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Ohio Republican Redistricting Plan? “Keep It Secret”

Ben — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 01:03:55 +0000

According to the Ohio Redistricting Transparency Report released this afternoon, Republican lawmakers at the state house implemented a strategy of deliberate secrecy to withhold information from the public about redistricting efforts. The documents paint a picture of lawmakers who purposely operated in a legal gray area to prevent their actions from ever being made public.

For months, Republican lawmakers and staff meet in secret to work on redistricting efforts in possible violation of Ohio’s open meetings law. The documents show a Republican party that are so obsessed with privacy that they used taxpayer dollars to rent a secret hotel [...]

[Report:] U.S. Steel considering $600 million upgrade in production capacity in Lorain and NWO

ModernEsquire — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 15:55:47 +0000

As Gov. Strickland toured a small employee-owned manufacturing company in Steubenville, the Governor talked about recent successes in Washington against Chinese steel dumping and what its meant for steel manufacturing in Ohio:

Strickland noted that trade policies, including a recent ruling protecting American pipe manufacturers from dumping by the Chinese, led to the $650 million project under way to build a new steel mill near Youngstown, V&M Star Steel. He noted he had testified about the impact of dumping on Ohio mills and manufacturers. Strickland said U.S. Steel plans to announce another $600 million investment in steel facilities [...]

Washington Post’s “The Fix” takes the Strickland-Kasich race off its radar

ModernEsquire — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:45:23 +0000

Today, the Washington Post’s Chris Cilliza noted in his latest update of his “The Fix” blog that the Governor’s race in Ohio is no longer one of the top fifteen competitive races in the nation.

Not a good reaction to Kasich’s first campaign ad and the RGA’s concentrated spending. The last time Cilliza listed the race on The Line it was at the bottom and noted that Strickland was rebounding and landing some strong attacks on Kasich early… that was back in late May.

As much as the Carpetblogger likes to talk about the DGA’s ads, I can’t [...]

R.I.P.- Big Butter Jesus; destroyed by Act of God/Irony

ModernEsquire — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:30:58 +0000

Big Butter Jesus, a Southwestern Ohio national landmark/eyesore, was destroyed last night in a venegeful act of God/irony.

Here’s the before:

Here’s the after:

(HT: WLWT in Cincinnati for the images)

And here’s the Heywood Banks song that made Big Butter Jesus into a national treasure:

And here you can watch the statute burn in its sacrilegious glory:

This clearly was an Act of God and nothing to do with what happens when you wrap flammable Styrofoam in a big metal statute, drop it in a body of water in [...]

Dispatch raises more questions about Kasich’s role in Lehman Bros. and state pension fund losses

ModernEsquire — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:43:16 +0000

This story isn’t going away.? In fact, it’s only starting to heat up.

Today, the Columbus Dispatch has another story about Lehman Bros., John Kasich, and state pension funds.? This time, it’s to note that while then State Treasurer Richard Cordray was able to divest Ohio of $800 million in toxic assets before the market crashed, state pension funds were slower and as a result lost somewhere between $480 million to $220 million as a result.

What the Dispatch story doesn’t do is offer an explanation as to why the pensions funds might have been slower to drop [...]

John Kasich lobbied state pension funds for Lehman Bros.

ModernEsquire — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:46:09 +0000

Not a good day for the Kasich campaign.

The Columbus Dispatch (R-Ohio) details how in 2002 Lehman Bros. used it’s Columbus office manager, John Kasich, and his political connections to attempt to take over the entire management of the PERS and State Police and Fire pensions.

“John’s work at Lehman Brothers wasn’t focused on the public sector but on helping entrepreneurs and private companies raise capital to expand and grow,” Rob Nichols, a Kasich campaign spokesman, said in the statement. “At the request of a New York-based colleague, he was glad to help arrange two introductory meetings, and [...]

Cincinnati Enquirer endorses Brunner

ModernEsquire — Sat, 01 May 2010 15:47:27 +0000

Lee Fisher’s attempt to sweep the newspaper endorsements failed.

Despite the fact that they note that Fisher is pulling away from Brunner in polling, the editorial board of the Cincinnati Enquirer endorsed Brunner:

But we think Democratic voters ought to give feisty underdog Brunner a good look in this race as well. She has shown resilience and policy-making skill as secretary of state, a difficult post on which both parties exert great pressure. We haven’t agreed with some of her decisions on election policy, but she has stood her ground credibly on reforms and has worked out some [...]

What’s this about?

ModernEsquire — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 01:38:06 +0000

Reginald Fields of the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote about a letter attorney Rocky Saxbe sent the Inspector General back on April 9th regarding his client, ODPS Director Collins-Taylor. I’ve obtained a copy of that letter.

The letter covers the facts that I’ve largely outlined showing why it was entirely unreasonable for anyone to think the alleged contraband would be anything other than tobacco.

But on page 6, Saxbe adds these new fact to the mix:

“Captain Henderson was already under pending disciplinary action for losing her sidearm weapon a second time and failing to report the [...]

[Exclusive:] Inspector General lobbied Governor to appoint wife’s supervisor, then proceeded to investigate rival to appointment.

ModernEsquire — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 00:03:58 +0000

According to the Dayton Daily News, State Inspector General Thomas Charles will issue his report tomorrow on the Highway Patrol’s decision to cancel a planned tobacco “sting” at the Governor’s Mansion because it was a safety risk and tobacco smuggling is not a criminal act.

Despite these obvious facts, everyone in Columbus (especially the Senate Republicans) are expecting that Charles is going to do a hatchet job on the Administration in order to defend the Patrol.? Charles is ex-Patrol, his wife and son still work in the Patrol, and most, if not all, of his key personnel in [...]

[UPDATED:] About that GOP momentum in Ohio…

ModernEsquire — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 14:49:11 +0000

Back on the 8th, the Columbus Dispatch ran a story by Mark Niquette titled “GOP swelling as Ohio voters switch parties” that was breathlessly picked up by just about every major newspaper in Ohio.

After reading it, you’d expect that you are the only person in Ohio who hasn’t left the Democratic Party for the Republican Party, and therefore, are missing out of the hottest political fad.

Except it’s all bullshit.

The Ohio Democratic Party has researched the story and found it to be one part highly misleading and one part out right false.

First, the Ohio Democratic [...]