The lineup of statewide Democratic candidates for remains unsettled.

A few weeks ago, the race for U.S. Senate appeared settled with U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan clearing the field. Then Columbus attorney Morgan Harper entered the fray and Ryan became less than a cinch to gain the nomination.

Democrats can hardly ignore Harper. A progressive Black woman, she took on but lost to U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty in the 2020 primary for the Columbus-based Congressional seat.

Convention wisdom would suggest that Harper give that race another whirl in 2022, though its boundaries have not been decided. Its makeup as a safe Black seat could be altered by the Ohio Redistricting Commission, the Ohio Legislature or the Ohio Supreme Court as the remap drama continues in Ohio.

More conventional wisdom would suggest that the thirty-something Harper run for a lesser office such as state representative or city council to build her political portfolio.

Instead Harper chose to run for an even higher office, the U.S. Senate, also known as the world's most exclusive club. Ohioans voting a Black women into the club would make double history.

October 29, 2021, 1:00 PM
OSU’s Bricker Hall (190 N Oval Mall building 001, Columbus, OH 43210)
Just ahead of COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, a coalition of U.S. youth climate advocacy organizations will kick off a campaign to end fossil fuel expansion by 2022 by targeting financers of the fossil fuel industry. Columbus organizers are joining in on a national day of action by calling on The Ohio State University’s President and Board of Trustees to completely divest from all fossil fuel projects immediately and reinvest in renewable energy. A coalition of students and Columbus community members will rally in front of OSU President Johnson’s office to take a stand against Ohio State’s investment in the climate crisis. Ohio Climate Youth for Climate Justice is a youth-led movement organizing radical action to address the climate crisis with the focus and urgency that the issue deserves.

When Joe Biden was declared the winner in the US elections last November, expectations in Ramallah were high. A Biden Administration, compared to the brazenly pro-Israel Trump Administration, would surely be much fairer to Palestinians, was the conventional wisdom at the time. 

This past summer the Ohio Environmental Council (OEC) stated that Issue 7 “is thin on details and short-circuits the city’s ability to mitigate the causes of climate change.” 

“Because the city is already moving toward 100% clean energy, the creation of the funds in the ballot initiative is superfluous at best, and outright thievery at worst,” wrote OEC staff attorney Chris Tavenor in an email. “The initiative’s language calls for the transfer of funds into the hands of a privately held corporation, and it further permits that corporation to receive ‘administrative’ fees for the distribution of subsidies. Simply put, a corporation has placed itself in a position to benefit from taxpayer dollars when the city has already created a program in pursuit of similar goals: Clean Energy Columbus. Columbus does not need a private corporation as a financial third party in the pursuit of energy efficiency, clean energy, and electric affordability.”

A recent Dispatch headline offered this scathing condemnation as well, “Weaselly ‘green energy’ group tries to con Columbus voters out of $87 million.”