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Home > Blogs > Ohio politics > Archives > 2009 > August > 06
Thursday, August 6, 2009
New bill bans use of handheld “mobile communication devices” while driving
New legislation introduced on Thursday, Aug. 6, calls for a blanket ban on the use of handheld or manually operated “mobile communication devices” - including cell phones - while driving.
House Bill 266, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Koziura, D-Lorain, goes far beyond a bill introduced earlier in the week by Rep. Michael DeBose, D-Cleveland, which banned text messaging while driving and made it a secondary offense.
Koziura’s bipartisan bill, which has 11 consponsors, would ban the use of cell phones, text-messaging devices, personal digital assistants, computers or any similar device while driving. It would be a primary offense, which means police could pull a motorist over for a suspected violation. Police can’t pull a motorist over for a secondary offense. Police can cite the driver for a secondary offense if they pull him or her over for another offense such as speeding.
Koziura’s bill carries a $25 fine for a first offense, $50 for a second or third offense and a $100 fine for additional offenses.
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UD grad leads anti-casino campaign
University of Dayton graduate Scott Kozar will direct the campaign to defeat Ohio’s four-casino ballot proposal.
Kozar, will be director of “TruthPAC”, a political action committee “that will counter the exaggerated claims put forth by casino supporters,” according to a press release.
He will direct a “bi-partisan campaign team,” the release said. The release questioned claims by the Ohio Jobs and Growth Committee, the pro-casino group, on potential job creation and economic investment.
Kozar is the Washington, D.C.-based senior vice president at Fletcher, Rowley, Riddle (“FRR”), an advertising and campaign consulting firm.
Sandy Theis, TruthPAC spokeswoman, said the PAC included a “large, diverse” group of people. MTR Gaming Group, Inc., which lost a court fight aimed at keeping the issue off the Nov. 3 ballot, is expected to help finance the new effort, said Theis.
The ballot proposal asks voters to approve casinos in Toledo, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus. Penn National Gaming of Wyomissing, Pa. and Dan Gilbert, majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, are financial backers of the casino plan.
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Voinovich will vote for Sotomayor
Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, announced today he will support Judge Sonia Sotomayor. The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on her confirmation today.
“I have determined Judge Sotomayor meets the criteria to become a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court,” he said on the floor of the Senate today. “I didn’t come to this determination lightly. Judge Sotomayor has made statements that have given me pause…but on balance, I believe she is fit to serve on this nation’s highest court.”
Voinovich said Sotomayor “is not the nominee I would have selected if I were President, but making a nomination is not my role here today. My role is to examine her qualifications to determine if she is fit to serve. In reviewing Judge Sotomayor’s academic and professional record and taking into account her temperament and integrity, it is clear to me that she is qualified to serve as the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.”
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has already said he will support Sotomayor.
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Tiberi gets a challenger
Franklin County Commissioner Paula Brooks this week announced she’ll be running for Congress in 2010, opposing Republican Pat Tiberi in Ohio’s 12th Congressional District, which includes Delaware County and parts of Franklin and Licking counties.
Brooks, a Democrat, has served in public office in Central Ohio for more than three decades, including as a member of the Franklin County Board of Commissioners since 2005. She’s currently president of the Board.
She has also served on the Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities, the Ohio State Bar Foundation, Action for Battered Women in Ohio, local Chamber of Commerce, and as an active Rotarian.
Her entry into the race makes hers the second congressional race in central Ohio with the potential to sizzle. In the adjacent 15th Congressional District, Republican Steve Stivers will face off against Mary Jo Kilroy for that seat.
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Obama approval dips; voters say president should have avoided Cambridge dispute
President Barack Obama’s national approval rating dipped to 50 percent in a new Quinnipiac University poll released on Thursday, Aug. 6, his lowest approval rating since Inauguration Day.
The poll also found that by a 62-26 percent margin voters said Obama should not have intervened in the dispute between black Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and white Cambridge, Mass. Police Sgt. James Crowley.
In the survey, 50 percent approved of Obama’s job performance and 42 disapproved, down from 57-33 percent on July 2. In a Quinnipiac University poll of Ohio voters released on July 7, Obama’s approval rating was 49-44 percent, also his lowest since he was inaugurated.
There was good news for Democrat Obama in the poll. Voters disapproved of how Republicans in Congress are doing their job, 59-29 percent. Also, they trusted Obama more than these Republicans to fix the economy, 47-36 percent and to handle health care, 46-37 percent.
There was a racial split on the Gates-Crowley incident. Overall, voters said Obama acted “stupidly” in the dispute, 49-33 percent. White voters said that he acted stupidly, 54-27 percent, while black voters disagreed, 61-16 percent.
Here’s a chance to get involved in the debate.
The poll surveyed 2,409 registered voters from July 27 - Monday, Aug. 3 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
