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April 2008
Voinovich: Bipartisan for Buckeyes and Bobcats.
When Dr. Barbara Gellman-Danley, president of Antioch University McGregor, introduced Sen. George Voinovich to members of the Dayton Development Coalition visiting Washington, D.C., Wednesday, she didn’t settle with just the niceties.
Voinovich, she told the crowd, had received his undergraduate degree from Ohio University. But he’d gotten his law degree from the Ohio State University.
So who would he back when the Bobcats faced the Buckeyes in September on the football field?
“I’m getting a shirt made half and half,” he said.
TweetHobson retirement provokes metaphor madness
Rep. David Hobson is retiring at the end of this year, and the laurels are already fast and furious - particularly from fellow lawmakers who spoke to the Dayton Development Coalition Wednesday, April 30, about their soon-to-be-former colleague.
The metaphors are fast and furious as well.
Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, told the group that he felt like Hobson’s little brother. He said he considers Hobson, R-Springfield, a mentor, and likened Hobson’s retiring to feeling like his big brother was graduating high school.
Rep. John Boehner, R-West Chester, meanwhile, compared the veteran lawmaker to an “old washerwoman.”
Say what?
Boehner explained that Hobson earned his reputation and relationships in Congress in part through his chatty and convivial nature, always “talking, talking, talking.”
“I don’t know what I’ll do without Hobson,” he said, backing away from the laundress metaphor. “He’s the grease between the gears around here. He’s got relationships with everyone.”
A spokeswoman said that for the record, Boehner does his own laundry.
TweetSuperdelegates backing different candidates still BFFs
When Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones got a text message from her old friend, Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin, in Washington, D.C. this week for the annual Dayton Development Coalition fly-in, even different allegiances in the Democratic presidential race couldn’t keep the two old buddies apart.
Jones, D-Cleveland, is a leading supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., for president. McLin, also a Democrat, backs Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.
No matter. When McLin sent Jones a text asking her to stop by and say hi to the coalition, Jones hightailed it across Capitol Hill to say hello.
“Our friendship goes beyond all that,” Jones said, dismissing the idea that the current fracture in the Democratic party would strain a friendship that goes back years.
McLin, meanwhile, insisted Jones’ allegiance to Clinton is something to admire, not disagree with. She admires Jones’ tenacity in backing her candidate.
“If I was in a fight, I’d want her around to have my back,” McLin said. “I know her word is good.”
TweetBoehner gets his moolah
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester, has his cash.
A judge ruled earlier this month that Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., should give more than $1 million to Boehner. The case was the final ruling stemming from a lawsuit that originated in 1996, after a Florida couple recorded a call on Boehner’s cell phone that was picked up by a radio scanner. The call, between House Republican leaders, dealt with an ethics case against then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The couple sent the tapes to McDermott, who leaked them to two newspapers.
Boehner sued and a federal court found McDermott had no right to release the calls. In December, the U.S. Supreme Court opted not to take up the case.
A U.S. District Court judge for the District of Columbia issued the order on Tuesday, April 1.
Boehner received the money in one transfer last week - $628,000 from McDermott’s campaign and $465,297.50 from his legal expense trust fund. The money went to Boehner’s campaign committee, Friends of John Boehner.
“Every last penny will be used to help elect Republicans,” said Jessica Towhey, a Boehner spokeswoman. “And it is ironic that this money going to help fund defeat of McDermott’s fellow Democrats.”
TweetVoter registration drive targets Ohio women
A national campaign to register more unmarried women to vote is targeting Ohio and 23 other states.
Women’s Voices Women Vote is mailing more than 3 million voter registration applications in the 24 states, a press release today, April 29, said.
“We’re in the midst of a sea change in our country, as we’re seeing a new America emerge right before our eyes,” Page Gardner (pictured), president of the group said in the release. “For the first time in our country’s history, there are as many unmarried women as there are married, yet women on their own are still registering and voting less than their married sisters, leaving their voice absent from our democracy.”
Although unmarried women are potentially 26 percent of the electorate, they are 9 percentage points less likely to register and 13 percentage points less likely to vote than married women, the release said.
For more information about voter registration applications, visit www.voterparticipationcenter.org
TweetMcCain to discuss health care in Cleveland
While Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton continue to battle it out in neighboring Indiana, Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Thursday, May 1, will make his second campaign visit to Ohio in two weeks.
He is scheduled to hold a town meeting on health care at 8 a.m. at the InterContinental Hotel in Cleveland. The visit coincides with the release of a new McCain TV ad on health care, “Health Care Action”, that is airing in Iowa.
McCain was in Youngstown last Tuesday, April 22, to campaign on the economy.
TweetNo, not that Mike
In what could make some fairly confusing roll call votes, two Mike Turners are running for Congress this year.
There’s Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, the incumbent being challenged by Democrat Jane Mitakides.
And then there’s Mike Turner, the Loudoun County, Virginia Democrat seeking his first term. He’s on the ballot for Virginia’s June 10 Democratic primary.
Lest ye be confused, the two men’s campaign web-sites clear it all up: www.miketurnerforcongress.com is the Virginia guy. And www.miketurner.com is Ohio’s Mike.
Retiring U.S. Rep. David Hobson’s site, meanwhile, www.hobsonforcongress.com, has been converted into what appears to be an Italian gambling site.
TweetHobson and the Dutch
Rep. David Hobson’s office, like every office on Capitol Hill, does a fair share of offering tours to the assorted constituents who come in every spring as part of tourist season.
But Thursday, the roughly 65 people who Hobson met with were neither from Springfield nor Xenia. Instead, he met with members of the Dutch military, giving them warm words and his coveted “Buckeye” coins before divvying them up into groups of 15 for tours of the Capitol.
Why the Dutch? Hobson, R-Springfield, pictured at right with the group, is grateful to the Dutch military for locating their F-16 training at the previously endangered Springfield Air National Guard base. Hobson, along with Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio and former Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, worked with the base, the Ohio National Guard and top officials from the Air Force to save the base by bringing in the Dutch.
Only two of the 65 were fighter pilots, meaning only two have a chance of training in Springfield, according to Brig. Gen. Jost van Duurling of the Advanced Command and Staff College in the Netherlands. But no matter: Hobson invited the whole group to visit Springfield and eat at Young’s Jersey Dairy anyway.
TweetMitakides garners endorsement
Democrat Jane Mitakides, who is challenging Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, for the Third District congressional seat this fall, received the backing of the National Women’s Political Caucus this week.
“Jane Mitakides is the perfect candidate for this district,” said Lulu Flores, president of the caucus. “She is clearly the most qualified and experienced candidate in this race and NWPC is confident that she will be an excellent member of Congress for the citizens of District 3 in Ohio.”
The caucus is a non-partisan grassroots organization dedicated to recruiting and supporting women candidates for elected and appointed offices at all levels of government.
TweetSherrod Brown on trade….
Sen. Sherrod Brown published an editorial Wednesday in the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal.
What do you think?
TweetJacobson confesses: he’s run opponents over
Bipartisanship bloomed again in the Ohio legislature this week as the House, on Tuesday, April 22, and the Senate, on Wednesday, April 23, gave near unanimous approval to electric energy legislation.
State Sen. Jeff Jacobson, R-Butler Twp., one-time combative chairman of the Montgomery County Republican Party, praised the united effort and then confessed that he’s not always performed in what might be called a bipartisan manner.
“I certainly ran over more than my share of people who disagreed with me over time,” said Jacobson.
TweetDayton gives big to Obama, former candidate Romney
The Dayton-Springfield region gave Barack Obama $65,998 and Hillary Clinton $39,295 so far in the presidential campaign, with Republican donors giving the most cash to Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani - three candidates no longer in the race.
John McCain, meanwhile, has received $23,810 from the region’s donors, according to an analysis of campaign contributions by the Center for Responsive Politics.
In the Hamilton-Middletown region, meanwhile, Clinton leads, with $30,518, and Obama has received $9,320 from donors in the area. McCain, meanwhile, has garnered $8,300 from Hamilton-Middletown donors.
Overall, Romney still leads all other donors in money earned in Ohio - he raised $1.58 million from Ohioans as of April 20, 2008. Obama comes in second, with $1.33 million, and Clinton comes in third with $1.26 million. McCain, meanwhile, has earned $616,213. Presidential candidates overall have raised $7 million from the Buckeye State.
TweetMcCain seeks to identify with Youngstown
What do Republican presidential candidate John McCain and residents of heavily-Democratic Youngstown have in common?
Both know what it feels like to be counted out, McCain, an Arizona senator, said Tuesday, April 22.
“If you don’t quit no matter what the odds, sometimes life will surprise you. Sometimes you get a second chance and opportunity turns back your way,” he said in remarks prepared for a Youngstown State University speech.
He urged his audience not to give up and promised help with health care, mortgage foreclosure problems and job training programs if elected president.
“America is, after all, the country of the second chance, and we need to stay true to that creed,” he said.
Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, didn’t think much of McCain’s visit to Democratic territory.
“It may be a photo-op for John McCain but people in Youngstown and cities across America are really hurting from the Bush economy and are looking for real help,” Dean said in a press release. “For McCain to compare people struggling to find jobs or facing home foreclosures to his struggling primary campaign shows he just doesn’t understand the challenges people are facing.”
TweetLiberal group unveils ad linking McCain and Bush
While Republican John McCain brought his presidential campaign to Youngstown today, April 22, Progressive Media USA, an independent, liberal advocacy group, unveiled a new TV ad, “McCain: Out of Touch”.
The ad attempts to link the economic policies of McCain and Republican President Bush.
The ad is running in the Youngstown area and the buy was $30,000, said Brian Rothenberg of ProgressOhio.org, which is working with Progressive Media USA.
TweetDann to release e-mails around 5 p.m.
Attorney General Marc Dann is expected to release more than 2,000 e-mails around 5 p.m. today between him and his scheduler, Jessica Utovich, 28. The e-mails are from September to November 2007.
Utovich was reportedly was wearing pajamas at Dann’s suburban Columbus apartment Sept. 10 when another female employee says she was sexually harassed by Dann’s friend and roommate, Anthony Gutierrez. Dann, a Democrat, was in the apartment that night.
Lawyers in the attorney general’s office have pored through the e-mails and pulled out any that didn’t document the policies, procedures and activities of the office, said Lauren Lubow, an attorney in charge of Dann’s public records unit.
Lubow said earlier today she isn’t sure if those e-mails will be released or withheld.
TweetOhio Democrats unveil anti-McCain radio ad
Just a day before Republican John McCain’ planned campaign trip to Youngstown, the Ohio Democratic Party today, April 21, unveiled a radio ad - “More of the Same” - casting the Arizona senator as a man with “big ideas” not worth bragging about. It criticizes his positions on jobs, trade, taxes and the housing crisis.
The ad, which party leaders said is the first anti-McCain ad by a state party since McCain wrapped up the GOP nomination, will begin airing Tuesday, April 22 in Youngstown and across southeast Ohio, a press release said.
The ad was produced by Mattis Goldman of SeeChange Media.
Here’s the script:
Announcer: After months of ignoring Americans’ worries about the economy, John McCain is trying to make up for his mistake by making lots of big promises.
McCain Ad audio: John McCain. Big Ideas for serious problems.
Announcer: But are McCain’s ideas really worth bragging about?
His “big idea” for struggling homeowners? Skip the family vacation - get a second job to pay the bank.
McCain’s “big idea” for workers? More unfair trade deals that send good jobs overseas.
And for taxpayers? McCain’s “big idea” is more big tax breaks for the very rich- all while McCain opposes overtime pay for workers.
After twenty-five years in Washington, these are John McCain’s Big Ideas: More homes foreclosed on; more American jobs shipped overseas; more tax giveaways to millionaires. Nothing for the middle class.
TweetDavidson not picky about McCain opponent
Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton?
Jo Ann Davidson doesn’t care which Democrat John McCain faces in November. Bring him - or her - on.
“We like our chances with either one of them…Basically they believe in the same thing. They believe in raising taxes. They believe in more government…They believe in more spending.
“Those just are not the answers to try to stimulate the economy in a state like Ohio,” Davidson, Republican National Committee Co-Chairman and former Ohio House Speaker, said in a phone call with reporters today, April 21.
Davidson was previewing Republican McCain’s campaign trip to Youngstown on Tuesday, April 22. He plans to talk about his proposals for reviving Ohio’s economy and hopes to woo “Reagan Democrats” into the Republican column in November.
His trip comes on the same day that Democrats in neighboring Pennsylvania vote in their presidential primary, an increasingly bitter battle between Sen. Obama of Illinois and Sen. Clinton of New York.
During the call, Davidson and state Rep. Kevin DeWine, R-Fairborn, Ohio Republican Party deputy chairman, were asked if Republicans didn’t bear some of the responsibility for economic problems in Youngstown and Ohio. After all, Republican President Bush has been in office for nearly eight years and Ohio has lost 188,200 jobs since Bush became president.
DeWine said he was “happy to talk about” the Republican “track record” of reining in state spending, spending record amounts of money on schools and creating an environment for “jobs to be created.”
TweetDarke County Democrat endorses Obama
Former Darke County Democratic Chairwoman Enid Goubeaux Monday backed Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., becoming just the latest superdelegate to weigh in on the Democratic presidential primary.
Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Niles, and Rep. Betty Sutton, D-Akron, both backed Sen. Hillary Clinton this week.
Clinton leads Obama of Illinois 7-5 among Ohio’s superdelegates who have endorsed a candidate.
“I am endorsing Sen. Obama because his message, ‘yes we can,’ has inspired so many voters, especially young voters to take part in shaping our country’s future,” Goubeaux said in a statement released Monday by Obama’s campaign. “I believe that Sen. Obama will end politics as usual which divides the nation and prevents us from confronting our most serious problems.”
Contacted by phone, Goubeaux declined to elaborate, saying “I think the statement speaks for itself.”
TweetClinton maintains lead over Obama in Pa.
As voters in neighboring Pennsylvania get ready to cast their ballots in the Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday, April 22, Sen. HIllary Clinton of New York leads Barack Obama of Illinois, 51-44 percent in a Quinnipiac University poll released today April 21.
The margin is about the same as the 50-44 percent lead Clinton had in the poll last week.
“Pennsylvania voters apparently made up their minds a couple of weeks ago and nothing has happened since to change them,” Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a press release.
“An extraordinary effort by Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign could snatch this victory from Sen. Hillary Clinton, but that does not appear likely.”
Obama got “off message” with his comments about “bitter” voters in small towns in Pennsylvania and never regained momentum, said Richards.
This gave Clinton “the opening to fight another day in Indiana and North Carolina,” he added.
Clinton is expected to win in western Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh, while Obama is expected to carry the vote in the eastern party of the state, including Philadelphia.
“She gets Catholics, white women and blue-collar labor vote. He captures men, blacks and college grads - and enough delegates to keep his edge in the number that counts most,” said Richards.
The poll surveyed 1,027 Pennsylvania likely Democratic primary voters from Friday, April 18 to Sunday, April 20 with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
TweetClinton wins U.S. Rep. Ryan’s endorsement
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles has endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York for president, giving Clinton the support of another Ohio superdelegate. Ryan’s district, the 17th, includes parts of the Akron and Youngstown areas, and borders Pennsylvania which holds its Democratic primary on Tuesday, April 22.
“The people of the 17th district overwhelmingly voted for Senator Clinton in the Democratic primary and today I officially pledge my support for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Throughout the 1990s, Senator Clinton working alongside President Bill Clinton had a proven record of economic growth and higher wages for America’s working families,” Ryan (pictured) said in a prepared statement on Saturday, April 19.
“People in the seventeenth district of Ohio would enjoy a return to strong economic growth, millions of jobs being created and a rise in wages. I look forward to working with her to see that our community is the beneficiary of her economic policies.”
In another prepared statement, Clinton said she was “honored” to have Ryan’s support
On Friday, April 18, U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton of Akron endorsed Clinton.
Clinton now leads Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois 7-4 among Ohio’s superdelegates who have endorsed a candidate. However, this show of strength in Ohio, where Clinton won the March 4 primary, comes at a time when Obama is picking up support in other parts of the country. In Pennsylvania he is outspending Clinton by big margins and has narrowed her once big lead in the polls going into Tuesday’s primary.
TweetU.S. Rep. Sutton endorses Clinton
Add superdelegate Betty Sutton, a Democratic U.S. House member from Akron, to Hillary Clinton’s delegate list.
That puts Clinton ahead 6-4 so far over Barack Obama in Ohio among superdelegates, although Obama maintains a delegate lead nationally.
“I have had the opportunity to engage in significant discussions with Sen. Clinton about the concerns and hopes of the people I am so honored to represent,” Sutton (pictured) said in a press release. “She has demonstrated a keen understanding of the pressing issues, such as the need to create economic opportunity for working families right here in Ohio.”
Sutton said that Clinton carried her congressional district, the 13th, in the March 4 primary.
Other Ohio superdelegates backing Clinton are: former Ohio AFL-CIO President Bill Burga; U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Cleveland; Gov. Ted Strickland; Patricia Moss, retired president of AFSCME Council 8 and Ron Malone, director of political action at the Ohio Association of Public School Employees.
Obama’s Ohio superdelegates are: Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin; Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory; former Democratic National Chairman David Wilhelm and Sonny Nardi, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 416.
The eventual Democratic nominee will need 2,025 delegates to claim the nomination. Obama leads with 1,645 delegates to 1,504 for Clinton, , according to the Associated Press.
TweetOhio Dems to “welcome” McCain
Ohio Democrats, who don’t know who their candidate for president will be, plan to “greet” Republican John McCain with a broadcast ad before McCain campaigns in the state on Tuesday, April 22.
State Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern (pictured), a state representative from Catawba Island, and U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Niles, will unveil the ad on Monday, April 21.
The ad will be the first by any state party in the country against the likely Republican nominee, McCain, a press release said.
McCain is to campaign in Youngstown, which Ryan represents in the U.S. House, and also is scheduled to attend a fundraiser in Toledo. In Youngstown, he is expected to discuss his plans for reviving the economy. He unveiled his first Ohio TV ad this week.
McCain’s visit will coincide with the Democratic presidential primary in neighboring Pennsylvania where Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Clinton of New York are battling it out.
TweetMarc Dann, friend of workers who claim sexual harassment
Attorney General Marc Dann asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to rule that employers can’t retaliate against workers involved in their employer’s investigation of sexual harassment.
That news may provide comfort to two female employees in the attorney general’s office who accused Dann’s friend and neighbor of demanding sex, making lewd comments and groping them.
Almost two dozen people are expected to give statements to internal investigators in the case. Anthony Gutierrez and Leo Jennings III — Dann’s close friends and former roommates — have been placed on paid administrative leave.
Dann filed an amicus brief along with 18 other attorneys general supporting a woman who was fired after participating in a company investigation of sexual harassment. At the end of the investigation, the school district took no action against the accused but fired the woman.
Dann’s press shop sent out a media advisory about the brief a few hours after Dann faced reporters’ questions about the allegations of sexual harassment within his own office.
Dann declined to comment about specifics of the investigation, citing confidentiality, but promised that all the internal investigation materials would eventually become public.
When asked if he has considered resigning, Dann said, “That is just ridiculous. I’m doing a great job for the people of the state of Ohio. I’m extraordinarily proud of the work the attorney general’s office is doing…It never crossed my mind.”
TweetTurner v. Mitakides: the campaign coffer edition
Democrat Jane Mitakides raised more than incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Turner between between Feb. 14 and March 31, but Turner still holds a nearly five-to-one lead in money in the bank, according to new campaign finance reports filed by both of their campaigns.
Mitakides, of Washington Twp., raised $73,104 between Feb. 14 and March 31, according to reports filed with the Federal Elections Commission, spent $47,506 during that period and had $100,888 in the bank as of March 31. Turner, R-Centerville, raised $47,510 during that same period, spent $35,431 and had $496,409 in the bank.
His campaign committee had $6,995 in debt, according his campaign finance report. Mitakides’ committee, meanwhile, has $50,000 in debt.
TweetMcCain up in Ohio
Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for the presidency, began airing a new ad in Ohio and Pennsylvania Tuesday.
Here’s the script:
Announcer: As President, John McCain will take the best ideas from both parties to spur innovation, invest in people and create jobs.
Taxes - simpler, fairer.
Energy - cleaner, cheaper.
Healthcare - portable and affordable.
Workers retrained, mortgage debt restructured, education transformed. Initiatives that will unite us and ignite our economy.
Big ideas for serious problems. John McCain.
McCain: I’m John McCain and I approve this message.
What do you think?
TweetHuckabee forms Huck PAC
Remember Mike Huckabee?
The guitar-playing former Arkansas Gov. who won the Iowa Republican presidential caucuses before eventually bowing out of the race and endorsing John McCain for president is back.
Huckabee has formed Huck PAC, a political action committee to raise money for Republican candidates and “continue promoting the principles and ideas of conservative, smaller and more responsible government,” according to a press release on Tuesday, April 15.
“The PAC is founded on the principles that make America great: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” Huckabee said in the press release.
Huckabee also has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate and the PAC keeps him in the news as McCain decides who he wants for a runningmate.
TweetCongressional candidates filling coffers for November
Democrat Sharen Swartz Neuhardt outraised Republican State Sen. Steve Austria between mid-February and March 31 of this year, garnering $103,059 in contributions to Austria’s $70,591, according to reports filed with the Federal Elections Commission Tuesday.
Neuhardt, a Yellow Springs attorney, had $10,462 on hand and had spent $92,597. She had $7,500 in debt. Austria, R-Beavercreek, who has received the endorsement of retiring U.S. Rep. David Hobson in his bid for the 7th Congressional seat, had $51,819 on hands and had spent $248,700. He had no debt.
The reporting period covered, for Neuhardt, between Feb. 14 and March 31. For Austria, it covered Feb. 15 through March 31.
Austria said now that the primary is over, he’s focusing on fundraising again. He said he was unconcerned about Neuhardt’s strong showing between Feb. 15 and March 31 because he’s raised $476,777 so far. He said he had to spend $424,458 in the primary.
But Neuhardt’s campaign manager, Jim Alexee, said her strong showing is a sign that “we’ve got a real race on our hands.”
“Voters are demanding change and they are sick of career politicians,” he said.
The 7th Congressional District includes all or parts of Clark, Greene, Fayette, Ross, Pickaway, Franklin, Fairfield and Perry counties.
TweetClinton holds lead over Obama in Pa.
In neighboring Pennsylvania, next stop on the Democratic presidential primary trail, Sen. Hillary Clinton continues to hold a 50-44 percent lead over Sen. Barack Obama in the Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday, April 15. The results were the same as those in a poll released Tuesday, April 8.
The Pennsylvania primary is Tuesday, April 22.
While Obama of Illinois continues to lead Clinton of New York in the battle for delegates, the poll spotted a potential general election problem for Obama. One out of four Clinton voters - including a third of the men - said they would vote for Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona in the general election if Obama is the Democratic candidate. Nineteen percent of Obama backers said they would switch to McCain if Clinton were the nominee.
The poll was conducted April 9-13 and there was no noticeable difference in polling on April 12-13, after media reports on Obama’s comments at an April 6 San Francisco fundraiser that voters in small towns in Pennsylvania and across the Midwest were “bitter.”
“Sen. Hillary Clinton is fighting off Sen. Barack Obama’s drive to make it a close race in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary, holding the six-point edge she had a week ago. She seems to have halted the erosion of whites and white women in particular from her campaign,” Clay F. Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Polling Institute, said in a press release.
Clinton even picked up some support in the Philadelphia suburbs, the area where Pennsylvania elections are won or lost, Richards said. She trailed Obama by 11 points a week ago in this area and in the new poll trailed him by just 2 points, the poll found.
The poll surveyed 2,103 likely Democratic primary voters and had margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points.
TweetSick Leave Advocates Call Hearing a “Sham”
Backers of a bill to require that Ohio workers be able to earn seven paid sick days a year say a hearing scheduled Tuesday, April 15, on the proposal is “little more than a sham.”
“I am very disappointed in Speaker (Jon) Husted,” said Dale Butland, spokesman for Ohioans for Healthy Families, the group backing the bill. “This is not the kind of good faith effort we expected out of him.”
Husted said the group was given just 24 hours notice of the 1 p.m. hearing before the House Commerce and Labor Committee. This didn’t give them time to prepare and arrange for key witnesses to testify, said Butland.
Karen Stivers, spokeswoman for Husted, R-Kettering, called the “sham” charge “not true at all.” Backers of the bill first complained that the House was moving too slowly and now complains that things are moving too quickly, Stivers said.
The group put the bill before the legislature by turning in petitions with more than the required 120,863 signatures from registered voters. If the legislature doesn’t act on the bill by May 8, the group can gather an additional 120,863 valid signatures to put the plan before voters in the November election.
TweetGrassroots group to DOE: Shame on you
The Alliance for Nuclear Accountability - a network of organizations that opposes new nuclear weapons production and advocates a speedier cleanup - took the Department of Energy to task Monday, saying that when it sped up cleanup of the former Mound, Fernald and Rocky Flats nuclear sites, it broke a promise to spend extra money on cleanup of other former nuclear sites.
In 1998, according to Gerry Pollett, executive director of Heart of America Northwest Seattle, the energy department cut a deal with other nuclear sites to concentrate on the trio of sites - two in Ohio, one in Colorado - in exchange for the promise of additional federal expenditures when those sites were clean. Instead, he said, the Department of Energy spent that money on new nuclear proposals and “decelerated” cleanup of the other sites after they’d finished work on the three sites.
That decision helped to score the department an “F” on funding environmental obligations, according to the ANA.
The group is heavily critical of the Bush administration’s nuclear policies, including the Reliable Replacement Warhead program, which Congress de-funded last year.
But it’s not critical of all Republicans: Rep. David Hobson, R-Springfield, along with Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., the ranking member and chair of the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, will receive an award for their work bucking the administration’s nuke policies Tuesday night.
“They exhibited extraordinary leadership in challenging the DOE’s budget,” said Susan Gordon, director of the Alliance
TweetBurga on board for Clinton
The superdelegate race for Ohio now stands at five-four, with Sen. Hillary Clinton in the lead.
Clinton’s campaign confirmed Thursday that Bill Burga, Ohio’s former AFL-CIO president, has endorsed Clinton, giving her an edge among the state’s 21 superdelegates. Clinton has also claimed the support of Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Clevleand, Gov. Ted Strickland, Patricia Moss, the retired president of AFSCME Council 8 and Ron Malone, director of political action at the Ohio Association of Public School Employees.
Obama, meanwhile, claims Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory, former Democratic National Committee Chair Rhine McLin and Sonny Nardi, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 416.
Two more superdelegates affirmed that they are still undecided. Former Darke County Democratic Chair Enid Goubeaux and a spokesman for Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said they haven’t backed a candidate yet.
The eventual Democratic nominee will need 2,025 party delegates to claim the nomination. Obama currently holds the lead, with 1,414 so-called “pledged” delegates and 225 “unpledged” or superdelegates, according to the Associated Press. Clinton has 1,250 “pledged” delegates and 253 superdelegates.
TweetSenate passes foreclosure assistance bill; Ohio’s senators rejoice
Sens. George Voinovich and Sherrod Brown sent out dueling press releases Thursday, both lauding the passage of a a foreclosure assistance bill. Ohio has been one of the hardest-hit states, and the Senate’s vote comes on the same day that Policy Matters Ohio released a report finding Ohio foreclosure filings grew by 6.7 percent last year.
The bill would:
- Increase pre-foreclosure counseling funds to $180 million. _ Allow housing finance agencies to use proceeds from mortgage revenue bonds to refinance subprime loans and provide mortgages for first-time home buyers.
- Provide $4 Billion in Community Development Block Grant money for purchasing and rehabilitating foreclosed properties.
- Increase loan limits for veterans, extend current foreclosure protections for returning vets from 90 days to 9 months, and extend current interest rate protections for returning veterans. The bill would also require the Department of Defense to establish a counseling program to ensure veterans and active service members can get help if they face financial difficulties.
- Amend the Truth-in-Lending Act and improve the loan disclosures given to homebuyers not only when they apply for a home purchase loan, but also when they refinance their home.
Brown, D-Ohio, secured an additional $80 million in the bill for housing counseling, bringing the total to $180 million. He also cosponsored legislation added to the bill that would add an extension of renewable energy tax credits to remove a significant barrier from alternative energy development.
Still, he said, “I am disappointed this bill does not go further. Despite the fact that borrowers can modify a loan on a vacation home or a boat during the bankruptcy process, this bill does not provide the same protection to homeowners for their primary home.
“There is no broad scale approach to fixing the problems in the mortgage market for homeowners and lenders. We need aggressive action to get our economy back on its feet, but so far the administration has only offered baby steps.”
Voinovich, R-Ohio, meanwhile, authored provisions in the bill that would simplify mortgage documents to make them easier to understand; provide funding for financial counseling programs, increase CDBG funding and allow companies losing money to use accumulated AMT and R&D credits early to make new investments that will create jobs in lieu of the bonus depreciation provision included in the recently-enacted stimulus bill, according to his offfice.
“Americans have looked to Congress to take real action to help protect homeowners,” Sen. Voinovich said. “This bipartisan compromise is a solid step in the right direction and includes the types of immediate relief and assistance struggling homeowners have been waiting for.”
The bill still needs approval in the House.
TweetMcCain is coming to Buckeye State April 22
Republican presidential candidate John McCain will be returning to Ohio April 22, stopping in Youngstown for a campaign event and Toledo for a fundraiser.
The Toledo fundraiser will be held at 5 p.m. April 22 at The Toledo Club. Tickets to the reception are $1,000 per person, or $2,300 per person for a reception ticket with photo opportunity, according to McCain’s web site.
According to David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network in saying that McCain is coming to Ohio “in the coming days” as part of his “Compassion Tour.”
The Ohio Democratic Party, reacting to the news, bashed the tour, saying McCain is “borrowing a page from the Bush 2000 campaign playbook” by attempting “to moderate his image.”
“John McCain’s lockstep support for the job-killing trade and economic policies of George Bush certainly does not come across as compassionate to working people in communities like Youngstown, Ohio,” said ODP Chairman Chris Redfern in a release. “Given Senator McCain’s indifference toward the economy and do-nothing approach to the national foreclosure crisis, this effort would more accurately be described as the ‘lacking in compassion tour.’ “
TweetKeno basher calls game “gambling tax on the poor”
Opponents of Gov. Ted Strickland’s plan to expand the state lottery by putting video Keno games in bars, restaurants and other places lashed out at the proposal today, April 9, and highlighted proposed legislation to block the governor.
Strickland says the proposal would raise an estimated $73 million to help close a projected $733 million budget shortfall.
“Frankly, Keno is nothing more than a jazzy, addictive form of pure numbers. It’s the crack cocaine of gambling,” Sen. Ron Amstutz, R-Wooster, sponsor of the bill in the Senate, said at a Statehouse press conference.
Rep. John Adams, R-Sidney, (pictured) sponsor of the House bill, called it a “gambling tax on the poor.”
Key language in the companion bills - House Bill 514 and Senate Bill 313:
“No rule shall authorize a lottery game that has more than two announcements of prize winners per day or is played on a slot machine as defined in section 2916.01 of the Revised Code, including, but not limited to, a game of Keno.”
Amstutz said he would like to see the legislation passed by Memorial Day but it is not clear how much support there is for it in the legislature.
Keith Dailey, Strickland’s spokesman, said the governor continues to support his proposal.
TweetVoinovich tells Petraeus America is fed up with war
While presidential candidates and Sens. John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton stole much of the spotlight during today’s Senate Armed Services and Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings grilling Gen. David Petraeus on the progress in the war, Ohio Sen. George Voinovich also got his opportunity to grill the Army General Tuesday.
Voinovich, R-Ohio, who has pushed a plan to beef up diplomacy in the region and make it clear that U.S. commitment in the region is finite, repeated his hesitations to Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, telling them, “The American people have had it up to here.”
He suggested Secretary of State Condi Rice “work day in and day out to tell folks, ‘we’re on our way out’. Do you understand that? That’s where we’re at.”
He also expressed frustration at the financial costs of the war, complaining it was putting future generations in debt and “we’ve never been asked to pay a dime.”
He also inadvertently drew cheers from the crowd by referring to Obama - sitting across the dais from him - as someone who may be the next president of the United States.
“I don’t think folks know we are going to leave,” Voinovich said, adding that during a recent trip to Jordan and Egypt he got the distinct impression leaders there did not feel invested in taking over the situation.
Petraeus and Crocker, meanwhile, told him they shared his frustration, but that the situation wasn’t an easy one to leave.
“It is very easy to dislike where we are, to be frustrated at it and so forth, but we are where we are,” Petraeus said.
TweetNational Taxpayers Union up on Jordan, Boehner; not so much for Ohio Democrats
The National Taxpayers Unionhas released its 2007 report card for federal lawmakers, and the news is good for Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana - he got a 91 percent from the group, the highest score in Ohio.
Breathing down his neck is Rep. John Boehner, R-West Chester, who came in second with an 87 percent.
Reps. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, and David Hobson, R-Springfield, didn’t score as high. They received 48 percent and 47 percent, respectively.
At the bottom of the list, according to the group, were Rep. Marcy Kaptur, R-Toledo, who got a 3 percent, and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Cleveland, who got a 5 percent.
The senators also didn’t do that well, according to the group - Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, received a 58 percent, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, got a 6 percent.
The rating is based on the fiscally conservative group’s assessment of votes on issues that affect taxes, spending, debt and regulatory burdens on taxpayers.
TweetObama catching up with Clinton in Pa.
Barack Obama is catching up with Hillary Clinton in the Pennsylvania Democratic presidential primary. The primary is April 22.
Illinois Sen. Obama trails Clinton, a New York senator, 50-44 percent in a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday, April 8. In an April 2 poll, Clinton led Obama 50-41 percent.
“With two weeks to go, Sen. Barack Obama is knocking on the door of a major political upset in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary,” Clay F. Richards, assistant poll director, said in a press release.
One of the biggest shifts came among women voters. Clinton led 54-37 percent among these voters on April 2 and 54-41 percent in the poll released Tuesday.
The poll surveyed 1,340 likely Democratic primary voters from Thursday, April 3, through Sunday, April 6, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.
TweetStratton wins highest rating in Supreme Court races
Incumbent Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton was rated “highly recommended” by the Ohio State Bar Association’s Commission on Judicial Candidates in her bid for re-election.
The other three candidates for Supreme Court seats - incumbent Maureen O’Connor, a Republican, and the two Democrats, Joseph D. Russo, a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judge and Peter M. Sikora, a Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court judge, all received “recommended” ratings from the commission.
The ratings were announced Monday, April 7.
In the November general election, Russo is running against O’Connor and Sikora is challenging Stratton. Republicans control the court 7-0.
The “highly recommended” rating is awarded to a candidate receiving favorable votes from 75 percent of the commission members, a press release said. A “recommended” rating requires favorable votes from 65 percent of the members, said the release.
TweetTurner, Mary Lauterbach on CNN
CNN’s Susan Candiotti, reporting from Dayton, is airing a piece on Maria Lauterbach and her mother’s concerns about the impact of her death on women in the Marines.
Mary Lauterbach tells Candiotti she is worried about the safety of women in the U.S. Marine Corps, and feels the corps inadequately protected her daughter. Through her congressman, Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, she sent a list of questions to the Marines about their investigation of her daughter’s death. Turner’s office hopes to get a reply from the Marines this week.
The story also includes video of a young Maria Lauterbach talking about her desire to join the Marines and eventually become a police officer.
The story also features an interview with Turner, who wonders whether Lauterbach’s death will have a “chilling effect” on other women coming forward who are raped.
Lauterbach, whose body was found buried in the backyard of fellow Marine, Cpl. Cesar Laurean, near Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, in January, accused Laurean of raping her in spring of 2007. Laurean faces murder charges and went missing in January. He is suspected of being in his native Mexico.
TweetVoinovich to Strickland: Let’s work together on this jobs thing
Sen. George Voinovich Monday wrote a letter to Gov. Ted Strickland urging him to support a Voinovich bill aimed at making it easier for states to implement regional workforce and economic development programs that meet the needs of the workers and employers.
The Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development Act of 2008, or the WIRED Act, is hoped to make it easier for states to attract and keep businesses by providing them with more flexibility for their federal workforce dollars.
The WIRED Act tweaks the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, which was passed by Congress to authorize service and training for youths, adults and laid-off or dislocated workers to give states and regions greater flexibility in their use of federal workforce development dollars.
Currently, the Workforce Investment Act program funds cannot easily be used across program areas. Voinovich aims to make it easier.
In his letter, Voinovich applauded Strickland’s plan to overhaul Ohio’s workforce development program, and asks for feedback on his bill.
“We must quickly find an answer to the question of why at the same time Ohio has so many displaced manufacturing workers and yet so many Ohio manufacturers are indicating that they are unable to find the skilled workers they need to thrive in the 21st Century economy,” he wrote.
TweetBrown calls Colombian Free Trade Agreement a “betrayal”
Sen. Sherrod Brown Monday predicted Congress would not pass a free trade agreement with Colombia that President Bush sent to it Monday, calling it a betrayal of the middle class.
“The proposed Colombia (Free Trade Agreement) betrays small businesses, it betrays workers, and it betrays consumers,” Brown, D-Ohio, said. “Colombian workers earn little more than $600 a month. This (free trade agreement) is much less about finding new markets for American goods than it is a continuation of this administration’s failed trade policy - a policy that exploits workers in developing nations, fosters unsafe working conditions, and allows unsafe products and food into our country.
“There will be no backroom deals to save this agreement - it stands alone, and it will be defeated in the open.
“We want trade and plenty of it - but under rules that raise standards and ensure our exports have a lasting and sustainable market of consumers.”
He also criticized the Colombian government’s response - or lack of one - to violence against union leaders in Columbia. “Its response has been unacceptable,” he said.
TweetBoehner’s dream veep sounds a lot like Portman
House Minority Leader John Boehner doesn’t have a short-list of people he’d like to see Sen. John McCain pick as a Republican running mate, but he told reporters Thursday he has a profile of someone he’d like to see McCain pick.
“He needs to be someone younger than McCain…someone who people see as a solid conservative and thirdly someone who people believe could be president if called on,” he said.
Boehner, pictured right, also said given that three U.S. Senators are currently running for president, “I would suggest it’s probably not going to be a member of Congress, so that means we’re looking at former administration officials, governors, former governors.”
Hmm….Rob Portman, a former U.S. congressman from Terrace Park pictured below Boehner, served as U.S. Trade Representative and former director of the Office of Management and Budget. Does Boehner think he would fit the profile? “I do,” Boehner said, before saying he hadn’t discussed any short list with “anybody.”
“That’s a guessing game,” he said.
TweetThis just in: Boehner NOT going to Disney World with McDermott money
House Minority Leader John Boehner said he has yet to see any of the $1.1 million a federal judge ordered Rep. Jim McDermott to give him earlier this week, but he already knows how he’ll spend it.
“It will got to my colleagues to help defeat Democrats. Pure and simple,” Boehner said.
Boehner would receive the money under a ruling stemming from a decade-long legal battle between Boehner, R-West Chester, and McDermott over an illegally taped phone call between Boehner and House Republican leaders in 1996. A Florida couple picked up the phone call on their scanner and taped it, and McDermott leaked it to two papers. Boehner sued McDermott after McDermott leaked it to the press.
TweetWhen John met Muammar
House Minority Leader John Boehner spent part of last week in Libya, and not only did he meet Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, he got a great little yarn - and a pair of shades - out of it.
The fun began when he and his colleagues were flying to Tripoli. Fifteen to 20 minutes before landing, they were suddenly diverted to Surt. After landing in Surt, he and his colleagues visited the People’s Congress as well as a man-made river. They were on the lunch when suddenly guards closed down the expressway where they were traveling. They had been summoned by Col. Qaddafi.
“We just head south and south and south and south,” Boehner said. “Past the sheep with the Bedouin herder, past the goats, past the herd of camels and through a couple of security checkpoints and here’s a great big white tent out in the distance.”
Eventually they wound up in a second huge white tent in the middle of the desert. The group waited until Qaddafi came strolling through the desert.
The group had a “frank” conversation, according to Boehner, when suddenly Qaddafi, wearing sunglasses, removed a second pair sunglasses from a case brought in by a an aide and began cleaning them. “He comes over to me and says, ‘Desert not kind to blue eyes,’” Boehner said. “So I put the sunglasses on.”
At the end of the meeting, Boehner tried to return the shades. Qaddafi urged him to keep them.
“I have this pair of glasses from Col. Qaddafi,” Boehner said. “They’re nice glasses, but they don’t fit.”
He assured reporters they were “acceptable” under the congressional gift rule.
TweetClinton leads Obama in PA primary
Sen. Hillary Clinton holds a 9-point lead over Sen. Barack Obama going into the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania and is better positioned to win three key swing states - Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida - in a general election match up against Sen. John McCain, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday, April 2.
In a general election match up in the three states, the survey found: • Florida: Clinton 44 percent - McCain 42 percent; McCain beats Obama 46 - 37 percent; • Ohio: Clinton beats McCain 48 - 39 percent; Obama gets 43 percent to McCain’s 42 percent; • Pennsylvania: Clinton tops McCain 48 - 40 percent; Obama leads McCain 43 - 39 percent.
The Pennsylvania primary vote appears to be split along racial lines, with Clinton leading 59-34 percent among white likely voters and Obama leading 73 - 11 percent among black Democrats.
More than a third of voters in the three states think Obama’s race is an advantage, more than twice the number who think it is a disadvantage, the survey found. By contrast, roughly a quarter of voters say Clinton’s gender is an advantage, and about the same number think it is a disadvantage.
The poll, conducted March 24 to 31, surveyed 1,136 Florida voters, 1,238 Ohio voters, and 3,484 Pennsylvania voters. Its margin of error in Ohio is plus or minus 2.8 percent.
TweetLegend will stump for Obama in Pa., Ohio if he wins primary
Five-time Grammy Award winner John Legend, 29, on Capitol Hill Tuesday, April 1, has already made a video for YouTube in support of Sen. Barack Obama, as well as stumped for the first-term Senator from Illinois in Iowa and Georgia.
He said he’s only just begun.
Legend, a Springfield native, said he’ll also make two appearances for Obama in Pennsylvania before that state votes April 22.
Legend, pictured with Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., and actress Kerry Washington Tuesday, was one of a handful of artists who launched an Internet video putting one of Obama’s speeches into song form earlier this year. The video, “Yes We Can,” had receive d more than 10 million hits online as of Tuesday. “That’s my biggest hit, I think,” Legend said.
He said last year, before Obama decided to campaign, he visited Obama in his office in Chicago and offered to help him if he should run. One year hence, he think his decision was the right one.
“He’s confirmed what I thought about him in the first place,” he said. “He’s someone with great character and intellect.”
He said he’s prepared to stump for Obama in Ohio if Obama wins the Democratic nomination.
“I’m going to see what we can do in Ohio because it’s tough out there,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of campaigns come through Springfield, because it is a swing city and a swing state.”
TweetJudge to Washington Democrat: Give Boehner $1 mill
A federal judge Tuesday ruled that a Washington Democratic congressman owes House Minority Leader John Boehner more than $1 million for legal fees for leaking an illegally taped phone call.
Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., and Boehner have been engaged in legal battle since 1998.
The dispute began in 1996, when a Florida couple recorded a call on Boehner’s cell phone that was picked up by a radio scanner. The call, among House Republican Leaders, was about an ethics case against then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
The couple later sent the tapes to McDermott, who leaked them to two newspapers. Boehner, R-West Chester, sued McDermott and a federal court found that McDermott had no right to release the calls. In December, the U.S. Supreme Court opted not to take up the case.
Chief Judge Thomas Hogan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued the decision, saying McDermott owed Boehner’s campaign committee, Friends of John Boehner, $1,053,181.40 in attorney’s fees and costs, plus roughly $40,000 in interest to date, in addition to more than $60,000 the court already ordered McDermott to pay for statutory and punitive damages.
“Over the past 10 years, I have consistently said that Members of Congress have a responsibility not only to obey the laws of our country and the rules of our institution, but also to defend the integrity of those laws and rules when they are violated,” Boehner said in a statement. “Congressman McDermott broke the law, and as a result, he shattered the bonds of trust between our institution and the men and women we represent in the halls of Congress… With this decision, the American people can take comfort in knowing that these important principles have been reaffirmed.”
McDermott, meanwhile, called the judgment “a small price to pay in defense of so fundamental a principle, and freedom, as the First Amendment.”
“Because of this protracted legal challenge, the First Amendment is stronger today, and shielded by new case law that will buttress its capacity to protect the publication of truthful information on matters of public importance long into the future. Knowing this, I am proud of my role in defense of the First Amendment,” McDermott said. “While the amount of damages assessed in this case is significant, I submit that defending the First Amendment is beyond measure and worth every penny.”
TweetGay rights bill gets Senate hearing
Legislation to ban discrimination against a person in housing, employment or public accommodations because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity got a first hearing today, April 1, before the Ohio Senate Judiciary-Civil Justice Committee.
State Sen. Dale Miller, D-Cleveland, the sponsor, (pictured) said in prepared testimony that Senate Bill 305 is needed for two reasons - “discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is wrong” and “this bill is necessary for our economic development.”
In a press release, Chris Long, president of the Ohio Christian Alliance, blasted the bill and said that if it were approved “businesses may be compelled to provide restroom facilities accommodating transgender and cross-dressing individuals.”
However, Lynne Bowman, executive director of Equality Ohio, the group backing the bill, called that representative of the “histrionic scare tactics” that opponents of such legislation have used.
Do you think Ohio needs legislation banning discrimination in housing, employment or public accommodations based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity?
TweetLegend on the Hill
Springfield native John Legend was on Capitol Hill Tuesday, joining artists including Robert Redford and actress Kerry Washington to ask for lawmakers’ support for $176 million for the National Endowment of the Arts.
Legend, a five-time Grammy award winning recording artist, credited the upbringing he got from the Springfield Arts Community - that was him on stage in that long-ago production of “Big River” at the Springfield Veteran’s Park Amphitheater - with setting the foundation for his later success.
Legend also met with Rep. David Hobson, R-Springfield. Hobson gave Legend a pen and a Buckeye coin.
“He told me he was a Buckeyes fan,” Hobson said after the two met.
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