From the monthly archives: January 2011
A friend of the blog reminded me today about a questionnaire sent out in August to all of the candidates for governor.
Near the end of the questionnaire, which The Dispatch sent to John Kasich, Ted Strickland and the two third-party candidates in the race for Ohio Governor, was a question about Strickland’s executive order that protected state workers from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Question 11 was very clearly worded and didn’t allow for any alternative interpretations:
11. Would you renew the 2007 executive order that no one can be fired from or denied [...]
Full Story... →Related Posts/Stories:
Florida privatized economic development efforts. It didn’t turn out so well. John Kasich’s plan means Ohio would be copying off of… MICHIGAN?!? Nevada’s tried Kasich’s business leaders economic development council idea… how’d that work out? “Sh!t My John Kasich Says”- Moving at the Speed of Business (on Indiana) “Can CEOs lure business to Ohio?” [Associated Press, Oct. 11, 2010]
Today, Governor Kasich called a press conference billed as revealing the details of his “JobsOhio” plan. However, the legislators there admitted that a draft of legislation isn’t ready yet, but they’re going to hold [...]
Full Story... →Back in November we reported that the Kasich transition website was accepting applications for Government jobs on their private website. We soon learned that John Kasich intended to keep those resumes private. Advocates for government transparency responded negatively. Blogs responded even more negatively. But the fiercest and most vocal response came from newspapers who had endorsed John Kasich for Governor.
In the end, Kasich agreed he would have to release the information. And today he did.
We currently have all of the resumes and are debating if/how to make them available. For now I’m going to post the [...]
Full Story... →Today’s Akron Beacon Journal addresses Joseph’s inflated staff salaries in the Kasich Administration story from two weeks ago:
“The more acute disconnect involves the governor’s harsh words for many in the public sector, especially unions, about failing to understand the principle of sacrifice. Kasich insists they make do with less. Then, he turns around and pays his chief of staff $47,000 a year more than the Strickland chief of staff. He might want to set a better example.”
Be sure to read the rest of the editorial as it also addresses why Kasich’s argument that his staff is [...]
Full Story... →I wrote this headline because not a single Ohio newspaper will.
For the less sophisticated partisans among us, I’ll give you this alternative headline instead:
Hey Republicans, Obama more popular in Ohio than Portman, Boehner or Kasich! Suck it!
The latest Quinnipiac Poll out today shows Obama getting a 49%-46% approval/disapproval rating, a reversal of his 45%-49% rating back in June. 48% of Ohioans believe Obama deserve to be re-elected, and he’d get 44% of the vote against 39% of the vote against a generic Republican candidate. With numbers like these, you could justify putting Ohio in the “Lean Obama” [...]
Full Story... →Well, as you could tell from the title of the Dispatch article I cited in the last post, things eventually started to unravel for Thomas Gunlock and his father Bill and Sabre Systems. Either by carelessness or arrogance, the Gunlocks made a mistake that led the whole empire of “pay to play” politics unravel. You see, eventually, the media began to notice the Gunlocks campaign donations and those of Sabre’s employees when something jumped out at them—the donations were made at the same time.
The Dispatch and other outlets began reporting on this and suggestions that the Sabre employees were [...]
Full Story... →Yesterday, Governor Kasich appointed Thomas W. Gunlock to the Ohio Board of Education. By a 10-9 vote, the Ohio State Board of Education elected Gunlock today to be its Vice-President. The vote was the result, the Columbus Dispatch reported, by a new Republican majority created by the five appointments Kasich made yesterday and the newly elected members to the Board. But for the obstructionism of the Ohio State Senate Republicans who rejected two batches of nominations Governor Strickland made to that body, Kasich would not have been able to engineer Republicans leading the State Board of Education.
Earlier [...]
Full Story... →Gang, meet Thomas William Gunlock, whom Kasich yesterday named to the Ohio Board of Education. According to the Dayton Daily News, Mr. Gunlock was appointed by Governor Bob Taft to the Ohio Board of Education, but then defeated when he ran for “re”-election in 2006.
The Dayton Daily News also reports that Mr. Gunlock presently works for R. G. Properties, a real estate firm. LinkedIn lists Mr. Gunlock’s position as Director of Marketing. R. G. Properties stands for Randall L. Gunlock, the real estate firm’s owner.
Now, here are the donations the Gunlocks made last year [...]
Full Story... →Not often do you see a poll in which the incoming Administration has a substantially lower approval rating than the outgoing one during the “honeymoon period,” but that’s exactly what Quinnipiac reported today.
In early February 2007, Quinnipiac’s first approval rating for Governor Strickland showed him with an approval rating at 45% approval and 12% disapproval and the rest undecided. In today’s Quinnipiac Poll, Strickland leaves office with… a 46% approval rating.
Kasich better hope he does better getting the undecided Ohioans this early in his term to approve of his performance or else he’s in [...]
Full Story... →Multiple national media outlets are reporting tonight that Independent Connecticut U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (file picture above) will announce his plans to retire from the U.S. Senate tomorrow. This, of course, has nothing to do with public polling indicating that Sen. Lieberman likely could not be re-elected if he ran as a Republican, Democrat, or Independent.
One of Lieberman’s final legacy will being the point person for the Obama Administration in the U.S. Senate in getting the repeal of DADT passed during the lame duck session of the last Congress.
Full Story... →Budget Watch
