Politics

The race for a vacant congressional seat in northeast Ohio was a fierce battle between status quo politics and calls for social transformation. In the end, when votes were counted Tuesday night, transactional business-as-usual had won by almost 6 percent. But the victory of a corporate Democrat over a progressive firebrand did nothing to resolve the wide and deep disparity of visions at the Democratic Party’s base nationwide.

One of the candidates -- Shontel Brown, the victor -- sounded much like Hillary Clinton, who endorsed her two months ago. Meanwhile, Nina Turner dwelled on the kind of themes we always hear from Bernie Sanders, whose 2020 presidential campaign she served as a national co-chair. And while Brown trumpeted her lockstep loyalty to Joe Biden, her progressive opponent was advocating remedies for vast income inequality and the dominance of inordinate wealth over the political system. Often, during the last days of the campaign, I heard Turner refer to structural injustices of what she called “class and caste.”

Former Columbus City Council candidate and longtime critic of the city’s tax abatement policies declared a victory for the tens of thousands of people in Columbus who have been fed up with being burdened with paying higher property taxes due to the never-ending corporate welfare that is given out to nearly every local luxury real estate developer,  big business, and large corporations in Columbus. After Mr. Motil’s objection at a City Council Public Hearing on July 8,2021 to the expansion of the AC Humko Community Reinvestment Area (CRA), City Council Housing Committee Chairwoman Shayla Favor also expressed her concerns on the expansion. The ordinance to modify the AC Humko expansion was tabled at the July 12, 2021 City Council meeting and then tabled indefinitely at last nights Columbus City Council meeting.

Ohio is a “Red State Rising.” A Republican super majority has run the state government for over a decade and Trump won Ohio, defeating Biden by a greater margin than Clinton, which makes any progressive or Democrat shake their head in disbelief.

Have years of GOP-led “legalized” voter suppression marginalized Ohio Democrat lawmakers to the point there’s no foreseeable future where they have leadership? The Free Press’ Bob Fitrakis has been reporting on GOP voter suppression for two decades. Ohio’s GOP passed these laws to ostensibly combat the boogey-men committing (so-called) voter fraud, which has proven to be myth.

As other GOP-led states seek to rewrite election law, here comes Ohio House Bill 294. Ohio’s “Election Security and Modernization Act.” Does the word “Security” suggest some unnamed power tried to steal Trump’s win in Ohio? And surprise, surprise, several co-sponsors are hardcore Trumpers, such as freshman state Rep. Mike Loychik who introduced a bill to name a state park after the former president.

Ohio is a “Red State Rising.” A Republican super majority has run the state government for over a decade and Trump won Ohio, defeating Biden by a greater margin than Clinton, which makes any progressive or Democrat shake their head in disbelief.

Have years of GOP-led “legalized” voter suppressionmarginalized Ohio Democrat lawmakers to the point there’s no foreseeable future where they have leadership? The Free Press’ Bob Fitrakis has been reporting on GOP voter suppression for two decades. Ohio’s GOP passed these laws to ostensibly combat the boogey-men committing (so-called) voter fraud, which has proven to be myth.

As other GOP-led states seek to rewrite election law, here comes Ohio House Bill 294. Ohio’s “Election Security and Modernization Act.” Does the word “Security” suggest some unnamed power tried to steal Trump’s win in Ohio? And surprise, surprise, several co-sponsors are hardcore Trumpers, such as freshman state Rep. Mike Loychik who introduced a bill to name a state park after the former president.

Letters were delivered to nine county prosecuting attorneys and the Ohio Attorney General’s Office demanding investigations be opened involving public safety related to water supplies.

On Friday, June 18 at 11:00 a.m, Ohio Community Rights Network (OHCRN) members delivered requests calling for a criminal investigation to be opened by the Attorney General (AG) and county prosecutors across the state. The Ohio AG is the chief law enforcement officer in the state and Ohio’s county prosecuting attorneys are “ministers of justice and the voice for victims at the county level. As ministers of justice, prosecuting attorneys play an integral role in our public safety.” 

OHCRN and residents throughout the state have evidence of the State of Ohio and businesses violating the law and endangering public safety. 

About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund

Today, Innovation Ohio (IO), Ohio's progressive politics and policy hub, announced their official endorsement of two bipartisan bills to reform Ohio's cash bail system: HB 315 and SB 182.

A lawsuit seeking a temporary suspension of Columbus’ one-year petitioning time limit due to the pandemic was dismissed by the U.S. District Court for Southern Ohio on April 14, 2021.  The lawsuit was filed in June 2020 by our group, Columbus Community Bill of Rights (CCBOR), arguing that the city’s time limit during the COVID-19 pandemic was unconstitutional and placed a severe burden on ballot access for our initiative, which sought to ban harms from the fracking industry within Columbus and its watershed area.

When Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley announced she would be a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Ohio governor, the contest apparently ended.

Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley, who said he would announce his candidacy this summer, need not bother. Find another race, brother. The fix is in.

You see, the Ohio Democratic Party tends to nominate people for governor and senator whose turn it is to run, rather than who is the best candidate.

In fact, the only Democrat to win the governorship and then win re-election in more than 60 years was none other than Dick Celeste, who defeated favorite Billy Brown and upstart Jerry Springer in the primary in 1982.

Democrats Mike DiSalle  in 1962, Jack Gilligan  in 1974 and Ted Strickland in 2010 lost their re-election bids in part because they were weak candidates in the first place.

One has to go all the way back to Frank Lausche to find another Democrat who won a second term. Lausche won a second 2-year term in 1950 and third one 1952.

Cincinnati, OH:Plaintiffs from seven Ohio counties, representing Rights of Nature laws and other measures protecting local democracy from corporate special interests, filed an appeal to the Sixth Circuit in a federal civil rights case against the State of Ohio. Oral arguments will be presented tomorrow, April 20.

This follows the filing of briefsagainst the plaintiffs by American Petroleum Institute, Ohio Chamber of Commerce and Ohio Oil and Gas Association.

Oral arguments are scheduled for Tuesday April 20, 1:30 pm EST and can be listened to here: https://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/live-arguments

We have barely survived the most serious crisis to face American democracy since the Civil War. This nation “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal” was faced with a coup attempt that would have plunged us into autocracy. “Government of the people, by the people, for the people” could very well have perished from the earth, and the question as to whether “that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure” would have been answered in the negative.

Republican politicians took advantage of the ignorance of American voters as to how elections work in American democracy. They duped millions of citizens into believing the big lie that the presidential election was stolen by Joe Biden. The sanctity of the electoral process lies at the heart of American democracy. It is sacrosanct. It must be held inviolate. To attempt to overthrow an election through fraud, is therefore, an unforgivable sin and a crime against the people.