So the gender wage gap is a thing, and Gov. Kasich isn’t really concerned

I read this yesterday, apparently, the gender wage gap between men and women under Gov. Kasich is about $10 an hour. The Dayton Daily News found that the average pay gap between men and women in four of five elected statewide officials has grown to almost $10 per hour, while it dropped to under one dollar in the rest of the state. This is compared to the gender wage gap under Gov. Ted Strickland, which was $3.99 per hour.

Gov. Kasich’s office has denied this saying that the newspaper didn’t take into account office staff and policy advisers from other state agencies that Kasich uses. When accounting for this, the gendered wage gap is $5.04 per hour, compared to Gov. Strickland’s $1.28 per hour.

Ohio’s gender wage gap over the past seven years averaged $1.09 per hour, and dropped to 86 cents per hour this year. The article talks a bit about Democratic challenger, Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, which has a gender wage gap within his office of about $7.02 per hour.

So, someone in Ohio has realized that waging war on reproductive choice might not be the best political strategy.

I know, I’m surprised. I’ve begun writing off the state, and the all of a sudden it cleans up well, and I think maybe this time it will be better. Robert Higgs wrote an article for the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Ed FitzGerald’s encouragement of coalition building to fight the abortion restrictions attached to Ohio’s budget that were signed into law by Gov. John Kasich.

Ed FitzGerald is Cuyahoga County Executive and a Democratic challenger to Kasich’s re-election. FitzGerald is calling for Ohioans to take action against the abortion restrictions, which could end up with abortion on the November 2014 ballot. Republicans of course, dismiss him claiming he’s trying to distract voters. The Ohio Republican Party’s Chris Schrimpf said, “I think it’s unsurprising that Ed FitzGerald and the Democrats are trying to take attention off Ohio’s comeback.” Republicans once again reminding us, women and women’s issues are distractions from the real issues. Bastards. Ohio’s Right to Life (of fetuses only) criticized FitzGerald for “playing politics at the expense of victims of rape.”

Fitzgerald argues for a coalition, by initiating a petition, which could force the General Assembly to consider legislation to repeal some of the budget provisions when it convenes in January. If the petition was successful and the Legislature doesn’t act on it then it would open the door for another petition drive to get the issue on the ballot for voters the following November. This would be the same time Ohioans vote on a new governor.

The Plain Dealer a beacon of liberalism, j/k, asked FitzGerald if this would be politically advantageous. FitzGerald answered like a boss, “Look, sometimes good policy is good politics. Sometimes bad policy is bad politics. Do I think it’s good for Gov. Kasich, politically, to insert himself between a woman and the decisions she has to make with her doctor? No. Do I think that’s going to hurt him politically? I do.”

FitzGerald dislikes most of what is in the budget including the provisions with tax cuts for the wealthy, but he thinks we need to be strategic and begin with women. He asserts that Ohioans will find the restrictions on women’s rights the most objectionable. FitzGerald said, “I think they [provisions] could be overturned, and not by a small margin, but the way, but by an enormous margin. I predict you’re going to see polling coming out, especially if any polling is done on this rape crisis issue [preventing rape counselors from discussing abortion as an option for rape victims]—this gag order that is being placed on rape crisis counselors—and I think you’re going to see that the vast majority of Ohio voters, men and women, think that it’s outrageous.”

FitzGerald said his campaign wouldn’t lead the effort, but instead compared the coalition to the 2011 coalition that fought to repeal the state law that overhauled collective bargaining for public workers. FitzGerald defended the Democrats who voted for this legislation, which sucks, saying, “So they [Republicans] basically placed a gun to the heads of the Democrats in the legislature.” Meaning the Dems didn’t have a choice. But that is bullshit.

FitzGerald also urged Kasich to use the line veto on the provision, “At the time I was urging the governor to do the right thing. There were a number of previsions in the budget that were so egregious and so far, I think, outside the mainstream of what voters in Ohio want that is was really incumbent upon him to do the right thing and line-item veto some of those provisions.” But Kasich didn’t. FitzGerald continues, “Now we’re stuck with really, not just one of the most extreme budgets in the history of Ohio, but also one of the most extreme budgets that’s been passed by any legislative bodies in the history of the  country.”

Go Ohio. I’m not optimistic about this whole thing. As the Republicans pointed out women aren’t important, we’re just a distraction. So I don’t know if a coalition will be able to overturn these provisions.

The possibility of John Kasich’s reelection makes me want to punch something

I read the story by Andy Kroll on Mother Jones this morning. As many of you will remember while my anger with the man has a long history, but most Ohioan’s started loathing Kasich through the SB 5 shit show. There was a time when no one thought he could manage reelection with a 35% approval rating, but here we are. Kroll asserts Kasich has been able to do something his Republican colleagues were unable to do, which is repair his image and the voters have warmed to him.

Kroll attributes Kasich’s return to the return of Ohio’s economy, which has arguably improved under Kasich, although, I think there is some credit to spread around, as I wrote about before with the auto industry bailout in combination with Kasich’s attempts. Ohio’s unemployment rate is 7.1% down from 9.0% when Kasich took office. It is lower than the national average and tied for the lowest in the Rust Belt. Ohio’s job growth has lagged behind the rest of the nation, which is also in part because of Kasich and the death of the manufacturing industry.

Of course the economy can’t be the only reason, the University of Akron political scientist, John Greene says Kasich has angered a lot of different groups including unions and labor, but his reluctance to walk party line annoys Republicans. However, Kasich has been able to not annoy all of them at once. For example, Kasich’s new budget included cutting Ohio’s income taxes, but also included a “fracking tax” on oil and gas companies in Ohio. Additionally, he is expanding Medicaid under Obamacare.

Kasich has been working the Medicaid expansion hard. Kroll alleges Kasich sounded more like a Democrat than a Republican in his State of the State speech when he was talking up the expansion. Kasich said, “What are we going to do, leave them out in the street, walk away from them when we have a chance to help them? The program provides a pathway for these individuals to get basic health care from a doctor. I will not accept the fact that the most vulnerable in our state should be ignored. We can help them.”

The House GOP aren’t pleased in response, they gutted Kasich’s budget, eliminating the “fracking tax” and the Medicaid expansion while cutting taxes.

While Kasich’s relationship maybe tentative with Republicans and the conservative base, his relationship with everyday Ohioans has never been better. His March approval rating is up to 53% with a 32% disapproval rating. Some are attributing this to his support for the Medicaid expansion. Kasich’s reelection isn’t a sure thing; he has a challenger in Democrat Ed FitzGerald, former FBI special agent who runs Cuyahoga County (home!). FitzGerald isn’t a life-long politician, and his lack of experience is made up for by his youth and impressive life story. He’s a cutie and was the Mayor of Lakewood; vote for this man.

However, Kasich has to worry about threats from within his party. After all, the Republican control legislature keeps passing ridiculously conservative (and anti-women, people of color, etc.) legislation. For example, the House tried to push Right to Work last week now that was killed by the Senate. However had it gone to Kasich, he would have faced a lose-lose situation. Veto it and alienate his party or sign it and alienate everyone else.  I can assure you he remembers the feelings of pissing everyone else off at once from SB 5.

At the moment Kasich seems to be holding steady. Hopefully, this won’t last. We need to get this guy out of office.