitining said. “We have to trust that they are not lying to us.”

 

When  NewsNation correspondent Evan Lambert tried to ask questions at Ohio GOP Gov. Mike Dewine's press conference addressing the evacuation order, he was beaten and arrested by DeWine's State Police goons.

A reporter was pushed to the ground, handcuffed and arrested for trespassing while covering a news conference about the derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals in Ohio.

NewsNation posted video of correspondent Evan Lambert being arrested Wednesday in the gymnasium of an elementary school in East Palestine where Gov. Mike DeWine was giving an update about the accident.

Lambert was held for about five hours before being released from jail, NewsNation reported.

“I’m doing fine right now. It’s been an extremely long day,” Lambert said after his release. “No journalist expects to be arrested when you’re doing your job, and I think that’s really important that that doesn’t happen in our country.”

 

Now the fears are that burning the vinyl chloride, while preventing a devastating explosion, has now contaminated hundreds of square miles of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. 

Answers at this point are non-existent. Norfolk Southern has given East Palestine $25,000 (yes, twenty-five thousand, for a company that made billions last year in record profits) and they're expecting this to all just go away now.

Something tells me it won't.

Welcome To Gunmerica, Cincy Edition, Con't

Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval and the City Council are taking on Ohio Republicans with new gun safety ordnances for the city and a lawsuit to restore home rule for firearms regulations.

 

In an effort to curb gun violence, Cincinnati has two proposed ordinances for City Council to consider and has filed a lawsuit against the state.

The first ordinance addresses the safe storage of firearms to keep them away from children. The second ordinance would bar those convicted of domestic violence or subject to a protection order from processing firearms.

The ordinances are extensions or additions to existing laws. They give law enforcement and prosecutors a few more options when it comes to addressing gun violence in situations that might not rise to the level of a felony. As city ordinances, both of the new charges would be misdemeanors punishable by up to one year in prison.

However, cities in Ohio have largely been unsuccessful in passing gun legislation due to a 2006 law that has survived a challenge in the Ohio Supreme Court. Cincinnati's lawyers want to change that.

Often called the "preemption law," it bars political subdivisions (like cities and counties) from regulating firearms, their components, ammunition, and knives. Ohio's gun lobby has successfully sued Cincinnati and other cities in the past to block gun restrictions. In 2018, Cincinnati's ban on bump stocks was stopped in this way.

“Keeping residents safe is the top priority of our City government," Mayor Aftab Pureval said. "Gun safety measures save lives, and we will continue to do everything in our power to put an end to gun violence in Cincinnati.”

Last week, the city filed a lawsuit seeking that the "preemption law" be declared unconstitutional.

 

We'll see. Ohio's Supreme Court may choose to take this up and make a ruling, but I'm sure Ohio Republicans will find a way to block the law anyway by sending whatever legislation is needed to Gov. Mike DeWine's desk.

 

But at least Pureval is having this fight. Good on him.

Last Call For Ohio Takes Your Vote

The Ohio GOP's first order of business: permanently disenfranchising Black voters in the state's largest urban counties with photo ID requirements and by limiting all counties to one early voting drop box.

 

Gov. Mike DeWine signed a major overhaul of state election laws on Friday that will require voters to present a photo ID at the polls.

Under the new law, voters must present a photo ID when they cast their ballot in person, although the ID doesn't need to have their current address on it. Qualifying IDs include an Ohio driver's license, state ID, U.S. passport, passport card, military ID or interim identification issued by the Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

Voters could previously use alternative forms of identification at the polls, such as utility bills or bank statements.

As part of the new rules, any Ohioans 17 and older will be eligible to receive a free state ID card. Ohio licenses and ID cards must also note if the person is not a U.S. citizen.

The law also:

• Requires completed mail-in ballots to arrive within four days of Election Day, instead of 10.
• Requires voters who want to vote by mail to submit an application at least seven days before Election Day, instead of three.
• Permits only one ballot drop box per county that's installed at the county board of elections office.
• Eliminates in-person voting the Monday before Election Day and reallocates those hours to another time.
• Gives provisional voters until four days after the election to provide missing information to election officials, instead of seven days.
• Give boards of elections until eight days after the election to determine whether provisional ballots can be counted.
• Eliminates most special elections in August unless the county, municipality or school district is under a fiscal emergency.
• Prohibits curbside voting, unless the voter has a disability and is unable to enter their polling place.
• Allows all 17-year-olds to serve as election officials, not just high school seniors.

 

Nearly every one of these measures is designed to make it more difficult for voters in large, urban counties like Hamilton and Cuyahoga to vote, particularly if they are not able to vote in person, or unable to spend a day at the DMV getting a state ID. The citizenship requirement is also there to scare off Hispanic voters.  

Ohio remains one of the most lawless states in the nation when it comes to the GOP ignoring state supreme court rulings and vote suppression tactics, and there's zero reason to believe things will improve in the state at all.

Last Call For The Road To Gilead Goes Through Ohio, Con't

The Right-Wing Noise Machine™ has spent this week attacking an Ohio doctor who was forced to refer a ten-year-old child who was sexually assaulted and impregnated to get an abortion out of state in Indiana because of Ohio's "Heartbeat Bill" six-week ban on abortions reinstated by the state's GOP Attorney General, Dave Yost, the day after Roe v Wade was struck down by the Supreme Court.  Several right wing news outlets called the story a hoax, even the Ny Times and Washington Post openly questioned the validity of the story.

Yost himself went on FOX News last night to say there wasn't a "whisper" of evidence that the story was true, that there wasn't a "damn scintilla of evidence".

Less than 24 hours later, a Columbus man was arraigned on those exact charges.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost appeared on Fox News this week, casting doubt on the veracity of Dr. Caitlin Bernard's account that a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim needed to travel to Indiana for an abortion.

Yost, a Republican, doubled down on that in an interview with the USA TODAY Network Ohio bureau on Tuesday.

"Every day that goes by the more likely that this is a fabrication. I know the cops and prosecutors in this state. There's not one of them that wouldn't be turning over every rock, looking for this guy and they would have charged him," he said. "I'm not saying it could not have happened. What I'm saying to you is there is not a damn scintilla of evidence. And shame on the Indianapolis paper that ran this thing on a single source who has an obvious axe to grind.""

After news broke Wednesday of an arrest in the case, Yost issued a single sentence statement: "We rejoice anytime a child rapist is taken off the streets."

He later added that he's "absolutely delighted that this monster has been taken off the street. If convicted, he should spend the rest of his life in prison."

Gershon Fuentes, 27, of Columbus, was arrested Tuesday after police say he confessed to raping the child. He is charged with rape.

Yost is endorsed by the Ohio Right to Life PAC.

The same day that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Yost went to federal court to lift a stay on an Ohio law that bans abortion once fetal cardiac activity can be detected, usually about six weeks into a pregnancy.

Called the "heartbeat" ban, the new law prohibits abortions, including in cases of rape or incest. The only exception is if the life of the mother were in jeopardy.

Democrat Jeff Crossman, Yost's opponent in the AG's race, said the attorney general misrepresented the law, indicating a 10-year-old would qualify for an exception when there is no exceptions for rape and incest. "He doesn't care about the facts."

Last week, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine called the child rape case a "tragedy," but didn't weigh in on the law he signed that barred her from getting the procedure in Ohio.

On Wednesday, a spokesman for DeWine said the governor has no further comment.

"And he has said that if the evidence supports, the rapist should spend the rest of his life in prison," said DeWine press secretary Dan Tierney.

Former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, who is running against DeWine for governor, called on both DeWine and Yost to apologize for questioning the validity of the case.

The DeWine campaign called Whaley's statement misleading and false, saying "At no point did he express anything but empathy and compassion and demanded justice for the child victim."

 

Which is another lie.

 

If Yost is lying, and he is, it shows just how awful Ohio's new abortion ban is going to be.

 

But you know what? if he was actually telling the truth, the same thing would apply.

 

 

Another Day In Gunmerica, Con't

GOP Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine says he will sign legislation passed this week in order to arm teachers in schools.

 

Ohio school districts could begin arming employees as soon as this fall under legislation approved by Republican lawmakers and set to be signed by GOP Gov. Mike DeWine.

Democrats said the proposal, which is optional for schools, sends the wrong message a week after the massacre of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Republicans say the measure could prevent such shootings. Lawmakers fast-tracked the legislation to counter the impact of a court ruling that said, under current law, armed school workers would need hundreds of hours of training.

The bill will protect children by ensuring instruction is specific to schools and including significant scenario-based training, DeWine said late Wednesday in announcing his support.

The measure is opposed by major law enforcement groups, gun control advocates, and the state's teachers' unions, which asked DeWine to veto the measure. It's supported by a handful of police departments and school districts.

Under the latest version of the bill, school employees who carry guns would need up to 24 hours of initial training, then up to eight hours of requalification training annually.

DeWine, who is expected to sign the bill later this month, also announced that the state's construction budget will provide $100 million for school security upgrades in schools and $5 million for upgrades at colleges.

 

So the response to school shootings in Ohio is:

 

• Put more guns readily available in classrooms
• Give teachers a day's training to keep packing
• Turn schools into prison complex fortresses
• Continue to terrorize kids with shooting drills 
• Waste $100 million that should go anywhere else
  

 

In any other country this would considered insanity, Ohio would serve as a dark cautionary tale, and DeWine's career would be over. Instead, because this is Gunmerica, Louisiana is going to allow teachers to start packing heat too and I expect several other states will follow.

 

By the way, police officers in Ohio need hundreds of hours of training before going on the job, over 600 in fact.  Teachers, well, we'll give them 3 days.  Still, that's more than security guards get, they only have to have 20 hours and 4 each year for recertification, so that's good right?

Kids are actually going to die in Ohio classrooms where they will be shot and killed by Ohio teachers in entirely preventable deaths, but do go on about school safety.

There's also some good and bad news out of Buffalo this week too.

Rep. Chris Jacobs, an Orchard Park Republican, said Friday that he was withdrawing as the GOP and Conservative candidate for Congress in the newly redrawn 23rd District, acknowledging that his newfound views on gun control place him at odds with the parties that endorsed him.

"This obviously arises out of last Friday, my remarks, statements on being receptive to gun controls," Jacobs said in an interview. "And since that time, every Republican elected (official) that had endorsed me withdrew their endorsement. Party officials that supported me withdrew, most of them, and those that were going to said they would not. And so obviously, this was not well received by the Republican base."

What's more, both the Republican and Conservative parties were circulating petitions for candidates to run against Jacobs in the Aug. 23 congressional primaries.

"I truly believe that I could win this, but it would be an incredibly divisive race for our party, for the district," Jacobs said. "There's a high likelihood that there would be a lot of outside money coming in, so it would make this gun issue the issue. And that divisiveness not good in any effort to move this discussion forward in a productive way."

It's good news because there are no good Republicans who are staying in the party and Congress, so Rep. Jacobs leaving because he knows he can't win in Buffalo as a gun safety Republican, and he still voted against Biden 75% of the time anyway. We're all better of with him being replaced.

 

The bad news is that remaining Republicans are even more nuts than Jacobs.

 

Just another day in Gunmerica.

Last Call For The Buckeye Purge

Ohio Republicans took a constitutional amendment on redistricting to the voters in 2018, and it passed overwhelmingly. Of course, with the GOP having a two-thirds supermajority in the state House and Senate, when the "bi-partisan" vote for redistricting went south, the "independent" redistricting commission formed to rectify the situation was made entirely of Republicans, along with GOP Governor Mike DeWine. It should have been a slam dunk for permanent Republican rule in the state, except for one thing...

The state's Supreme Court got the final say on the redistricting maps. And despite a 4-3 Republican majority on the bench, Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor is siding with the court's three Democrats to declare the maps unconstitutional.  In fact, the state GOP is now 0-3 as of this week, putting the state's scheduled May 3 primaries in jeopardy.

But now, the state GOP has decided to make its counterattack, and House and Senate Republicans in the state realize they have the numbers to impeach and remove Justice O'Connor from the court completely.

 

House Republicans are discussing whether to impeach Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor after the Ohio Supreme Court rejected a third set of legislative maps and effectively ended all hope of a full May 3rd primary.

The court struck down the maps on Wednesday with O'Connor as the deciding vote, sending the Ohio Redistricting Commission back to the drawing board for the fourth time. A ruling on the latest congressional maps is expected any day.

O'Connor, a Republican, is seen as an independent voice on the court and sided with Democrat justices to throw out multiple sets of maps, arguing they did not comply with constitutional rules for redistricting. That's increasingly made her a target of fellow party members who contend she's shirking her responsibilities.

"It's time to impeach Maureen O'Connor now," Rep. Scott Wiggam, R-Wayne County, tweeted Thursday.

An email from a Republican state central committee member, obtained by USA TODAY Network Ohio, said an unnamed lawmaker disclosed that they would be filing an impeachment charge against O'Connor. Multiple House Republicans said there have been discussions about the matter, but it's unclear if any decisions have been made.

"I don’t understand what the woman wants," said state Rep. Sara Carruthers, R-Hamilton.

A statehouse insider, who requested anonymity to discuss the situation candidly, also confirmed Republican lawmakers are mulling impeachment and may move forward in the coming days.

"I don't know if it moves or not," the source said. "Judging by conversations I'm aware of, there is growing support for this move. I don't know if there's enough."

 

We're at a point where Ohio Republicans are going to try to impeach a state Supreme COurt Chief Justice because she ruled against their maps giving them permanent control of the legislature.

 

This is an extremely dangerous point in history, folks.

 

Stay tuned.

Like A Trouble Over Water, Bridge

The Brent Spence Bridge replacement project has always been a political landmine around here, former GOP Gov. Matt Bevin lost reelection because his plan was to charge tolls in Northern Kentucky to get to work in Cincinnati, which cost him just enough support in NKY counties in 2019 to lose. 

After decades of being blocked by Kentucky GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell, making a new span alongside the JFK Camelot-era bridge is finally getting off the ground thanks to the Biden Infrastructure bill and Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.

 

The Brent Spence Bridge between Ohio and Kentucky could finally be getting its companion bridge – and it won't require new tolls.

At a news conference Monday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear announced plans to apply for two federal grants totaling up to $2 billion to fund a new bridge to carry Interstates 71 and 75 over the Ohio River.

"I want to be able to break ground next year,'' said Beshear, a Democrat, during the news conference.

The application for funding is expected to be submitted within the next few months and a final decision on the funding could happen in the fall of 2023, officials said.

The total cost of the new bridge would be about $2.8 billion, according to DeWine, a Republican. Kentucky and Ohio will contribute whatever funds aren't covered by the federal government.

Both states will apply for the grants together once the U.S. Department of Transportation releases guidance on the application process. Governors DeWine and Beshear said it's unclear exactly when that may be.

Transportation officials estimated construction of the companion bridge and improvements to the Brent Spence would take about five years to complete.

Beshear and DeWine said the new bridge would be built without tolls.

In the 1990s, the Federal Highway Administration declared the Brent Spence functionally obsolete because its narrow lanes carried more cars than it was designed for – with no emergency lane.

The Brent Spence was built in 1963 to handle 80,000 vehicles a day, but is now used by double that number.

Improvements to the existing bridge and building a new companion bridge would add much-needed capacity by separating local and through traffic to ease the ongoing traffic backups and accidents.

 

Now there's still quite a bit that could go wrong here, but it's the Brent Spence Bridge that put Andy Beshear in office, and getting ground broken on that project before election day next year will be the only shot he has of winning a second term. 

 

Considering the bridge was out of commission for six weeks in November and December 2020 after a major truck accident, getting it replaced has suddenly become a major local priority for Democrats and Republicans considering how much damage was done to NKY's economy.

 

Mike DeWine gets to avoid being the bad guy here, too. He gets to look like the sensible, bipartisan type (despite being a screaming right-wing nutjob) and he gets to put something on the board other than the state's massively corrupt GOP state legislature.

 

But I'm guessing, cynically, that McConnell will take credit for the eventualy groundbreaking for the bridge in 2024, when Kentucky almost certainly has a new Republican governor.

DeWine's Purity Problem

Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine is facing increasingly angry (and violent) Republicans who don't find him sufficiently loyal to Herr Trumpenfuhrer, and it spilled over into confrontation at Friday's party Central Committee meeting.

An Ohio Republican Party Central Committee meeting ended abruptly Friday after raucous opponents of Gov. Mike DeWine in the audience refused to leave even after party officials brought in sheriff’s deputies.

The decision to adjourn the meeting because of heckling and interruptions from the audience came after Ohio GOP Chair Bob Paduchik and other state party leaders themselves engaged in an often-heated debate with several committee members over party contributions given to DeWine’s re-election campaign.

The boisterous meeting is the latest illustration of how divisive DeWine, a Greene County Republican, has become among Ohio conservatives. DeWine has built strong Republican connections during his 40-plus years in politics, but there has been growing discontent on the farther right -- both within the state GOP and among activists -- about many of his actions in office, such as stay-at-home and business closure orders issued in the early weeks of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Ex-U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci and Columbus-area farmer Joe Blystone are challenging DeWine in next year’s primary, though DeWine has significantly more money and name recognition than either challenger.

The state GOP’s central committee was unusually contentious from the start. Debates broke out on usually mundane agenda items such as approving the minutes of the previous meeting and the treasurer’s report.

Friday’s meeting agenda included five proposed resolutions -- an “unprecedented” number, Paduchik said -- that sought to, among other things, demand the return of nearly $900,000 the state GOP gave DeWine’s campaign in cash and in-kind contributions.

Another resolution sought to expand an audit of party finances, ordered after Paduchik announced a roughly $640,000 accounting error, which involved past party contributions to former Rep. Steve Stivers. The effort to expand the audit to include the years 2017 and 2018 has a political significance, as Jane Timken -- now a candidate for U.S. Senate -- was state party chair at the time.

The sponsor of that resolution, committee member Mark Bainbridge, criticized state party treasurer Dave Johnson about party finances, leading Johnson to reply, “I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.”

Bainbridge and four other committee members filed a lawsuit against the Ohio Republican Party earlier this week over the financial issues.

Both those resolutions and a third attempting to reverse Paduchik’s reorganization of standing committee members were tabled.

As the debate among committee members began, demonstrators in the audience, crowded together in the back of a room at a conference center in suburban Columbus, began to jeer Paduchik and supporters, leading Paduchik to issue multiple warnings to them to quiet down.

After the vote on the third resolution, committee member LeeAnn Johnson said the audience was harassing committee members and trying to participate in voice votes. That led the central committee to adjourn and Paduchik to order everyone to leave the room except committee members and credentialed media.

When some audience members remained in the room after several minutes, the committee voted to end the meeting. Sheriff’s deputies entered the room, though a reporter didn’t see the deputies attempting to forcibly remove anyone from the premises.

The demonstrators came from a number of other places around Ohio, representing a variety of groups. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Pukita urged supporters on social media to attend the meeting.

Christine Gingerich, a member of a Canton-based group called “We The People,” said she came to the meeting because she heard -- inaccurately, as it turned out -- that the central committee might vote to endorse DeWine for re-election. Charlotte Chipps of Morrow County, who’s helping Blystone’s campaign, said she attended for the same reason.

The state GOP central committee will meet next on Feb. 4, 2022, said party spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin. It remains to be seen whether the committee will take up the two resolutions it didn’t get to on Friday, both of which seek to reduce the number of central committee members eligible to vote on endorsing DeWine in the 2022 GOP primary.

 

There's no guarantee that Gov. DeWine will even be the GOP candidate at this point, let alone get another term.  We'll see.

Ohio Republicans New Trans-Ender Policy

Ohio Republicans have decided that of all the problems facing the Buckeye State right now, the one that needs immediate attention is quite literally making trans kids illegal under state law.

 

A new bill would prohibit children under age 18 from obtaining hormones treatments, puberty blockers and surgery to transition genders, even with parental consent.

House Bill 454, called the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act, is sponsored by a quarter of the Ohio House. All are Republicans. There are two sponsors — Reps. Gary Click of Sandusky County and Diane Grendell of Geauga County. Twenty-three Republicans are cosponsoring the bill.

The bill seeks to prevent gender-affirming health of youth under 18 through a handful of actions: Through restrictions on private insurance plans and Ohio Medicaid, potential sanctions on the licenses of medical professionals, potential cuts to public funding of hospitals and clinics, limits to what a school official can keep from parents when a child shares their gender identity in private.

The bill is similar to Arkansas’ SAFE Act, which Gov. Asa Hutchinson vetoed on April 5. A day later, the legislature overrode the veto. By July 21, a federal judge stopped the bill from going into effect as a lawsuit over its constitutionality wends its way through the courts.

Aaron Baer, president of the Center for Christian Virtue, a Christian conservative policy organization formerly known as Citizens for Community Values, said that his group is championing the bill in Ohio and helped draft HB 454. It contains the same provisions as the Arkansas bill, which the Family Research Council and the Alliance Defending Freedom helped author.

“We’ve been talking about this issue for a very long time,” he said.

Maria Bruno, Equality Ohio’s public policy director, said it’s appalling to see Ohio children being used as political pawns by lawmakers seeking re-election.

“This bill attempts to ban evidence-based medical treatment that is supported by medical professionals, including but not limited to the American Academy of Pediatricians, the Endocrine Society, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the American Psychiatric Association,” she said.

 

The party of "you'll never take OUR FREEDOMS" and "GOVERNMENT STAY OUT" again has no problem turning the entirety of society into a mechanism of state-enforced monitoring of kids to prevent them being trans, requiring the punishing adults for helping them, and destroying their support networks with no recourse or remorse.

Even the bill's name, Save Adolescents From Experimentation, relegates being trans to "a dangerous phase we have to save kids from" rather than "We should help these kids navigate some really tough choices here and let them know they are loved."

No, it's YOU ARE ILLEGAL and IF YOU DO THIS ADULTS WHO CARE WILL BE PUNISHED, to kids.

To kids.

 

Republicans are horrific monsters. And it doesn't matter what DeWine thinks because his veto will be overridden if this many Republicans are co-sponsors.

The Buckeye Battle Royale

Everybody's after Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine's job in 2022 as he faces tough challengers from both parties, the latest of which is Cincy Mayor John Cranley.

 

Two-term Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley joined the race for Ohio governor on Tuesday, pledging to modernize Ohio’s infrastructure and economy with proceeds from legalizing marijuana and to extract money from energy companies for homeowner rebates that will help lift family budgets.

With the launch of his campaign Tuesday, Cranley joins his friend, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, in the Democratic field. She announced her bid April 19. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine is expected to run for a second term, a campaign that will begin with a contested primary.

Cranley, 47, had been exploring a bid for the Democratic nomination for months and had raised more than $1.3 million for the effort as of July. Whaley reported raising more than $1.6 million.

First elected mayor in 2013, Cranley is term-limited from running again this year. He points to his record as chief executive of a major city that’s growing while others languish to show his capability to lead the state.

“Ohio needs a comeback and deserves a governor who has led a comeback,” Cranley told The Associated Press in an interview. “It’s not going to be easy to take a state like Ohio, which like so many in the Midwest has been in decline, and to have it come back again, but that’s what we’re going to do.”

He said the GOP-controlled state Legislature has been tainted by corruption and puts the interests of big corporations over workers. He said he will make “jobs, jobs, and more jobs” his priority.

Cranley’s economic plan calls for creating 30,000 new $60,000-a-year jobs annually in such areas as advanced manufacturing and renewable energy, and to improve Ohio roads, water systems and broadband networks.

He proposes using tax revenue from legalizing recreational marijuana, now legal in neighboring Michigan and 17 other states, to pay for his programs. He also would reconfigure Ohio’s privatized job creation office, JobsOhio. He also proposes offering Ohio homeowners $500 dividends paid for from energy company profits.

As mayor, Cranley, who twice lost congressional races against Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot of Cincinnati, aggressively pursued a new soccer stadium project that helped the city land a Major League Soccer franchise and helped Cincinnati police acquire a cutting-edge ShotSpotter gunshot detection system.

His 2018 feud with a city manager who accused Cranley of overstepping his authority to undermine the city manager’s role drew criticism from some fellow Democrats. The city manager eventually resigned with a severance agreement.

Although Cranley, a Roman Catholic, personally opposes abortion, he doesn’t think government should pass restrictions on the procedure that spark expensive, often unsuccessful, legal battles because “it’s just not a good use of scarce resources.”

“I’m pro-choice. I’ve struggled as a matter of faith,” said Cranley, who supports same-sex marriage. As governor, Cranley said he would veto any incursions on the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

While both Cranley and Whaley have managed to keep their noses clean in their respective city's federal bribery scandals on City Council, I just don't see how either one gets more than 40% of the vote in Ohio in 2022.

Of course, I'm expecting DeWine to be replaced by somebody far worse. Former GOP Rep. Jim Renacci has already stepped in on the Republican side and I can bet you dollars to doughnuts that more are coming over the next 12 months.

Stay tuned.

Last Call For Gov. Mike, De Slime

Never forget for a moment that red state Republicans want anyone who isn't a white, straight Christian removed from "their" state by legalized attrition through denial of basic services.

In the latest state-level swing at LGBTQ health care access, Ohio will now allow medical providers to refuse to administer any medical treatment that violates their moral, ethical, or religious beliefs.

The language was buried in a 700-page document of last-minute amendments to the state’s two-year budget bill, which Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine approved last Thursday. The provision allows anyone providing medical care — from doctors and nurses to researchers and lab techs – and anyone paying for that care (namely, insurance providers), “the freedom to decline to perform, participate in, or pay for any health care service which violates the practitioner’s, institution’s, or payer’s conscience as informed by the moral, ethical, or religious beliefs.”

The bill does not allow medical professionals to deny LGBTQ people care, carte blanche; the exemption “is limited to conscience-based objections to a particular health care service.” It goes on to say that the provider is “responsible for providing all appropriate health care services, other than the particular health care service that conflicts with the medical practitioner’s beliefs or convictions, until another medical practitioner or facility is available.”

But the bill was overwhelmingly opposed by the state’s medical community. “The implications of this policy are immense and could lead to situations where patient care is unacceptably compromised,” read a letter to budget negotiators, signed by the Ohio Hospital Association, the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association, the Ohio State Medical Association, and the Ohio Association of Health Plans.

Gov. DeWine could have struck the language while signing the rest of the budget into law, but declined to do so, despite issuing 14 other line-item vetoes.

State and national LGBTQ advocates started sounding the alarm in June, when the language was introduced, saying that it will prevent LGBTQ people from accessing the health care they need. With this newly enacted language in place, a medical provider could refuse to prescribe PrEP to an LGBTQ patient looking to reduce their risk of contracting HIV, or refuse to provide gender-affirming care to trans and nonbinary patients, or puberty blockers to transgender minors. Equality Ohio called it a “license to discriminate,” and Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David said that it jeopardizes “the medical well being of more than 380,000 LGBTQ people in Ohio.”

Gov. DeWine has insisted that this provision won’t change the standard of care in Ohio. “This is not a problem,” he told a local news station. “If there’s other things that maybe a doctor has a problem with, it’s worked out. Somebody else does those things” — referring to a loosely written clause that requires that the medical professional, when possible, “attempt to transfer the patient to a colleague who will provide the requested procedure,” as long as making that referral doesn’t violate their conscience as well.

But even if the medical professional does attempt to make that referral, a quarter of Ohio’s population lives in rural counties, where LGBTQ-friendly medical care is sparse. And for queer elders living in long-term care facilities, options are even slimmer.

Local advocates have also called foul on lawmakers’ move to insert the clause last-minute into the state’s massive two-year, 2,400-page budget bill. “They know that they couldn’t pass this on its merits as a standalone bill, because literally no one is asking for this to be passed,” Dominic Detwiler, a public policy strategist for Equality Ohio told the Columbus Dispatch.

 

Right-wing assholes like DeWine have used tactics like these for generations: if you want to get rid of "undesirables" just legalize discrimination that codifies them as second-class citizens. Nothing's more American.

And of course, the Roberts Court will see that this legalized discrimination remains "constitutional".

The Return of Austerity Hysteria, Con't

As July 1 deadlines for state budget fiscal years are approaching across the country, red states are eagerly cutting pandemic benefits and GOP lawmakers are getting back to adding cruel means testing so that families fight over the scraps that remain. Ohio is a perfect example of this.

Republicans in the Ohio Senate dropped a series of last-minute changes into their version of the state budget bill that would change the rules for families who get assistance with their groceries.

Supporters say the changes would make Ohio's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, sometimes referred to as food stamps, more secure and therefore better able to serve families in need.

"Unfortunately, a lot of folks take advantage of that who don’t qualify," Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said.

But opponents argue the changes — especially the "low limit" on total assets — will have the opposite effect.

"It’s going to take food out of the mouths of hungry children and working families," Ohio Association of Foodbanks Director Lisa Hamler-Fugitt said.

Here's what the changes would do.

Ohioans who receive food assistance would have 30 days to notify the program of a change in income that was more than $500. Parents would have to cooperate "with the child support enforcement program" as a condition of eligibility. And the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services would have to "conduct an asset test for each SNAP recipient."

The problem, Hamler-Fugitt said, is that the Senate set the total limit at $2,250.

"Families are going to have to sell their cars to keep their SNAP benefits ...," she said. "Senior citizens who may have a modest burial insurance policy would have to liquidate that policy in order to feed themselves."

But John Fortney, a spokesman for Senate Republicans, called those analogies unfair. The Senate plan requires Ohio to verify the current federal guidelines, which sets that asset limit for people under 60 who are not disabled. And it excludes the value of homes less than $600,000 and cars used for work or those worth less than $4,650.

“This simply follows federal guidelines," Fortney said. "We want to make sure these critical funds are available to those who need them the most.”

Another issue Hamler-Fugitt had with proposed changes was child support. Requiring women — some of whom are victims of domestic violence — to seek a formal agreement is going to push them out of the system.

"These families have just cause for not pursuing a formal child support arrangement," Hamler-Fugitt said.

 

Just like Republican love to put in as many loopholes as possible to keep the wealthy from having to pay taxes, they're adding loopholes to prevent people from getting benefits. Republicans want you to be poor, trapped in a series of low-wage jobs that don't pay a living wage, because you're easier to control then. Eventually you slip off the knife's edge and you end up in the abyss, and you're no longer worth worrying about.

We disappear thousands, if not millions of Americans each year this way, and that's exactly what the GOP wants.

(Un)Vaccination Nation

Ohio Republicans are about to get rid of vaccine requirements and make them illegal. Not making COVID vaccine requirements illegal,making all vaccine requirements illegal.

Through PSAs, press appearances with doctors, and even launching an unheard of $1 million lottery for immunized residents, GOP Gov. Mike DeWine wants to persuade Ohioans to choose to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

He said the facts on vaccines, which are credited with saving millions of lives and eradicating smallpox from the face of the earth, will win out.

Republicans in the state General Assembly, meanwhile, are pushing sweeping legislation to weaken Ohio’s vaccination laws — for all vaccines, not just COVID-19. On Tuesday, anti-vaccination activists crammed into the House Health Committee hearing room to testify in support of House Bill 248.

The legislation would ban vaccine requirements on customers, employees or students from businesses, hospitals, nursing homes, K-12 schools, colleges, daycares, or others. It would also prevent governments, insurers, or businesses from offering incentives for people to get vaccinated, or even requesting that people get vaccinated.

In interviews, public health experts warned the legislation would hold the door open for infectious diseases to spread among Ohioans.

Under the bill, a small business owned by asthmatics or cancer survivors — both of whom are at higher risk of serious COVID-19 complications — would have no legal right to require or even request that employees or customers who come inside be vaccinated. That’s according to Dorit Reiss, a professor with a focus on vaccine policy from the UC Hastings College of Law.

“It’s against business rights, it’s against the individual rights of private businesses, it’s against safety, and it’s in support of the virus,” she said.

 

Ohio already allows parents to exempt kids from vaccinations out of choice (and the state's vaccination level among children has dropped to 88%), but this would essentially reverse decades of medical science and thousands would end up suffering from preventable diseases like measles, mumps, and rubella.

But Republicans are bound and determined to kill as many Ohioans as possible. Everyone has to suffer and die for their utter stupidity. DeWine, for his part, is trying to stop this bill, but he can easily be overridden.

We'll see if Ohio becomes a third world country.

Portman, In A Storm

Ohio GOP Senator Rob Portman is the latest Republican in the upper chamber to announce his intent to retire in 2022, opening up a battle royale across the Ohio GOP for his seat.

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman emphasized bipartisanship as he announced he will not be running for re-election.

He said he hopes he will be remembered for the legislation he passed, and he urged politicians to do a better job of working together.

“If we just keep pushing out to the right and to the left, there’s not going to be much left in the middle to solve the real problems we face,” he said.

Portman whining about his Senate colleagues and "lack of bipartisanship" is just about the ultimate expression of eau d'Portman, the man has all the intestinal fortitude of a jar of Miracle Whip left out in the sun for a year.  To whit:

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman said he hasn’t decided how he will vote on impeachment during former President Donald Trump’s trial.

“I’m a juror, it’s going to happen,” Portman said. “As a juror, I’m going to listen to both sides. That’s my job.”

Portman said Trump contributed to partisan gridlock in Washington, and he also laid blame on Trump for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

And Portman will refuse to convict just like the first time, because Rob Portman is a coward through and through.

The worst part about all this is that the smart money on Portman's replacement in the Senate is almost certainly on the repugnant Rep. Jim Jordan, and that's only because Gov. Mike DeWine was already a Senator once and seems to be happy as governor for now.

And no, considering the Ohio Democrats couldn't beat one single Ohio legislature Republican who voted for the scandalous multi-billion dollar FirstEnergy kickback bill last year, plus all the city council scandals that have sunk folks like P.G. Sittenfeld (and everyone hating Mayor Cranley) I barely expect Ohio Dems to be able to run a candidate, let alone win.

Short of Dem Sen. Sherrod Brown having a twin brother we don't know about, this seat is going to go to an even worse Republican in 2022.

Sadly, I have to give Jim Jordan his own tag now, because we're not going to be able to escape him now here in the Cincy media for the next two years.

Last Call For Pepper Canned, Pepper Canned

 Much too fooled to make the grade, Pepper canned, he is gone after millions....

Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper announced Monday that he will step down at the end of the year.

Democrats now have a month to decide the future of their party and who will lead it. The assignment is a tough one: revive the party in rural Ohio, improve on victories in metropolitan counties and raise enough money to unseat Republicans who control every branch of Ohio government.

The uphill climb will start immediately. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Terrace Park, and Gov. Mike DeWine are running for re-election in 2022, and they will need credible, well-funded challengers.

Pepper took over the Ohio Democratic Party in 2015 after the party lost every statewide race in 2014, including Pepper's bid against DeWine for attorney general. Former chairman Chris Redfern resigned after losing his Statehouse seat as well.

Pepper, a former Cincinnati City councilman and Hamilton County commissioner, emphasized building up the party's bench with a diverse group of local candidates. During his tenure, Democrats improved their showing in metropolitan counties, gaining control of the Hamilton County Commission and winning Statehouse seats in Columbus' Franklin County.

Between 2018 and 2020, Democrats re-elected U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and picked up three seats on the Ohio Supreme Court – a push Pepper hopes will help to fend off gerrymandered maps going forward.

 

Pepper's failure wasn't total and complete, in other words, but the guy presided over the absolute death of Ohio Democrats as a going concern. It's not as dire as Kentucky Democrats, who have recently elected Colmon Eldridge, the first Black man to lead the party, or Indiana Democrats, who have already buried themselves along with party chair John Zody, but it's rough being a Democrat out here in the Midwest.

Hopefully Biden will help Dems out here.

Lord knows we need it.

The Coup-Coup Birds Take Flight

No big deal, just people openly calling for the extermination of Joe Biden, the Democratic party and the media like normal.

End Times conspiracy theorist Rick Wiles hopes that Donald Trump and Bill Barr will line Democrats, the news media, leftists, scientists, and professors up against a wall and shoot them "because that's what they deserve." pic.twitter.com/cTw8t5qenu

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) November 30, 2020

 

So yeah, completely normal behavior for the right.

The fun part is when Trump tweets his agreement with this sentiment, or worse, tells his followers that they need to be the ones making this happen.

Also, over the river in Ohio, state Republicans are now going after Republican Gov. Mike DeWine for terrorism charges. No, really.

After failing to impeach Gov. Mike DeWine over his COVID-19 response, Clermont County Republican Rep. John Becker tried – and shortly after failed – to charge him with a slew of criminal offenses, including terrorism, bribery and interfering with civil rights.

Becker accused DeWine of disenfranchising voters, threatening the health of Ohioans by closing hospitals to non-emergency procedures and shuttering businesses in a private citizen affidavit filed with Clermont County Municipal Court on Monday morning.

Clermont County Municipal Court Clerk Tim Rudd sent the request to prosecutor Vince Faris for review, and Faris rejected it shortly after.

"I do not find any basis for the filing of a criminal complaint pursuant to this affidavit," Faris, a Republican, told The Enquirer. Becker's quest ended just hours after it started.

The now-moot affidavit accuses DeWine of several crimes including:

• Engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, a second-degree felony
• Complicity, a second-degree felony
• Terrorism, a third-degree felony
• Making terroristic threats, a third-degree felony
• Inducing panic, third-degree felony
• Conspiracy, a third-degree felony
• Bribery, a fourth-degree felony
• Interfering with civil rights, a first-degree misdemeanor
• Coercion, a second-degree misdemeanor
• Patient abuse or neglect, a second-degree misdemeanor

Asked for comment, DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney replied: "If this were serious, I would have a comment. Because it is patently absurd, I do not."

Becker encouraged others to file their own complaints.

“The governor simply isn’t getting the message that the people’s liberties need to be respected and a governor has no right to assume imperial and dictatorial powers without regard to any alleged emergency,” Becker said in a statement.

 

Again, I hope Ohio state police are ready to deal with the death threats DeWine is almost certainly getting. And when Trump directs his flying monkeys to start violence, I hope America is ready to deal with what's next.

 

It's not going to be pretty, folks.

 

Householder Of Cards, Con't

The saga of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder continues as the FBI raided the home of the chairman of the state's public utilities commission, Sam Randazzo, this morning, carting off various boxes of evidence in the case against multiple Ohio Republicans accused in a $60 billion slush fund scheme allegedly involving Ohio power company FirstEnergy.

FBI agents were seen outside the home of Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chairman Sam Randazzo Monday morning.

Agents were going in and out of 645 S. Grant Ave. in German Village, which is owned by Randazzo, according to Franklin County auditor records.

"FBI agents are conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity in that area in relation to a sealed federal search warrant," FBI spokesman Todd Lindgren told The Enquirer, adding no arrests have been made and none are planned at this time.

Randazzo was appointed to the PUCO, which regulates Ohio utilities, and designated chairman by Gov. Mike DeWine in 2019.

“We are aware of the search warrant," DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said. "We are monitoring this as it progresses."

Before leading the commission, Randazzo was a lobbyist and an attorney for energy companies and the Industrial Energy Users-Ohio, which represents some of the state’s largest industries.

Randazzo’s company Sustainability Funding Alliance of Ohio, Inc. was listed as a company used by FirstEnergy subsidiary FirstEnergy Solutions on the company’s December 2018 bankruptcy report.

PUCO is currently auditing FirstEnergy Corp., the company allegedly at the center of a nearly $61 million bribery scheme to pass a nearly $1 billion bailout for two nuclear plants then-owned by FirstEnergy Solutions.

I can't imagine Randazzo won't be charged at some point and pressured to flip. Householder is almost certainly toast too. But that brings us to the big target here, Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine himself. With so many of the state's most powerful Republicans involved in the FirstEnergy scandal, DeWine is eventually going to have to have a little chat with the FBI, and the sooner the better for DeWine, who faces re-election in 2022.

Of course, Republicans gained seats in 2020 in Ohio's House and Senate, and all the lawmakers who voted for the corrupt pay-for-play bill that cost Ohio ratepayers a billion bucks kept their jobs thanks to voters.

Every single one of them.

So who knows?