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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > July > 14
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Martin Gottlieb: Brunner doing what Ohio pols just don’t do
What Jennifer Brunner is doing is seriously unlikely. Ohio politicians don’t do things like this. They might think about it. They might want to do it. But they don’t do it.
“It” isn’t the perfect pronoun here, because she’s really doing two things. One, she’s running for the U.S. Senate. Two, she’s not running for re-election as secretary of state.
To a lot of people in the Democratic Party, number two is the amazing part, the more fateful decision. She says party people are beating her over the head about it, trying to get her to back off her decision to leave.
She insists, however, that the die is cast, because, among other things, she has given her word to a would-be secretary of state that the job will be open.
The reason for the widespread anguish about her decision: The secretary of state sits on the commission that draws the state legislature’s districts after every Census. The governor and state auditor are also members. Whichever party has two of those jobs controls the process — completely.
It is an enormous power. Look at the current situation in Columbus. The Democrats, having had two excellent election years in a row, control the House of Representatives. But they are a pathetic one-third minority in the Senate. That’s fundamentally because the Republicans drew the maps (doing a much better job with the Senate than the House).
When the Democrats won governor and secretary of state in 2006, it was the first time they had control of the redistricting commission since the 1980s. There was rejoicing. Of course, they needed their new officeholders to win again in 2010, because the lines will be drawn in 2011. But those candidates would have the advantage of incumbency.
Now Brunner is giving that up. Horrors.
A few years ago, Republican Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell decided that he’d rather be state treasurer, a job he had once held. He was planning to run for that job. But alarms went up within his party about the redistricting commission, and he stayed put.
This year, Republican Auditor Mary Taylor seemed eager to make a longshot race in the Republican primary for the Senate, against Rob Portman. The party didn’t want her to. She didn’t.
Maybe Republicans are different.
Keep in mind that neither Taylor nor Blackwell was even the swing seat on the commission. In Blackwell’s case, the Republicans held all three seats. In the Taylor case, they only held one. Yet the pressure to stay was intense.
But Brunner is the swing seat.
OK, so that’s one decision by Brunner. You have to couple it with the fact that her run for the Senate is creating a primary.
True, that might also be said about the other major contender, Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher. But everybody was expecting him to run. Nobody cares about a vacancy for lieutenant governor.
Fisher doesn’t generate universal enthusiasm among Democrats, because he has lost two consecutive general elections (1994 and 1998) for statewide office, hasn’t been elected on his own since 1990 and holds office now only because Strickland won in 2006.
But at the time that Fisher and Brunner made their decisions to seek the Senate seat, Fisher was basking in the popularity of Strickland.
Moreover, a lot of people just don’t like their party to have hot primaries. They fear party division and a waste of money.
This primary could be hot. The polls are competitive. There’s already heat on the Internet.
(Thank goodness for blogs and bloggers. Used to be, newspaper columnists were accused of jumping the gun if they took note of an election in the summer of the year before. But this gun has been fired. Besides the Internet sniping, the candidates are out on the hustings a lot and busily raising money.)
Parties shouldn’t be as fearful of primaries as they are. A good primary can actually add stature to the winner. As for money for the general election, it always seems to turns up somehow if the party has a shot at winning.
As for the redistricting thing, Brunner is supporting a change in the system, so that the districts are drawn on a nonpartisan basis, as they should be.
In truth, though, such reform has been attempted twice in recent years and never seems to happen.
The people Brunner is starting out by disappointing are not huge in number, just the insiders and deeply political people. They might not have great power in a primary.
She ought to be glad there’s a primary. If the party could decide things behind closed doors, she would not be the candidate for the Senate.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Elections, Martin Gottlieb, Ohio politics
Editorial: Ban on youth ATV riders would save lives
The death of 2-year-old Levi Jones in Warren County on July 7 is a tragic reminder of the danger faced by kids who ride all-terrain vehicles and the need for Ohio to strengthen its vehicle laws.
In this case, Levi was riding with his father when the ATV crashed, throwing them both off. This type of incident is common in Ohio, and ATV injuries spike in the summer. The off-road vehicles are especially common in rural areas and are used both for practical purposes and for recreation.
But the notion that ATVs fall short of being true motor vehicles, or can be treated as something of a toy because they are fun to ride, is dangerous. ATVs can weigh hundreds of pounds and maneuvering them requires sense and skills that children often don’t have.
They are flat unsafe for those under age 16 who have not been taught to use them with the sort of supervision teenagers get when they’re learning to drive cars. And riding along on a vehicle never intended for more than one person should never be allowed. Most Ohioans understand this common sense and would support new laws that would cut injuries and deaths.
Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, said Ohio is in the top third among states for ATV fatalities. While kids under 16 represent less than 15 percent of ATV users, they account for a third of ATV deaths.
“These are dangerous machines,” he said. “Children oftentimes are too young to respond to the moment-to-moment demands of operating them. They don’t know where to draw the line and that a fall isn’t a little tumble. It’s a crash involving a tremendous amount of energy.”
Ohio law is quite liberal, restricting use to those over 16 on public lands, but setting no age limits for vehicles driven on private property.
In 2006, the research center at Columbus’ children’s hospital surveyed Ohioans about potential legal restrictions. Respondents supported by wide margins proposals to prohibit ATV use by young children, ban passengers, require helmets and mandate safety classes. A state law with those elements is a good idea.
Many ATV users oppose those rules, complaining they’re oppressive. They argue that accidents happen, but that most users are responsible and the vehicles generally are safely used, especially in farming.
That certainly is true. But ATV enthusiasts cannot ignore the tragedy of the unusually high number of deaths — especially children — in the state. (A recent study showed 85 Ohioans died in ATV crashes between 2003 and 2006.)
With or without a law, Ohioans need to understand that they are playing a dangerous game by allowing kids to ride ATVs. Few would allow their children to get behind the wheel of a car without a driver’s education course or basic safety precautions (such as a clicked seat belt).
Taking a safety class or putting on a helmet before climbing aboard an ATV may be a short-term inconvenience, but it’s a price worth paying to save lives.
Permalink | Comments (16) | Post your comment | Categories: Law Enforcement and Public Safety
