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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2008 > August > 13
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
McCain fires off letters after Wilmington visit
Presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who visited Wilmington last week to meet with workers affected by a DHL proposal that could cost the region more than 8,000 jobs, spent this week sending letters on the issue.
The first, co-signed by U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, urged Frank Appel, chairman and CEO of Deutsche Post to visit Wilmington.
“While we are in no way passing judgment on the merits of the proposal, we do urge you to visit Wilmington, Ohio, in the very near future and take the opportunity to hear first-hand the many important issues of concern to the affected community.”
McCain also fired off a missive to Sens. Herbert Kohl, D-Wisc., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the respective chairman and ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antirtust subcommittee, urging them to hold an antitrust subcommittee hearing on the proposal. Both men had earlier written the Justice Department expressing concerns about the deal, which would allow UPS to take over DHL’s domestic air cargo.
“While I am in no way passing judgment on the legal merits of the proposed transaction, I do support your call for the agreement to be subject to a thorough federal antitrust review by the Department of Justice,” he wrote.
Both letters are dated Aug. 12.
Obama’s spokesmen said McCain’s letter isn’t good enough.
“Ohio workers desperately need a president who will stand up for them - not just pay lip service when the TV cameras are rolling,” said Obama spokesman Isaac Baker. “Unfortunately, John McCain is saying one thing to Ohio families and something else to DHL. It’s hard to imagine he will be very effective in stopping the DHL deal if he’s not even willing to say the deal is bad for Ohio. Sen. Obama has been very clear: this deal is wrong for workers, wrong for consumers, and wrong for America.”
And here’s McCain spokesman Paul Lindsay firing back:
“If Barack Obama is determined to continue exploiting impending job losses for his own political gain, that is his choice,” he said. “John McCain does not believe this is a partisan issue, and he will continue to do everything in his power to help the residents of Wilmington.”
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Payday lenders pay big bucks for TV ads
Wanna know why it seems that every time you turn on the TV you see either swimmer Michael Phelps or that farmer guy in the payday lending commercial?
Well, Phelps is the newly crowned “Greatest Olympian Ever.” The payday lending industry, though, is shelling out nearly $100,000 a day to get their commercial on the airwaves in Ohio. They’re pushing to get 241,365 signatures from voters by Aug. 31 to block one of the toughest anti-payday lending laws in the nation from taking effect.
The Ohio Coalition for Responsible Lending, which lobbied for the new law, said the pay lending industry’s campaign committee spent $382,127 on TV ads in Ohio between Aug. 8 and Aug. 12. “That’s nearly $100,000 a day pushing a toxic loan product under the guise of personal financial freedom,” coalition spokeswoman Suzanne Gravette Acker said.
The coalition alleged this week that the payday lenders are using misinformation and illegal tactics to trick people into signing the petition, including telling Ohioans that it will lower the interest rates on payday loans. The law slashes permitted annual interest rates to 28 percent, down from 391 percent.
The payday lenders said if their petition circulators are misbehaving, they want to know about it so they can take action.
Anyone who signed the petition but wishes to remove their names can call John Campbell at 614-477-5042 or e-mail him at campayneteam@gmail.com. Campbell represents the payday lenders.
The coalition is urging people to ask for proof that their names were removed from the petition.
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Poll: Cordray holds lead in AG race; Strickland has high approval
Democrat Ohio Treasurer Richard Cordray holds a 44 to 26 percent lead over Republican Mike Crites in the race for Ohio Attorney General - but that’s with three-fourths of voters polled declaring they don’t know much about either candidate, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll released Wednesday, Aug. 22.
“Neither State Treasurer Richard Cordray nor former U.S. Attorney Mike Crites are well-known to Ohio voters at this point, although both are seen very positively by the minority who know them,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “Cordray is ahead because he is slightly better known from being elected statewide previously and because being a Democrat is a plus this year.”
Nineteen percent of Ohioans viewed Cordray favorably, while 4 percent view him unfavorably, according to the poll.
Crites, meanwhile, is viewed favorably by 11 percent of Ohioans and unfavorably by 3 percent.
Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, meanwhile, also enjoyed favorable ratings in the poll, with a 60 percent approval rating, up from 55 percent June 4. Twenty-five percent viewed him unfavorably in the poll released Wednesday.
The General Assembly, meanwhile, did not fare as well - they had a 42 to 41 percent approval rating.
Elsewhere, 69 percent of Ohio voters support a ballot proposal to require companies with 25 or more employees to offer seven paid sick days a year, with 27 percent not supporting that proposal.
The same voters who said 59 percent to 32 percent that Ohio’s economy has been hurt by too much government regulation do not apparently believe that about this proposal. Fifty-eight percent said they didn’t think passage of the proposal would encourage companies to leave Ohio.
The poll was taken from Aug. 5 through Aug. 11. It has a plus or minus 2.7 percentage point margin of error.
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Voinovich writes German Chancellor Merkel about DHL
Sen. George Voinovich is applying a little diplomatic pressure on the DHL situation.
Voinovich, along with fellow members of the Ohio congressional delegation, Wednesday, Aug. 13, sent a letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel complaining about a proposal by DHL to abandon its Wilmington air hub and allow UPS to handle its domestic shipping.
The letter after the jump:
August 13, 2008
Her Excellency Dr. Angela Merkel Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Willy-Brandt-Straße 1 10557 Berlin Germany
Chancellor Merkel:
We are writing to bring a very serious situation involving Deutsche Post World Net and its U.S. subsidiary DHL Express U.S. (collectively “DHL”) to your attention. On May 28, DHL announced it intended to cease its business relationship with ABX Air and ASTAR Air Cargo. Instead, DHL announced it intends to enter into a 10-year agreement with United Parcel Service, Inc. (“UPS”) for air transportation services, which if consummated, will result in DHL abandoning a hub in Wilmington, Ohio, resulting in the loss of over 8000 direct jobs and tens of thousands of indirect jobs.
DHL’s announcement to partner with UPS is problematic for a number of reasons. First, we believe the contemplated business relationship between DHL and UPS raises significant and troubling competition issues. Indeed, we find it very troubling as to why a company in a concentrated market would turn to one of its chief competitors to find cost savings. As a consequence, we are deeply concerned about the potential for anticompetitive conduct to occur, and we have raised these issues with both U.S. and EU competition authorities.
Second, we are concerned that DHL’s decision to abandon the Wilmington facility and the surrounding communities will have consequences in the United States beyond the immediate devastating impact to the Wilmington area. Americans are starting to rethink their views on the benefits of global investment and the interconnected global economic system. If DHL’s actions towards Wilmington are indicative, continued erosion in public support for international investment and the global economy is the likely result.
You should note that during meetings with government officials, DHL’s senior management indicated that the state of Ohio, the Wilmington-area workers, ABX Air, and ASTAR Air Cargo were all high-quality partners in the operation of the Wilmington facility. The stakeholder commitment to DHL also entailed a significant financial component. The state of Ohio, city of Wilmington, and Clinton County have invested over $400 million into the Wilmington area in support of this hub. In spite of all of the substantial stakeholder commitments to DHL, the company plans to abandon Ohio without giving the stakeholders the opportunity to work as trusted partners to help DHL to succeed.
Moreover, DHL’s treatment of the stakeholders in recent months can be described as nothing less than appalling considering the long and friendly relationship between our two nations and the businesses that operate in both countries. For example, in what can charitably be described as a major error in protocol, DHL made its announcement about the Wilmington facility while it was hosting the Mayor of Wilmington in Germany. When it made this announcement, DHL gave no advanced notice to Wilmington’s Mayor or other Ohio political and business leaders.
We raise this issue with you not only out of concern for the Ohio workers that will be impacted by this decision, but also because we are concerned that such dismissive treatment by such a significant German company will not be easily forgotten in the United States. The situation and DHL’s indifference could easily undermine U.S. views on matters such as completing the next stage of the Open Skies, how foreign investment into the United States is viewed, and general U.S.-German trade relations. The attention the DHL proposal has drawn from both Presidential campaigns serves to confirm the urgency of this situation.
We understand that there is some surprise about the opposition to this transaction. Our reaction should not come as a surprise. In fact, we understand a similar situation arose in Germany related to the closing of a mobile phone manufacturing facility and the loss of German jobs, and the reaction was equally as strong. At a minimum, in the worst-case scenario, we believe DHL has a social obligation to provide substantial assistance with regard to severance packages, health care coverage, and the redevelopment of the Wilmington facility. DHL owns the Wilmington air facility, and we believe it entirely appropriate for DHL to return the airport to the community, provide the requisite assistance for the city to redevelop this important asset, and allow the community to mitigate this devastating loss should DHL decide not to reconsider its decision.
As a result of the concerns we describe above, we believe it is important that you are aware of this situation. We hope that DHL will reconsider this decision and work with its American partners. We would appreciate your bringing to DHL’s attention the international aspect of the decision and would be more than happy to work with your designee if you believe it would be helpful.
Sincerely,
George V. Voinovich
Sherrod Brown
John Boehner
David Hobson
Jean Schmidt
Tim Ryan
Betty Sutton
Zack Space
Patrick J. Tiberi
Charlie Wilson
Jim Jordan
Steve Chabot
Michael Turner
Robert E. Latta
cc: Ambassador Klaus Scharioth Ambassador William R. Timken, Jr.
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McCain likes “Dancing Queen” while Obama is “Ready or Not”
Blender magazine has the musical scoop - the top 10 songs of Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.
Musically, the only thing the two presidential candidates have in common is Frank Sinatra, although each prefers a different Sinatra song.
Here are the lists:
McCain
“Dancing Queen” ABBA
“Blue Bayou” Roy Orbison
“Take a Chance on Me” ABBA
“If We Make It Through December” Merle Haggard
“As Time Goes By” Dooley Wilson
“Good Vibrations” Beach Boys
“What a Wonderful World” Louis Armstrong
“I’ve Got You Under My Skin” Frank Sinatra
“Sweet Caroline” Neil Diamond
“Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” The Platters
Obama
“Ready or Not” Fugees
“What’s Going On” Marvin Gaye
“I’m On Fire” Bruce Springsteen
“Gimme Shelter” Rolling Stones
“Sinnerman” Nina Simone
“Touch the Sky” Kanye West
“You’d Be So Easy to Love” Frank Sinatra
“Think” Aretha Franklin
“City of Blinding Lights” U2
“Yes We Can” will.i.am
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Dem “Register for Change” buses rolling into Ohio
Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean and the Democrats’ “Register for Change” bus tour is rolling into Ohio.
The voters registration effort is scheduled to be in Cincinnati on Wednesday, Aug. 13 and in Columbus and the Cleveland area on Thursday, Aug. 14.
Here’s the schedule:
Wednesday in Cincinnati Time: 5:15 p.m. Place: Laborers International Union Hall, 3457 Montgomery Rd. Actor/producer Kal Penn will join Dean.
Thursday in Columbus Time: 8:30 a.m. Place: Columbus State Community College, 550 E. Spring St. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Ohio House Minority Leader Joyce Beatty and actor/producer Kal Penn will join Dean.
Thursday in Cleveland Time: 2 p.m. Place: Campaign for Change office, 13100 Shaker Boulevard, Shaker Heights Actor/producer Kal Penn will join Dean.
