That’s that we wrote about John Husted back in December.  What was true then remains true now.

“Voter fraud does exist, but it’s not an epidemic,” Husted recently said in response to a report studying alleged voter fraud and voter suppression.

It was just one year ago that Husted was so fired up about voter fraud that he was demanding a meeting with the United States Attorney General to discuss the fact that some counties appeared to have more registered voters [...]]]> “If we didn’t have a guy like Secretary of State Husted around, we would probably have to invent him.”

That’s that we wrote about John Husted back in December.  What was true then remains true now.

“Voter fraud does exist, but it’s not an epidemic,” Husted recently said in response to a report studying alleged voter fraud and voter suppression.

It was just one year ago that Husted was so fired up about voter fraud that he was demanding a meeting with the United States Attorney General to discuss the fact that some counties appeared to have more registered voters than residents.   It turns out that this is common – people who move don’t quickly get removed from voter databases.  But that fact didn’t stop Husted from warning that “the odds of voter fraud increase the longer these ineligible voters are allowed to populate our rolls.”

Last September, the Dispatch ran a front page article titled, “Voter rolls in Ohio are bloated, experts say.”  Then, in March, the Dispatch wrote that “Despite a variety of initiatives from Husted’s office, Ohio still has ‘dirty’ voter rolls, including two counties where the number of registered voters exceeds that of eligible voters.”

So, how much voter fraud actually exists.  Husted says his study found 135 possible cases.  That is out of 5,632,423 votes cast.  Even the Columbus Dispatch suggests that this is pretty rare – noting that this is about 0.002% of all votes case, or about 1 out of about every 42,000 votes cast.

How rare is that?  Compare the incidents of voter fraud to other crimes in Ohio in 2010 (the latest available data from the Ohio Department of Criminal Justice Services. is from 2010):

Put another way, you are 3½ times more likely to be murdered, and 148 times more likely to have your car stolen, than to see voter fraud in Ohio – and that assumes that all of the incidents of voter fraud identified by Husted are proven to actually be voter fraud.

Sounds like the odds are not in Husted’s favor.

Last month Mike DeWine announced a new task force to help prosecutors bring cases against Internet cafes.  He made the announcement before “assisting” with raids (in front of TV cameras, of course) on [...]]]> Attorney General Mike DeWine is in full-on campaign mode, traveling the state looking for any opportunity to get himself in front of a TV camera where he can often be seen announcing some fancy new initiative.   Sadly, when the cameras are gone, and the hard work of actually implementing these initiatives begins, DeWine has moved on to the next press event.

Last month Mike DeWine announced a new task force to help prosecutors bring cases against Internet cafes.  He made the announcement before “assisting” with raids (in front of TV cameras, of course) on four cafes in Cuyahoga County.  While DeWine was putting on a show for reporters, a Law Director in Chillicothe had to drop charges against an Internet cafe because she couldn’t get the promised assistance from DeWine’s AG’s office.   “It was like trying to track down a ghost,” she said.

In December of 2011, DeWine announced another initiative by his office to begin processing untested rape kits from around the state.  DeWine said he was going to hire new staff and ultimately process 3000 kits per year (or 250 kits per month).

This week the Dispatch reported that, as of now, only 888 of the 2,984 kits received by the AG’s office have been tested.   That’s a backlog of over 2,000 untested kits with a processing rate of just over 50 per month – no where near the promised 250 per month rate.

During his campaign for Attorney General in 2010, DeWine accused then-AG Richard Cordray of not doing enough to ensure the state crime lab, run by the AG’s office, was operating smoothly and avoiding long processing delays and backlogs.   He also accused Cordray of spending too much money and time on public relations.   

Both claims seem laughable now as we watch DeWine circle the state banging his PR drum while back at the office charges are dropped and unprocessed rape kits stack up.

In a recent statement, David Pepper took DeWine to task:

“Moving these rape kits from one set of shelves in local police stations to another set of shelves in the Attorney General’s office doesn’t bring justice.  The fact that the backlog is growing is troubling, and years of delays are simply unacceptable,” Pepper said.

“As Attorney General, I will put a priority on testing these kits rapidly and effectively, bringing justice to victims and locking up the perpetrators.  And I will work in partnership with Ohio’s regional crime labs and local law enforcement to get this done more efficiently.” 

Like most newspaper announcements of their in-house plans to serve readers, the boilerplate column left us with many upbeat promises to soften the blow of days without a paper on our door step.  The Wednesday-Friday-Sundaycircuit will be offered as a [...]]]> Subscribers to the Plain Dealer woke up Wednesday to the paper’s official word on its new version of summer reading.  In a front-page Dear Readers column by  Robert Perona, the senior vice president of circulation, we were told  of the historic event scheduled for August 5 when the paper will shrink to a three-days-a-week home delivery with all sorts of “enhancement” to your “week end experience”

Like most newspaper announcements of their in-house plans to serve readers, the boilerplate column left us with many upbeat promises to soften the blow of days without a paper on our door step.  The Wednesday-Friday-Sundaycircuit will be offered as a “premium print experience”   with a Saturday ”bonus edition”. At the same time, we were assured that everything will be better than ever before.

Although the deep thinkers of Advance Publications, the PD’s owner (Read: Newhouse), spent long months figuring out how to combat the onrush of news-by-Net technology, I’m not sure how any of this will work, or can work. After all, you may have seen that a sister paper, the New Orleans Times-Picayune, finally yielded to the outrage of its readers and competition from a new paper in its neighborhood  to give up its three-days-a-week home delivery and return  to its old self.

In that case, the New York Times quoted an ad executive  as saying, ” We are excited about this opportunity to extend our daily reach.”  Opportunity! It’s the sort of excitement that embellished the PD’s announcement, which had already become old news except for a precise date.

The Beacon Journal in recent years always cloaked change (say, switching to morning publication) with bubbly assurances that the paper would be better than ever with hyper-attention to local news.    (You be the judge.)

Tracking the Times-Picayune’s  upheavals, NY Times media columnist David Carr referred to the paper’s out-and-in gyrations as a “jaw-dropping blunder to watch.  Advance misjudged the marketplace – the whole city and state went ballistic when the changes were announced – and failed to execute a modern digital strategy.  Now it is in full retreat with new competition.”

You have to wonder why the strategists didn’t factor in a worst-case scenario down in the Bayou country while some of them were doubtless thinking about their achievement bonuses..

I confess to my own suspicion when bad things are made to sound good.  I  once was  challenged by a mid-range  editor after I complained that news room brass never failed to tell the reader that they were “thrilled” that a new department editor had joined the staff.   With some of these folks,  I simply couldn’t see them being thrilled about anything.

Still, I suspect that the PD front office must be at least temporarily thrilled by making journalistic history in northern Ohio.

Tomorrow, after the subcommittees have completed their work, the full Senate Finance Committee will hear additional testimony on HB 59, the state budget bill.  This could be one of the last opportunities to advocate for the removal of language proposing to change the way federal family planning funds are distributed in Ohio.

Budget bills have long been a popular vehicle for enacting public policy in Ohio.  Because the bills are thousands of pages long (currently at 4,509 pages, HB 59 is approximately a foot and a [...]]]> History of the Diversion of Family Planning Funds in Ohio
by Gary Dougherty

Tomorrow, after the subcommittees have completed their work, the full Senate Finance Committee will hear additional testimony on HB 59, the state budget bill.  This could be one of the last opportunities to advocate for the removal of language proposing to change the way federal family planning funds are distributed in Ohio.

Budget bills have long been a popular vehicle for enacting public policy in Ohio.  Because the bills are thousands of pages long (currently at 4,509 pages, HB 59 is approximately a foot and a half thick!) and contain several hundred provisions, they are often the preferred method of addressing controversial policy initiatives.

Whereas the spotlight is placed squarely on an issue that is considered in a separate, standalone piece of legislation, it is diffused across the scores of issue areas contained in a budget bill.  Language can be “hidden” among other provisions and the effect of testimony can be “diluted” as interests from every corner of the state (and beyond) advocate for or against language that may affect their clients, membership, and the general public.

It should come as no surprise that, of the six most recent attempts to alter the way family planning funds are distributed in Ohio, four have come by way of a budget bill (indicated by an asterisk below).  Two attempts have been successful, one was rebuffed, and HB 59 represents the current attempt.

1)      HB 95* (125^th General Assembly) changed the way that $1.7 million in state family planning funds were distributed, giving priority to local health departments, effectively eliminating Planned Parenthood from qualifying for these limited funds as of January 1, 2004.

2)      The following session, this language was made permanent in HB 530*, the capital reappropriations bill.

The most aggressive attempts to divert federal family planning funds have occurred over the last two years.

3)      On July 13, 2011, HB 298 was introduced by Reps. Kristina Roegner (R-Hudson) and Cliff Rosenberger (R-Clarksville).  This bill sought to change the way that certain federal funds administered by the state, including Title X family planning funds, are distributed.  It would have scrapped the current competitive grant process which ensures that those applicants that can provide high quality family planning services to more people in a more cost-effective manner will score higher and be more likely to be awarded these federal funds.  Competitive – inclusive (meaning anyone providing family services can apply) – cost-effective…sounds like a good way to distribute public funds, right?

Well, HB 298 proposed the establishment of a tiered eligibility structure whereby about 130 public health departments would have the first priority for these funds.  Then, if there was any money left, about 150 federally qualified health centers would be considered.  Then, if there was any money left, several hundred (or more) primary care providers would be next in line.  Finally, after every public health department, every FQHC, and every primary care provider in the state had a chance to apply for funding – and if there was any money left – standalone family planning providers would be eligible.

Whereas the bill sponsors and key supporters, primarily Ohio Right to Life and their allies, acknowledged that the target of this redistribution scheme was Planned Parenthood, it’s worth noting that the proposal would have had the collateral effect of denying other private family planning providers from accessing these funds, notably Family Planning Association of Northeast Ohio (serving Lake, Geauga, and Ashtabula counties), Family Planning Services of Lorain County, and Family Health Services of East Central Ohio (serving Licking Muskingum, Perry, and Fairfield counties).

In other words, this diversion would have ensured that the experts in providing family planning services are placed at the bottom of the eligibility ladder. 

Whereas HB 298 was recommended for passage by the House Health and Aging Committee, it was never brought to the floor of the House for a vote, primarily because former Senate President Tom Niehaus (R-New Richmond) signaled the bill’s demise during last year’s lame duck session.

4)      One week after the introduction of HB 298, Senator Kris Jordan (R-Ostrander) introduced its companion bill, SB 201, with only one co-sponsor (Sen. Peggy Lehner; R-Kettering).

On the ground intelligence from within the Senate Republican leadership indicated that there was little support for defunding legislation in that chamber.  The intelligence proved accurate when SB 201 only received a single obligatory hearing and Sen. Niehaus announced that HB 298 would have been dead on arrival had it been passed by the House.

5)      After HB 298 received two hearings, the Mid-Biennium Review budget bill (HB 487*) was amended to include similar language.  It also proposed to disqualify Planned Parenthood from being eligible to receive funding through Title V, the Violence Against Women Act, the Breast and Cervical Cancer Mortality Prevention Act, the Infertility Prevention Project, and the Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative.

With the help of moderate Republicans on the House Finance and Appropriations Committee, this language was stricken from the bill the following week.

6)      The latest attempt to divert family planning funds from those that have historically demonstrated an ability to deliver the highest quality services to the most people in the most cost-effective manner is the current biennial budget bill, HB 59*.  This bill includes language very similar to HB 298, but also elevates the state’s 30 community action agencies to the second highest of the four-tiered formula.

Of course, HB 59 has been passed by the House and includes the language to change the eligibility mechanism for the distribution of family planning funds.  However, having been term limited, Sen. Niehaus no longer leads the Senate.  Will the new Senate President, the more conservative Sen. Keith Faber (R-Celina), follow the lead of his predecessor or allow the language to remain?

During the nine hearings held last session on legislation designed to change the mechanism for distributing family planning funds, expert testimony recruited from and delivered by physicians, public health providers, community allies of Planned Parenthood, other family planning providers, and advocates from throughout the state effectively made the case against the redistribution scheme.  Only Ohio Right to Life and their supporters argued in favor of the change.

Selected testimony from last session:

• “In our last fiscal year, we provided over 9,000 family planning visits to almost 5,000 women and men in our service area.  For many of our clients, we are the only source of healthcare.

“…dollars likely to be available are not sufficient to start up new clinic services, buy equipment, etc…  In those counties where a (local health department) elects not to apply for funding, services may be lost entirely.” (emphasis added)

Mary Wynne-Peaspanen

Executive Director, Family Planning Association of Northeast Ohio, Inc.

• “I believe that approval of HB 298 would result in a significant decline in the number of patients that could be served; would disrupt patterns of patient care that have long been established; and would result in a decline in the quality, depth and breadth of services currently available. My almost 40 years of experience in public health tell me that HB 298 would be a negative move for the public health of Ohioans.”  (emphasis added)

C. William Keck, MD, MPH, FAMPM

(former Director of the Akron Health Department)

• “We oppose efforts that seek to re-direct federal family planning funds administered through the Ohio Department of Health and the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to prioritized entities and which minimize the role of local family planning providers such as Planned Parenthood. In Summit County, the health district has long and purposefully supported Title X funding of our local Planned Parenthood as the principle and appropriate local provider of trusted family planning services.  (emphasis added)

“In SummitCounty, Planned Parenthood is recognized, accessed, utilized and appreciated by an important at-risk population of low-income women in our community. Efforts to disrupt the successful continuum of safety net services will put many of these women unnecessarily at risk.”

Gene Nixon

Health Commissioner, SummitCounty Public Health

• “In this day of significant economic concern, defunding Planned Parenthood clinics and other popular reproductive health care clinics, does not make sense.  It has been estimated that for every public dollar spent to provide family planning services we save approximately $3 in Medicaid costs for pregnancy-related care and medical care of newborns.  When comparing contraceptive cost to the cost of unintended pregnancy when no contraception was used, a study estimates a savings to the health care system between $9-14,000 per woman over five years of contraceptive use.”

Kimberly Shepherd, MD

• “Currently, among the more than 120 local health departments (LHD) in Ohio, less than 25 percent provide any type of direct care health services. For a variety of reasons, many LHDs in our state have neither the infrastructure nor the capacity to provide direct care health services, focusing instead on important community-based, preventive health programs. These LHDs rely on local agencies as referral resources for uninsured and underinsured individuals seeking direct care health services.  Thus, HB 298’s scheme ignores the current realities of health care needs and capacities for health services within Ohio.”  (emphasis added)

Susan Misner PhD, RN

Let’s hope that the Senate Finance Committee will exhibit the necessary leadership to quash this ideologically-driven proposal and that they benefit from hearing similar expert testimony from the medical community, family planning providers, and allies who can explain why this reprioritization plan is not only unnecessary, but counter-productive.

When asked about the plan, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted’s office told Talking Points Memo that “he is not pushing for the universities to provide students with documentation to help them register to vote.”

“This is not [...]]]> Last month we broke the story of Republicans trying to disenfranchise Ohio college students.  The plan, buried in the Ohio House budget, would penalize Ohio universities that provide proof of residency documents to students who live on campus.   Without such documentation, many students would not be able to comply with voter ID laws and would be forced to vote provisionally.

When asked about the plan, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted’s office told Talking Points Memo that “he is not pushing for the universities to provide students with documentation to help them register to vote.”

“This is not a priority for Secretary Husted,” said a Husted spokesman.

TPM also talked to Professor Dan Tokaji, and election law expert from the Ohio State University, who confirmed that the “only purpose” of this law “is to suppress student voting.”

We contacted former Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner about the issue, and she called Husted’s disregard for student voters “surprising in light of the stated goals to reduce the numbers of provisional ballots with their attendant problems.”

In 2008,  Brunner worked with Board of Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhut and Ohio’s universities to ensure students were receiving the documentation necessary to comply with the voter ID law that was passed in 2006.

“It enfranchised more young voters in 2008,” said Brunner.  ”And helped alleviate the use of provisional voting on college campuses.”

And now Husted wants to turn back the clock and make it more difficult for college students to vote.

During the 2012 presidential election, Husted worked furiously to eliminate weekend and evening voting hours most preferred by Democratic voters while groups like True the Vote adopted voter intimidation tactics aimed at Ohio’s college students.  

Husted was scheduled to appear at the 2012 “True the Vote Summit” along side former SOS Ken Blackwell, whose own voter suppression tactics in the 2004 presidential election earned him over a dozen election related lawsuits.  Husted backed out at the last minute after we revealed the news of his involvement with this voter intimidation organization.

In the 2010 election, Pillich was pitted against Mike Wilson, the head [...]]]> By all accounts, State Representative Connie Pillich should not even be in the legislature right now.   When Governor Strickland appointed then State Representative Jim Raussen to a post at the Ohio Department of Development shortly before the 2008 election (and Raussen accepted), it avoided the 2006 rematch in which Pillich, an Air Force veteran who served in support of both Operation Desert Storm and Desert Shield, narrowly lost.  After the Republicans quickly unified around a replacement candidate, Pillich narrowly carried the district by a little over 5,000 votes.

In the 2010 election, Pillich was pitted against Mike Wilson, the head of the Cincinnati Tea Party.  Despite being the peak of the Tea Party’s influence and an overwhelming pro-Republican turnout tide election, Pillich won re-election by some 600 votes.  Wilson would seek a rematch, and he would get an assist from the Republican majority in the legislature and Governor Kasich in redistricting.

The district was redrawn to make it more favorable for Republicans.  Pillich was a prime target for a Republican takeover of what had already been a Republican district.  Yet, Pillich easily won re-election by roughly eight points.

Today, Connie Pillich announced that she will challenge Josh Mandel for the State Treasurer’s Office.  Mandel, whose public image took a beating in his 2012 Senate campaign, has been to the right of John Kasich on such issues as “right-to-work” laws and expanding Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act.  Connie Pillich has defeated the Tea Party twice before.   Can she score a trifecta?

“I’m running for Treasurer because working families, small business owners, and seniors need someone who will fight for them.  Ohioans deserve a Treasurer who will do the job she was elected to do and will make sure our tax dollars are protected and used wisely,” Pillich said in her press release announcing her candidacy.

“Whether as a captain in the Air Force, a lawyer and owner of a small business, or a representative in the legislature, I’ve dedicated my career to listening to concerns, creating a plan of action, and working hard to deliver real results.  I will continue to do that as Treasurer.

“And frankly, it’s about time we had a real leader in the Treasurer’s office.  Ohio needs someone who actually wants to be Treasurer, someone who will show up to do the job and put qualified people to work with her.

“Ultimately, the challenges Ohioans face aren’t Republican or Democrat, they’re just challenges.  The solutions I’ll work for won’t be tied to one party or another.  As Treasurer, I’ll fight for the best ideas that produce the best results for Ohio’s families and seniors.  I look forward to sharing that vision with voters across the state.”

With Ed FitzGerald and Nina Turner (likely Secretary of State candidate) potentially on the Democratic statewide ticket, Pillich also adds geographical diversity to the ticket in what will be the battleground region that is Cincinnati.  In 2010, one of the strengths Republicans thought Mandel would bring to the ticket was an appeal that could crack the Democratic base in Cuyahoga County.  But Mandel didn’t carry the county against Kevin Boyce.  In fact, Mandel only got 40% of the vote in Cuyahoga County in 2010.  John Kasich, in comparison, got 36% of the vote there. Nor did Mandel do well in his Senate bid in that county against fellow Cuyahoga County resident U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown.   He only got 27% of the vote in his home county.  Mandel has trouble at home.

Because he launched his Senate run shortly after taking office, Josh Mandel has not raised funds for his State Treasurer campaign since taking office two years ago, thus forfeiting one of the most significant advantages of incumbency in a statewide campaign.  Back in January, his Treasurer campaign reported having only $218.92 on hand.  Mandel’s next campaign finance report is not due until July 31st.  After the 2012 general election, Pillich’s State House campaign committee reported a little over $25,000.00 on hand, an amount she can legally transferred to her Treasurer campaign committee.  So as of right now, Pillich has a reported 114:1 cash on hand advantage on her incumbent opponent.  However, that will obviously change when Mandel’s campaign files its semiannual report at the end of July.

The 2014 campaign is already taking shape, and the Ohio Democrats have a proven fighter who can win tough elections that Democrats, on paper, shouldn’t win.

Responsible party government is a government wherein voters know what elected officials are doing, and the results of those policies. For example, let’s say Party A wants to reform the state tax code without losing revenue. They pass [...]]]> We have an uphill battle to get voters to blame Kasich for local government cuts. It’s a risky strategy because it cuts against a number of longstanding cultural biases that Republicans have exploited for a generation. The FitzGerald campaign (and progressives in general) will need radical tactics to create a facsimile of responsible party government in Ohio over the next 18 months.

Responsible party government is a government wherein voters know what elected officials are doing, and the results of those policies. For example, let’s say Party A wants to reform the state tax code without losing revenue. They pass a measure that cuts taxes for rich people and large corporations,  while raising taxes on everybody. They say this will increase employment in the state and make a stable revenue base.

7 years later, they’re proven completely wrong. Employment is no better than it was before, and revenue is lower than projections and fluctuates more wildly than at any point in history. Voters will be able to hold Party A accountable because Ohioans will remember the tax reform and the media will explain that Party A was wrong and it cost you money. Right?

If we want voters to understand that their tax levy is a direct result of Kasich’s policies, the media will not be our ally. Unless they can overcome these 4 tropes, they’ll be our opponent.

1. Local political reporters don’t know what’s in the state budget

Newspapers have a local government reporter, a state government reporter, and maybe a federal government reporter. They live in different cities. They don’t talk, they don’t read each other’s stuff. They’re all more interested in scandals and gossip than they are in policy, because they want enough clicks that they can leave and go to a larger paper.

That’s when we’re lucky. Micropolitan papers are likely to cover only local politics, and run Dispatch or AP stories about state government. The only stories those papers run about Kasich will be about Kasich visiting their town.

Sequester coverage (and sequester results) belies this reality. A story about the local impact of the sequester is going to be written by the federal reporter in Washington, using quotes from Congresspersons, who are Republicans. Those will just bestories about Government Not Doing Anything Right. When stories are written about tangible cuts, they’ll be written by human interest writers who don’t necessarily follow national politics.

2. Government can’t do anything right

Last October, NPR ran a story about Grand Lake St Mary’s based on Dispatch reporting. The lede:
A two-year, $8.5 million state project to stop toxic blue-green algae in Grand Lake St. Marys isn’t working.

Government can’t do anything right! I’m voting for the guy who has the sense to realize that.

Look. Grand Lake St Mary’s is a manmade reservoir that the state turned into a tourism spot, but the water is now full of toxic algae. The algae feeds on phosphorus that comes from fertilizer runoff at local farms. The Lake Restoration Commission is pouring alum into the lake, which will make the phosphorus inedible to the algae. High winds stirred up more phosphorus, so they’ll need to add more alum.

This isn’t controversy, it’s chemistry.

We either need 1) tighter regulation on fertilizer, 2) better inspections of farms, 3) more funding for cleanup, or 4) to not have a Grand Lake St Mary’s. This is a story of “not enough government” that NPR covered as a story of too much government.

Everybody involved in the project is Republican, from the governor to legislators to county commissions to municipal governments. Not that the Dispatch or NPR tells us that.

Sure enough, Mercer and Auglaize counties went 76% for Romney a month later. They reelected their incumbent State Senator–the person directly responsible for fixing this problem–with 85% of the vote. Their senator is Keith Faber.

We need to beat the inertia that allows Republicans to fail at governing but be rewarded electorally for being “realistic about the capabilities of government”.

3. Only federal macroeconomic policy matters

State and local spending dwarfs federal spending. Matt Yglesias had a post the other day about state and local consumption and investment (in blue) versus federal nondefense consumption and investment (in red).

According to the Census Bureau, the federal government spends $108 billion annually in Ohio, of which of which a third is transferred to state and local governments. The state’s spending also includes the Local Government fund, block grants, and school district spending. Per capita spending on a Cincinnati resident looks like this:

A local political reporter is covering more actual governing than a state or federal reporter. It’s their job to expose corruption in the spending of that $7187 (city, county, and school combined), compared to the vast coverage given to the $6439 spent federally. They’re the Fourth Estate, and they should have an inherently adversarial relationship to the elected officials they cover.

Kasich (and Boehner) have figured out that they can exploit that relationship by forcing local governments to make the bad economic decisions, then explain to their adversaries why it isn’t their fault. When the reporter has a career worth of stories about pet projects gone awry, that assumption comes through in the story.

Especially if there’s a local Republican or Tea Partier around to say it.

4. Views Differ on Shape of Earth

Journalism school tells political reporters that if you’re quoting Team D, you also need to quote Team R. At some point in the 80s, conservatives realized that you could just lie to journalists when they call you for the quote. It would be liberal bias if they didn’t reprint your lie without comment!

When I was at Planned Parenthood, I was involved in creating a statement about the Times article saying (for the umpteenth time) that the morning after pill has no effect on a fertilized egg. The Enquirer was writing an article about whether or not it’s an abortifacient, and they couldn’t find a doctor or scientist who would say that it’s an abortifacient. “Because it isn’t,” I said, “if it were an abortifacient it would be the ‘two months after pill’. It’s the hormones that are released when you’re pregnant; if you’re pregnant, you already have those hormones.”

But he still needed an opposing view, so he ran a quote from the Archdiocese saying that birth control causes abortions.

When we blame local government cuts on cuts to the Local Government Fund, newspapers will always run a quote from a local Republican, who will say “we don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem”.

Even when it’s nonsensical–when discussing a city budget that’s 3% smaller than the year before–local reporters will run that statement. It’s just catchy!

——

If we want the impact of these cuts to sink in, we’re going to have to work the refs in an unprecedented manner.

If there’s a story about a tax levy, somebody needs to send a press release with the amount of money Kasich has taken from that government. The genius of the Tea Party is that it took the crazy letter-writers out of the Letters to the Editor and into the actual articles.

I’m serious. We need Google alerts for “tax levy” and “spending cut” for every small newspaper and an automated press release that sends that reporter the amount Kasich has cut from the local budget.

We need the actual figures, too–the reporters aren’t going to look them up. If we don’t pound those figures into the reporter’s subconscious–the way that Republicans have spent 30 years making journalists salivate at the phrase “out of control spending”–then they won’t get printed. And if they don’t get printed, then it’s just competing talking points.

While it’s factual that Kasich cut the LGF, reporters will treat it as ideological whether or not those cuts had any impact on local budgets. This is insane, of course, but it’s the same insanity that conservatives have successfully exploited since Reagan. We shouldn’t expect it to change without massive efforts to change it.

The Steubenville rape trial, the Cincinnati IRS office scandal, the shootings at Sandy Hook, the Cleveland rape victims, the Cleveland police-involved shooting… DeWine’s press team has found a way for DeWine to capitalize on all of these [...]]]> For the first two years of his term as Attorney General, we didn’t hear much from Mike DeWine.   But as the race heats up for the 2014 election cycle, you can’t seem to turn on the TV or open a paper lately without seeing him photobombing any story or event that might get his face or name in front of Ohioans.

The Steubenville rape trial, the Cincinnati IRS office scandal, the shootings at Sandy Hook, the Cleveland rape victims, the Cleveland police-involved shooting… DeWine’s press team has found a way for DeWine to capitalize on all of these events for his own political gain.

Hell, DeWine even got quoted in the Dispatch about a shooting that occured around the corner from me here in Columbus even though he and his office had absolutely no involvement whatsoever.

Today’s Plain Dealer quotes a Cleveland official commenting on DeWine’s press conferences on the Cleveland Police incident: “the most dangerous place in Cleveland was between DeWine and the television cameras.”

DeWine wants you to believe he’s Mr. Law Enforcement.   He’s currently running around the state racking up photos of himself standing next to state troopers, police officers and sheriff’s deputies that he can use in his campaign ads.

But when Ohio’s law enforcement officers really needed DeWine to step up – during the battle over Senate Bill 5 – DeWine refused to denounce the bill that would strip them of their collective bargaining rights.

When Ohio’s police officers and other public employees were rallying against the anti-union provisions in SB5, DeWine supported blocking their access to the Statehouse.

And when Governor John Kasich cut billions of dollars from local governments causing cities and counties to layoff officers around the state, Mike DeWine said nothing.

Unlike DeWine, David Pepper’s stance on both budget cuts and Senate Bill 5 were, and continue to be, highly supportive of law enforcement in Ohio.

Pepper, DeWine’s Democratic opponent for AG in 2014, has recently traveled the state speaking out against John Kasich’s unfair funding cuts to local governments; cuts that have forced cities and counties to lay off public safety workers and raise local taxes to help cover the loss of funds from the state.

In 2011, Pepper appeared around Ohio debating supporters of Senate Bill 5 and debunking their statements on the anti-union bill.

When Ohio’s law enforcement officers needed Mike DeWine most, he let them down.  And no amount of grandstanding is going to chance that fact.

What is going on with the Republican Prosecutors in Southwest Ohio?

Yesterday, we noted that Republican Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters was thinking about pursuing what can only be described as politically motivated prosecutions of voters who cast provisional ballots after submitting absentee ballots.  (Key idea: none of the voters cast more than vote.)

Previously, we brought you the story of Republican Warren County prosecutor David Fornshell, who pursued a politically motivated [...]]]> Lionel Hutz: I’m here defending you on the charges of . . . (looks at sheet) Murder One!? Wow.  Even if I lose I’ll be famous!

Yesterday, we noted that Republican Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters was thinking about pursuing what can only be described as politically motivated prosecutions of voters who cast provisional ballots after submitting absentee ballots.  (Key idea: none of the voters cast more than vote.)

Previously, we brought you the story of Republican Warren County prosecutor David Fornshell, who pursued a politically motivated “investigation” of a school superintendent who criticized Governor Kasich’s school funding plan.  (Key idea: while this “investigation” was going on, Fornshell’s office messed up a rape case before the Grand Jury.)

And, last month, Republican Butler County Prosecutor indicted a groundhog on fraud charges because his prediction didn’t turn out right.   (Key idea:  “I’ll give you a winter prediction: It’s gonna be cold, it’s gonna be grey, and it’s gonna last you for the rest of your life.”)

Which brings us to the IRS scandal.  The FBI has started a criminal investigation of whether IRS employees in Cincinnati broke the law when they targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.  Good.  We hope that this investigation is completed in a timely manner and anyone who broke the law is brought to justice.

If there is a political point to be scored in Southwest Ohio, you can bet that one of our Republican Prosecutors will not be far behind.  The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters wants to conduct his own investigation into whether the Cincinnati IRS violated state civil rights laws.

Why is this nothing but political theater – a waste of time and resources?

The FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office have not said that they need any assistance.  The staff of these offices is composed generally of career law enforcement officers; frankly, there isn’t a lot that state and local officers can add to “help” the investigation.  Mostly, they can just get in the way and leak important information.

Here is the best part: the IRS agents probably can’t be prosecuted under state law.  The Supremacy Clause of the Constitution generally prohibits states from imposing criminal sanctions on federal officials for actions taken in discharge of his federal duties.  This is because if federal employees are subjected to state criminal sanctions for carrying out their federal jobs, the federal government would be unable to function, as any state that did not like federal policy could just pass a law criminalizing enforcement of the policy.  See In re Neale, 135 U.S. 1 (1890); Idaho v. Horiuchi, 253 F.3d 359 (9^th Cir. 2001).

Readers of Plunderbund know that if there is a bad legal opinion going around – especially involving criminal law – Mike DeWine must be involved somehow.  Joseph documented DeWine growing list of legal mistakes in April, and there have been more since then.  At times it seems like a writing a post about a legal mistake that DeWine makes is like Springsteen singing “Born to Run” – we do it every night and it never gets old.

So it comes as no surprise that Deters’ spokesperson said that Deters had “spoken with the [Ohio] Attorney General and if the allegations are true, there are potential state violations.”  That’s right.  DeWine thinks that there are possible state law charges despite the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution and over one hundred years of precedents?  Of course he does!

In one episode, Marge Simpson asks why they keep hiring Lionel Hutz.  We could say the same thing about DeWine and the Republican prosecutors in Southwest Ohio.