Innovation Ohio

What you need to know about Ohio Politics and Policy

National Election Trend Coming to Ohio?

Currently, if a presidential candidate wins a state’s popular vote the winner also receives all of the state’s Electoral College votes.  The only exceptions to this rule are Nebraska and Maine. However, after losing two presidential elections in a row, Republican lawmakers across the nation are attempting to change this in their respective states. In several Republican-controlled legislatures in states that supported President Barack Obama there are legislative initiatives to award their state’s Electoral College votes based on congressional district.  This plan takes advantage of the fact that the GOP has successfully gerrymandered districts in key blue states. A recent analysis by the Center for American Progress shows that had this election rigging plan been in place in 2012, Mitt Romney would be in the White House, despite Obama capturing the popular vote. Ohio is ripe for this type of effort. Republicans control the governor’s office and both houses of the Ohio General Assembly. Due to this control – and the way Ohio reapportions state and federal legislative districts every ten years – for the second decade in a row Ohio’s General Assembly and congressional districts have been drawn along hyper-partisan lines. While Ohioans voted to elect Obama in the last election and statewide voting totals for Democratic candidates exceeded GOP totals, Ohio’s congressional seats are split roughly 75/25 in favor of the GOP and statehouse seats are no better. The idea to change Electoral College rules in the states is gaining momentum. Earlier this month Reince Priebus, Chairman of the RNC, voiced support.  Legislation to divide electoral votes has been introduced in Michigan and Virginia.  In Virginia this legislation has been voted out of committee. Pennsylvania Senate Republican Leader Pileggi has renewed efforts to pass such legislation in his state. Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin has said it is an “interesting idea.” This fall, shortly after the election, Secretary of State Jon Husted suggested that he supports the idea of splitting the Electoral College votes in Ohio.  Will John Husted bring this alarming national trend to Ohio? Husted said:
“You’re never going to fix the elections process in Ohio as long as we are the most important swing state in the country…. The way that you could minimize that is that you could fix redistricting so that we had fair Congressional districts and then you could apportion all of our electoral votes according to Congressional district so that it wouldn’t be a winner take all state. And if you did that you would take the importance of Ohio out of this and all of those elections problems would go away”
While he later backtracked and said this was just a comment, not a proposal, it may just be a matter of time before similar legislation finds its way to Ohio. As for fair congressional districts in Ohio, we know what the GOP really thinks of that idea. In the lame duck session of the last General Assembly there was a brief bipartisan effort to work on a more fair way to redistrict after every decennial census. There were two major roadblocks: House Speaker Bill Batchelder (a Republican) and general Republican refusal to consider any bill that would take effect before the next U.S. Census – in 2020.

Insider: Congressional Republicans think they can do this for “the next decade”

Redistricting woes not just an Ohio problem

Stan Collender is a Roll Call columnist and longtime Washington insider in the public and private sector. In a blog post, Collender tells us this about GOP threats to hold America hostage via the debt ceiling:
But it would be wrong to dismiss it out of hand. From the conversations I’ve had with Republicans House members and staff since the 2012 election, the threats, are real and make a great deal of political sense no matter how obnoxious and damaging it otherwise would be. The key is the new House GOP politics of this decade. I’ve repeatedly been told that, with redistricting in place, House Republicans are relatively certain they’ll be able to maintain the majority at least through the end of this decade if they continue to appeal to the GOP base in their congressional districts.
[Read more…]

Ohio women faced slew of negative bills in last Ohio General Assembly – The next one doesn’t look much different

The Joke Was on Ohio's Women: Ohio House Speaker Bill Batchelder (R) in 2011.
The Joke Was on Ohio’s Women: Ohio House Speaker Bill Batchelder (R) in 2011.
The 130th Ohio General Assembly will be sworn into office in the coming days, with only 17 new House members and 2 new Senate members, we can look back to the 129th General Assembly for an idea of how women’s issues will fare in the 130th General Assembly. In the 129th General Assembly, a total of 15 anti-woman bills or resolutions were introduced and just over 60% received a vote in either the Senate or the House. Six of these unfavorable bills were enacted.  This resulted in further restrictions on abortions and abortion coverage. A total of 26 bills or resolutions that were favorable towards women were introduced. However many of these bills never saw more than one hearing and only 15% of these bills were voted on. A bill was 4 times as likely to receive a hearing if it was unfavorable to women. Only three of the favorable bills were passed and two – SB 199 for Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day and SCR 15 Folic Acid Awareness Day – simply designated awareness days and made no major policy changes. Due to November’s election results – and the new gerrymandered House and Senate district maps, we can expect this same trend in the 130th General Assembly. The 129th General Assembly took on a few high profile fights as the house voted on and passed HB 125, the Heartbeat Bill, which would have left Ohio with the most restrictive abortion restrictions in the country.  The Senate ultimately didn’t vote on this bill and it was not enacted. House Speaker Bill Batchelder (R) has said that there is no question that this bill will again be introduced in the 130th General Assembly.
Ohio Right to Life's Michael Gonidakis, picked by Gov. John Kasich to serve on state medical board.
Ohio Right to Life’s Michael Gonidakis, picked by Gov. John Kasich to serve on state medical board.
HB 298, which attempted to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood, was introduced early in the House and revived following the 2012 election. Several hearings were held and the committee ultimately voted the bill out of committee,  11-9. The measure did not receive a vote on the house floor. This too could be revived in the next general assembly. The Kasich administration demonstrated support for most of the anti-woman bills and has no problem touting his pro-life credentials. Two of Kasich’s three consumer appointments to the Ohio Medical Board have been board members of Ohio Right to Life. Michael Gonidakis, the Executive Director of Ohio Right to Life, was Kasich’s most recent appointment to the Ohio State Medical Board. As Kasich moves into his second term and faces reelection, we expect him to make more extreme appointments to Ohio boards. Ohio Women’s Watch will continue to monitor legislation and policy decisions that impact women as we move into the 130th General Assembly and the Biennial Budget.

Increased transparency shouldn’t mean more undisclosed perks for legislators

Tom Niehaus accepting a gift, presumably worth less than $25, from e-school lobbyists.
Outgoing Senate President, Tom Niehaus, has introduced legislation that would overhaul the laws governing the ethical behavior of public officials. The law has not seen major changes since the mid-1990s. In sponsor testimony, Niehaus explained that his bill would make the state’s ethics laws “simpler” and “more transparent.” While the bill takes a few positive steps toward transparency, in many important ways, it actually reduces transparency. In its favor, the bill proposes to put all required disclosure forms online. This will make it easier for the public and news media to research sources of income, gifts and other benefits received by those who hold — or seek to hold — public office. But the bill actually limits transparency about the many perks showered on state legislators by lobbyists. Currently, legislators are prohibited from accepting gifts worth more than $75 from lobbyists and must report anything over $25. Niehaus’ proposal would permit legislators to take up to $250 in meals or gifts from lobbyists, with the first $100 of that undisclosed. Increasing the amount of free stuff a legislator can take from a lobbyist isn’t transparency. Not long ago, former Governor Bob Taft and members of his staff were charged with failing to report $90 golf games and $150 dinners paid for by people with business before the state. Under these new rules, the reporting requirement would go away. We fail to see a compelling public policy reason to increase the amount of undisclosed gifts and meals a lawmaker can accept from lobbyists. If there is one, it certainly isn’t about simplicity or transparency.

Why Raising Taxes on the Wealthiest Americans Is Not Class Warfare

Click for Full Size
A common throw away line from conservatives in the fiscal cliff debate is that progressives or Democrats are “waging class warfare.” The trash is truly where that line belongs. The fact is that aside from a few years during the Clinton era in Washington, the economic game has been more than rigged for special interests and corporations at the expense of working Americans. There are many facts to illustrate this, here are just two:
  • Corporate profits in the U.S. have recently hit an all-time high. This comes just after the worst recession since the Great Depression and in the midst of several years’ worth of sluggish growth for the overall economy. Even with the last three U.S. recessions, corporate profit margins have been in a fantastic uptrend since the early 1980s.
  • Wages in the U.S. are at a historic low as a percentage of the overall economy. Wages in the U.S. have been on a downtrend since 1970. Compared to the parabolic rise in corporate profits since the end of the Great Recession, wages have continued to slide.
[Read more…]

Two big problems with Ohio Senate GOP anti-immigrant bill

Yesterday, I told you about SB 323 a bill that is a solution in search of a problem. Today, let’s talk about why it isn’t even a very good solution. To recap: The bill is sponsored by Sen. Bill Seitz a Cincinnati-area Republican. It would prohibit undocumented workers from receiving worker’s compensation benefits. There are two huge problems with this aside from what was discussed earlier. First, the bill imposes a huge new regulatory burden on the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, by requiring BWC to make a determination on each applicant’s immigration status.  BWC would  have to make the kinds of immigration status determinations that are often aggressively litigated up and down the federal court system for months or years. It will have to do so without any additional funding or training because the bill provides no additional resources to BWC. Second, the bill makes it harder for workers to get compensation when they are injured on the job. Under the bill, as part of the process of proving their eligibility for workers’ compensation, all injured workers will have to include what is essentially an affidavit that they are authorized to work in the United States. This new burden will be imposed on all applicants, but the administrator of the BWC can also request additional proof from some of them if he or she believes that the affidavit is not valid. Now, let’s be honest about who this is going to impact – after all, how many white, English-speaking applicants with European-sounding names are likely to have their legal right to work in the U.S. questioned? One man who was actually testifying in favor of the bill inadvertently illustrated the problem with the proposed system when he admitted that it would “open up the [BWC] administrator to charges of racism.” Yesterday we documented that Seitz himself can’t even show that there is a need for this legislation. That fact along with these two (perhaps) unintended consequences ought to be enough evidence that this lame duck bill needs to be put out of its misery.  

IO joins others to form Ohio Action Coalition

Ohio Action to deploy people, resources to support tax fairness in fiscal cliff debate

A new progressive organization called “The Ohio Action Coalition” was launched at a Columbus news conference today. Coalition members are a diverse group of organizations and individuals who believe that tax fairness must be the starting point for any deficit reduction deal that is struck between Congress and the President for the purpose of avoiding the so-called “fiscal cliff” looming at the end of this year. The Coalition is comprised of former Obama for America campaign workers, grass roots activists, organized labor, and a host of progressive organizations, including Innovation Ohio, America Votes-Ohio, Protect Your Care and the Small Business Majority. Joanne Pickrell will serve as State Director, and Innovation Ohio’s Dale Butland will be Communications Director.
Sara Valentine, OSU student is working on the university’s campus on behalf of Ohio Action.
Specifically, the Coalition will urge Ohio’s Congressional delegation to raise revenue by ending the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans, while extending those cuts to the 98% who earn $250,000 per year or less. To make their case, Coalition members plan to hold public events around the state, write letters to the editor and newspaper opinion columns, and use television, radio, and social media. The goal is both to influence members of Congress and to educate the public on what is at stake. Activities will commence tomorrow with three public events in Columbus, Cincinnati and Cleveland. Other events will follow in every corner of Ohio until an acceptable agreement is reached in Washington. Said State Director Joanne Pickrell: “President Obama has made it clear that he wants a balanced approach to deficit reduction and will not accept any deal that places a disproportionate share of the burden on middle class families and lower income individuals. First and foremost, that means more revenue must be raised from increasing tax rates on millionaires, billionaires, and other wealthy Americans. We fully agree with the President, and will do everything we can to convince our congressional delegation that Ohioans want, need and expect a fair deal.” Added Communications Director Dale Butland: “In the November election, no issue was more defining than taxes. President Obama explicitly campaigned on raising tax rates for the wealthiest 2% of taxpayers —while Mitt Romney clearly opposed the idea. Not only did a majority of voters side with the President by re-electing him, but exit polls on Election Day – as well as every major poll over the past two years – have shown that nearly 60% of Ohioans favor higher tax rates for the wealthy as part of a deficit reduction deal. We expect our congressional representatives to hear and heed the will of the people.”  

Stay informed about key issues and bills.

Sign Up

We monitor Ohio politicians to help you hold them accountable.