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Thursday, July 21, 2011
UPDATED with reaction - Ohio voters to decide fate of Senate Bill 5
Ohio voters will decide the fate of Senate Bill 5 on Nov. 8.
Secretary of State Jon Husted on Thursday certified that backers of a referendum on the legislation restricting public employee collective bargaining filed enough signatures from registered voters to get the issue on the Nov. 8 ballot.
They collected 915,456 valid signatures, meeting the requirement of at least 231,147 signatures, 6 percent of the vote in the 2010 governor’s race, Husted said in a press release.
Also, backers of the referendum had to collect signatures in 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties equal to 3 percent of the the votes in the 2010 governor’s race. They met the 3 percent requirement in all 88 counties, Husted said.
The next step is for the Ballot Board to convene to approve ballot language for voters to consider. The board is expected to meet in early August, the release said.
Both sides came out firing in what is expected to be an epic fall battle.
“This history-making, grassroots campaign, continues to prove SB 5 is a bad bill that was passed by extreme politicians who are out of touch with hardworking Ohioans,” Melissa Fazekas, spokeswoman for We Are Ohio, the group backing repeal, said in a press release..
“We look forward to giving all Ohioans the opportunity to exercise their right to a citizen’s veto of SB 5 on November 8, 2011.”
Jason Mauk, spokesman for Building a Better Ohio, the group supporting SB 5, countered,
“We can finally get beyond the process of putting a referendum on the ballot and start focusing on the merits of these reasonable reforms.
“Ohio voters now have a choice to make. We can keep the unfair, unsustainable policies that are bankrupting our communities, or we can change direction and give them the tools they need to create jobs and get spending under control. It’s that simple.”
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TweetOhio poll: Obama approval lags, but president tops GOP challengers
President Barack Obama’s approval rating with Ohio voters has dipped slightly, but Obama still leads major GOP challengers in possible 2012 match ups, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.
Also, the poll finds that Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel leads former state Sen. Kevin Coughlin of Cuyahoga Falls for the 2012 GOP U.S. Senate nomination, while incumbent Democratic U.S. Sherrod Brown holds healthy leads over both of them in general election match ups.
In the poll, 50 percent disapprove of how Obama’s handling his job, while 46 percent approve, down from a May 19 poll which found 49 percent approval and 45 percent disapproval.
Also, voters split on whether the president deserves a second term, with 47 percent “no” and 46 percent “yes.”
In the scramble for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, “don’t know” is the big leader at 28 percent.
Here’s the rest: former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 16 percent; former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin, 15 percent; U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, 11 percent and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, 8 percent.
No other candidate tops 6 percent.
Romney comes closest in match ups with Obama, with the president leading, 45-41 percent.
The others trail far behind. Obama tops Palin, 51-35 percent; leads Bachmann, 49-36 percent and tops Perry, 47-35 percent.
In the battle for the 2012 GOP U.S. Senate nomination, nearly half of Republicans - 46 percent - are undecided. Mandel gets 35 percent to 12 percent for Coughlin.
Incumbent Democrat Brown beats Mandel, 49-34 percent and bests Coughlin, 50-32 percent.
As far as the presidential race, “voters are saying that they’re not overwhelmed by Mr. Obama but at this point they like him better than the alternatives,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
The poll was conducted from July 12 to Monday, July 18 and is based on interviews with 1,659 registered voters done by live interviewers on land lines and cell phones. Overall, the poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.
The survey included 563 Republicans and GOP only questions have a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percent.
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