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Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, named state Sen. Chris Widener, R-Springfield, vice chairman of the finance committee on Tuesday, Feb. 9. Widener has been on the finance committee for the past year and also chairs the Energy and Public Utilities Committee.
Elizabeth Trisler is the kind of kid who the Ohio House loves to recognize on the chamber floor with applause and pats on the back. She’s Ohio grown, she won an oratory contest and her state representative, John Adams, R-Sidney, wanted to give her a proclamation.
Trisler, now 19 and a community college student, won the oratory contest sponsored by the National Right to Life last June. House Speaker Armond Budish, D-Beachwood, decided the Shelby County teen-ager should not be honored on the House floor, though she did receive the proclamation.
That decision has both Ohio Right to Life and the ACLU of Ohio calling on Budish to reconsider.
“By declining to recognize Ms. Trisler’s achievement, Speaker Budish has created a troubling precedent that anyone who is deemed ‘controversial’ by House leadership will not be honored,” said ACLU of Ohio Executive Director Christine Link in a written statement. “Legislators should pay tribute to those who excel in their field, regardless of their political views or affiliations.”
Link scolded House lawmakers for sending a message that silencing those who disagree is the answer rather than modeling for young people that difficult issues can be handled through thoughtful discussion and respect.
“Surely, Speaker Budish can put aside his partisanship for 10 minutes to honor the accomplishments of a talented and optimistic teenage girl,” said Ohio Right to Life Executive Director Mike Gonidakis.
Budish spokesman Keary McCarthy said while Ohioans often receive proclamations on the House floor, they are not given an opportunity to advocate for issues. McCarthy said it was his understanding that Trisler wanted to read her speech.
“The speaker believes that it is important to avoid having political interests on either side of the aisle abuse this brief opportunity for recognition,” McCarthy said. “However, the speaker will gladly reconsider the request from Rep. Adams if appropriate discretion is used in a way that does not contradict a long history in the Ohio House of not having these presentations become a forum for advocacy.”
Without identifying them by name, Gov. Ted Strickland on Tuesday, Feb. 9, blasted critics of the state’s plan to use $400 million in federal stimulus money to develop passenger rail service linking Dayton, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus.
“To be candid with you, I’ve been a little frustrated,” Strickland, a Democrat, told a gaggle of reporters at the Statehouse. “I am tired of those who are…I call them cheerleaders for failure.
“Anytime there’s an idea that comes along they immediately go look for the negative and for why it won’t work and why it might fail.”
Strickland wouldn’t identify who he meant.
“I know who I’m talking about,” he said. “I’m talking about anyone regardless of who they are….that look at $400 million and don’t see that as a win for Ohio…”
Some Republican lawmakers and others have questioned whether the rail plan will work because trains - at least initially - will not run at high speeds and because the frequency of service won’t make it convenient for Ohioans to ride the trains.
There also have been questions about whether Ohio, with its already strained budget, will be able to afford the estimated $17 a year needed to subsidize the service.
“My brother, this is 2010. We are not always going to be in a recession,” said Strickland. “This economy is going to return. Ohio will have growth in the future..”
Republican John Kasich leads Democrat Ted Strickland, 47-41 percent among likely voters in a new Rasmussen Reports poll for the governor’s race released on Tuesday, Feb. 9.
The results are similar to a January poll that showed Kasich, a former Columbus-area congressman, leading incumbent Strickland, 47-40 percent. Kasich led in a December poll, 48-39 percent.
The poll shows a gender gap, favorable to Kasich. Kasich leads among males by 23 points, while Strickland has a 10-point lead among female voters.
Voters not affiliated with the Democratic or Republican parties favor Kasich by 16 points.
The poll was taken Friday, Feb. 5-Saturday, Feb. 6 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
Steven Lesser, currently chief of staff at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, has been appointed a PUCO commissioner by Gov. Ted Strickland.
Ellis Jacobs, a senior attorney for Advocates for Basic Legal Equality in Dayton, was among the four candidates - including Lesser - that a nominating committee had sent Strickland to consider.
The commissioners serve five-year terms and regulate gas, telephone and electric utilities. His salary will be $119,995 a year, Strickland’s office said.
Lesser, of Bexley, a Columbus suburb, has been PUCO chief of staff since September 2007.
“Steven has served the PUCO in numerous capacities for the past 30 years,” Strickland said in a press release. “He is well regarded by his colleagues and he understands the issues facing utilities and customers in Ohio.”
Hardin County attorney Steve Christopher today, Feb. 8, said he is running for the Republican nomination for attorney general against former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine of Cedarville.
“I feel like the moderates and conservatives need to have a candidate for attorney general who’s not a professional politician and a liberal, which DeWine and Cordray both are,” Christopher, 51, who is part of the Tea Party movement, said by phone.
The incumbent attorney general is Democrat Richard Cordray.
Christopher said he is a township trustee in Hardin County where he lives on a farm near Forest. He has law offices in Kenton and Findlay in Hancock County, where he filed his designation of campaign treasurer form.
“The overriding theme (of the campaign) is that we need a conservative on the ballot, someone who understands the constitution,” said Christopher.
He also is an adjunct professor at Ohio Northern University. DeWine attended law school at Ohio Northern.
Backers of the plan to let voters decide if slot machines should be allowed at Ohio’s seven racetracks said on Monday, Feb. 8, that they filed enough extra signatures to get the issue on the November ballot.
“Today’s filing should put us over the top in qualifying for November’s ballot,” Gene Pierce, treasurer and committee member for LetOhioVote.org, said in a press release.
The group filed 177,307 supplemental signatures from registered voters with Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, the release said. The filing should cover a shortfall of 27,065 signatures from the original submission of signatures, said the release.
It takes signatures from 241,366 to qualify the issue for the ballot. The group originally filed petitions with 325,496 signatures but too many were thrown out to qualify the issue. The group then had 10 more days to file the supplemental signatures.
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