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Friday, July 18, 2008
Voters, arm yourselves!
Project Vote Smart is offering Ohio voters a free 2008 Voter’s Self-Defense Manual, paid for with funding from the Ford and Carnegie foundations.
“The 100-page Voter’s Self-Defense Manual is the first, best step to smart voting,” said Adelaide Elm, founding board member of Vote Smart. “The Voter’s Self-Defense System our interns and volunteers are creating enables each voter to strip away the campaign hype, spin and negative attacks to expose what the candidates may do for us - or to us - if elected.”
The manuals will have a sampling of information form the Vote Smart databases, covering more than 40,000 incumbents and candidates running for office this year. They include background and contact information, information on key votes and interest group ratings, campaign contributions, public statements and what the group calls a “political courage test.”
Manuals are available by request at www.votesmart.org or by calling the Voter Research Hotline at 1-888-VOTESMART.
Project Vote Smart is a national, non-profit, non-partisan research and information gateway.
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TweetEye on Ohio: ‘Simple Question’ ad
By Lynn Hulsey
Dayton Daily News
The ad: “Simple Question,” 30 seconds.
Producer: Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
Where to see it: It began airing Wednesday, Aug. 16, in Ohio, five other states and Washington D.C.
Script: (female announcer): “Ever use birth control? Then you’ll want to hear this.” (A black screen shows the words: John McCain Interview July 10, 2008, and then shows McCain being interviewed by reporters.) Interviewer: “… it’s unfair health insurance companies cover Viagra, but not birth control. Do you have an opinion on that?” McCain: (pause) “I don’t know enough about it to give you an informed answer. …” Announcer: “Planned Parenthood Action Fund is responsible for the content of this advertising because women deserve quality affordable health care.”
Video: McCain is being interviewed in Ohio aboard his “Straight Talk Express.” When he is asked this question, he hesitates, rubs his chin, looks away and finally speaks. Throughout, he appears uncomfortable.
Analysis: The reporter’s question was prompted by earlier comments by McCain’s national co-chairwoman Carly Fiorina, who said women are frustrated that some health-insurance plans cover the male impotency drug Viagra but not contraceptives. The Planned Parenthood advertisement is an excerpt from a slightly longer exchange in which McCain first says he doesn’t want to talk about the issue, and then says he cannot remember how he voted on the question of mandating insurance coverage for birth control.
McCain twice voted no on those mandates, which have not been approved. McCain said he was aware of Fiorina’s remarks, and he said he’d get back to the reporter with an answer.
The insurance coverage issue is likely to be seen by some women as one of fairness, and McCain’s stumbling may offend them. While it’s not unusual for candidates to lack encyclopedic knowledge of their prior votes, the issue is a hot-button one, and McCain’s chairwoman had broached the subject.
On Thursday, July 17, Blair Latoff, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, defended McCain’s support of “choice, innovation and competition” in health care.
But that, of course, doesn’t answer the question.
Lynn Hulsey is a reporter at the Dayton Daily News. E-mail: lhulsey@daytondailynews.com.
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TweetSick Day opponents call proposal “job-killer”
“Jobs” is a magic word these days in Ohio and opponents of a proposed ballot issue on sick days intend to use it to fight the proposal.
The opponents have announced formation of Ohioans to Protect Jobs and Fair benefits to battle the proposal that would require employers to let all employees earn seven paid sick days a year.
John C. Mahaney, Jr., treasurer of the group, on Thursday, July 17, called the proposal a “job-killer” in the eyes of businesses across the country at a time Ohio badly needs jobs.
Dale Butland, spokesman for the “Ohioans for Healthy Families” campaign backing the issue, said that it was “ironic” that Mahaney and his business allies say they can’t afford the sick days but plan to raise millions of dollars to run a campaign to keep “average people” from having the same benefits that the business leaders do.
Mahaney is president of the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants.The opposition group is made up of individual employers, trade associations and business organizations.
Supporters of the proposal have until Aug. 6 to turn in petitions with 120,863 signatures to Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to get the issue on the ballot.
Butland said they’ve already gathered “around 200,000.”
“We’re going to have more than we need,” he said.
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