From the monthly archives: April 2011
Two days after we reported how Governor Kasich came out of his meeting with the top three public finance bond rating agencies empty-handed, Kasich declares victory by saying he “prevented” them from lowering Ohio’s bond rating further. He then says that Moody’s LOVES SB 5 so much that if Ohioans repeal it, it may negatively impact Ohio’s credit rating. He’s lying on both counts.
The reality is that the bond agencies are more concerned about whether Kasich’s privatization scheme will generate the revenue and savings he claims. Oh, and one rating company has already lowered the City of Cleveland’s bond rating, specifically citing Kasich’s budget cuts to local governments as a factor.
Kasich wouldn’t know the truth if it wore a name tag and introduced itself to him.
Full Story... →The Cuyahoga County Democratic Party officially announced a few minutes ago that Nick Martin has been tapped as the new ED of the country party. Nick’s primary mandate will be to modernize and rebuild the party infrastructure. The release specifically mentions the anti-SB5 efforts and the upcoming 2012 elections.
Full Story... →John Kasich campaigned on a promise to keep young people in Ohio and he’s continued making this promise since being elected. According to Kasich, “young people are leaving the state for better opportunities” and he’s going to do everything in his power to get those kids jobs in Ohio.
This afternoon Kasich made a big announcement about his new OhioMeansJobs.com website. The site is a partnership with the notoriously anti-union NFIB and Kasich would like you to believe it’s all part of his big plan to help find more Ohioans jobs.
In part, that is true.
According to the website, [...]
Full Story... →For the thirteenth consecutive month, Ohio’s unemployment rate dropped in March from 9.2% in February to 8.9% as the State had a net gain of 2,200 driven mostly by the 5k jobs gained in the manufacturing sector. Ohio saw a 1.6% drop in it’s unemployment rate over the past twelve months and is now .1% above the national unemployment rate.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, this makes the Strickland Recovery the second strongest recovery in Ohio since 1983, which again, draws a historical parallel between John Kasich’s and Dick Celeste’s first term.
Full Story... →This morning, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine certified “We Are Ohio”s proposed summary ballot language to place SB 5 on a referendum vote this November. We’re still waiting on approval of the initial signatures by Secretary of State Husted, but we aren’t expecting any problem with those as the campaign submitted 3,000 signatures and only need 1,000 valid ones. That means the SB 5 referendum process is officially in the petition signature gathering stage!
Full Story... →SEIU, Ohio AFL-CIO, and AFSCME all presently have scheduled training sessions so people know how to properly circulate the petition to submit SB 5 to a popular referendum once the Ohio Attorney General’s office approves the ballot language. We’re NOT sure which ones beyond SEIU are open to the public versus just their union members (perhaps all), so let us know what you here when you sign up. If you’re aware of any others, please let me know.
Full Story... →Direct enough money to support John Kasich’s election, and he’ll endorse you to be President of the United States of America, even if you look to be the least viable Republican candidate running.
After making every ’12 GOP Presidential contender come to Ohio to openly support his candidacy (except for Sarah Palin), Kasich endorses Haley Barbour who directed $11 million of the RGA’s money to support Kasich’s candidacy last year.
This is probably the biggest tell that Mike Huckabee and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels aren’t going to run, though. Congratulations Governor Barbour, you have the support of the least popular politician in Ohio right now!
Full Story... →(HT: Progress Ohio)
Wenzel Strategies is an Ohio conservative polling outfit founded by former Toledo Blade political reporter Fritz Wenzel. In the past, Wenzel Strategies has conducted polls for conservative groups like Ohio Right to Life and the fringe conservative site, WorldNetDaily. And yet, when it polled SB 5, it finds that over a quarter of Republicans favor its repeal. Oh, and John Kasich is really, really, really unpopular right now. In other words, everything we’ve seen in just about every poll conducted in Ohio in the past month.
Full Story... →Last week, we talked about Governor Kasich’s proposal to start incorporating cloned parts of SB 5 into the State budget. At the time, Speaker Batchelder indicated that his caucus was giving it considerable thought.
Well, it turns out that SB 5 is so wildly popular (more on that in a post later today) that the House Republicans have decided that they don’t want to have to share the ballot with it when they’re up for re-election next year. So for SB 5 it’s survive the referendum this November or bust.
Full Story... →John Kasich’s long time friends Doug Preisse and Robert Klaffky are now lobbyists working for Pinnacle, the owner of a large Indiana casino company. As long as Kasich delays making a decision about Ohio’s casinos, Indiana casinos continue to thrive. Coincidence?
Full Story... →John Kasich’s budget and anti-union agenda isn’t as popular as you (and Governor Kasich) might think. A few weeks ago, Kasich pitched his budget to the state credit rating companies. They weren’t overly impressed.
Full Story... →Budget Watch
