Ohio Dems Given the ok to Mobilize against the Gerrymandering

So you may remember, Ohio Republicans are trying to gerrymander and force Democrats out of office.  However, Ohio's Supreme Court has ruled to allow Democrats to move forward with a petition to stop the Republican congressional redistricting plan that has thrown the 2012 congressional elections into chaos.  So, candidates for Congress may have to wait and when they should file and if the districts they plan to run in will exist.

So at this point we're not sure, but the candidates will file petitions to run for office by the Dec 7th deadline for districts that may not exists by the planned March 6th primary.  Or they could be forced to run in a statewide primary election for Ohio's 16 U.S. House seats.  This could mean that the top 16 Republicans face the top 16 Democrats in the November 2012 election.  Or this could mean the candidates could run in vastly different districts than they expect to, provided the Republicans and Democrats work out a solution. If the March 6th date holds, the primary would be held on Super Tuesday, when the presidential primaries take place.  However, if the primary is pushed back till May, the filing deadline could be pushed back and the primary could lose some significance (particularly in the national GOP race).  The head of the petition effort, Chris Redfern, Ohio Democratic Party chairman, must collect 231,147 valid voter signatures to get the GOP congressional redistricting plan on the November 2012 ballot.  If he does, it would force an election where candidates for Congress in a statewide race next year and that the Ohio primary might be pushed back to May or June.  He's planning on collecting them on November 2, 2011, you know when everyone turns out to vote against Issue 2.

If no agreement is reached, it could mean a federal court could draw up Ohio's congressional map.  Republicans would not be happy about this.

Ohio House Speaker William Batchelder, R-Medina, said:

“warned the public that the Democrats’ plan was to stymie the General Assembly’s constitutional duty to pass a congressional redistricting plan, and ultimately have a map imposed on Ohio by unelected federal judges, who may be judges from Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee.”

The decision came out of the Ohio Supreme Court (7-0) said the referendum petition from the group called Ohioans for Fair Districts plan to submit a challenge to the GOP redistricting plan by putting it on the November 2012 ballot.  Of course some are arguing that the bill creating the new congressional districts isn't subject to referendum because Republicans wrote into the law a $2.5 million appropriation for local boards of elections, and referendums aren't allowed on appropriation bills under Ohio law.  Ohio's Supreme court (6 Republicans and 1 Democrat) disagreed.

The last time Ohio congressional district mapping was on the ballot was 1915, when Democrats forced a vote and Ohio voters rejected the Republican map (fingers crossed for a repeat).  Republicans are naturally defending their plan, and Batchelder are calling the Ohio Supreme Court decision "the first step into judicial interference in this process." You know the same lame argument whenever they are trying to screw us...not like union busting.  Batchelder went on to call the map, "fair and legal" or as Fox News would call it "fair and balanced."  The ruling actually doesn't say the map is unconstitutional, but instead that the appropriations inserted into the bill doesn't meet the criteria to shield it from a referendum effort.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine (R) issued a brief saying:

the 16 Ohio congressional districts must be finalized by Dec. 7, in order to “ensure proper administration of the March 2012 congressional primary.” 

Clearly, the man is delusional.  So for those of you who hoped that after Issue 2 was over this pissing contest between Dems and Republicans would be over too bad, sucker.  The reality is it will more than likely get worse the closer we get to elections because Republicans are going to make a grab to hold onto power.  I just wish that the politicians remember who are actually getting screwed here: it isn't those of who might lose their district, but really the workers, their families, and those being systematically disenfranchised.

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201110151320/NEWS01/110160322

Ohio Issue 2

Oh, it warms my heart to see people in Ohio organizing against Issue 2.

On Friday, Governor Kasich attempted to host a meeting with union leaders to compromise on Issue 2/Senate Bill 5. The union leaders were to be represented by We are Ohio, but they refused to meet with Kasich. We are Ohio said they would not meet with Kasich, but apparently, Kasich didn't believe them.

The press waited for 30 minutes before they decided to head back to the office. There are some amazing pictures out there of the table with the name tags and no one sitting. [Image above:Kasich sadness taken from EntertainmentCleveland.com]. Kasich said he was disappointed that no union representatives were willing to meet with him, because he was willing to negotiate.

We are Ohio said:

"Today workers representing We Are Ohio and our 1.3 million supporters continued their call on Governor Kasich, Senate President Niehaus and Speaker Batchelder to repeal all of Senate Bill 5, the unfair and unsafe bill that hurts us all. We Are Ohio called on these leaders to first repeal all of Senate Bill 5 to ensure a fresh start to the process."

Building a Better Ohio (the anti-workers' group) of course came out with this gem:

"Despite the rhetoric, Ohio's government union bosses have consistently demonstrated their unwillingness to be part of a meaningful solution. Their political allies failed to offer a single amendment to the bill. They walked away from efforts to open a dialogue earlier this summer. Now, they've arrogantly refused, once again, to even have a conversation about the possibility of resolving this debate outside of a bitter, costly ballot fight."

If Issue 2 is defeated this November then it completely overturns Senate Bill 5 and protect workers' rights. At this point we don't know if Kasich will try to have another meeting with union representatives, but We are Ohio are standing firm. They are taking it to the polls.

Linkage:

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/political/ohio-union-reps-are-a-no-show-for-meeting-with-gov.-kasich

http://weareohio.com/

http://betterohio.org/ (on the front page, there is a flash player show with a white teach teaching an interracial class, with a banner saying "How Issue 2 is keeping the best teachers." I'm going to vomit.)

Cleveland: Vote No on Issue 2!

As mentioned earlier the Ohio Senate Bill 5 referendum has become Issue 2. It came on Wednesday that to repeal Ohio SB 5, you must vote no. This is important because Ohio has a little bit of a history of difficult language to confuse voters, think back to Issue 1 back in 2004, where Ohio outlawed single parent adopts to prevent gays from becoming parents.

The Ohio Ballot Board decided to go with logic: yes to keep the law and no to repeal it.

Secretary of State Jon Husted said he felt like both sides leave the meeting feeling like they have a fair shot at making their case to voters.

"There is enough controversy surrounding these issues and we didn't need this one (the ballot language) to be part of it," he said.

Issue 2 or a New Post to Save Cari's Career...

Not really though, but wrap your mind about people letting this woman teach. Who knows the subversive horrors she'll instill in the minds of the youth? I mean a feminist, pro-gay, anti-poverty message. The damage to be done. However, I concede that my last post had an argumentative title.

But actually, this is about Ohio SB 5, which has now been christened Issue 2. It's all shiny and new again. The referendum on the anti-union/workers' rights essentially cutting their rights to collective bargaining leaving everyone of the mercy of companies in an at will state. (I've spent several weeks in Cleveland this month working on research for my thesis on women returning to work and public assistance, which another post all together.)

Issue 2 falls between two other hefty bills, well at least one. Issue 1: changing the mandatory retirement age for judges (yeah not really as sexy as worker and health care, but hey why not). Issue 3: will nullify Ohio participation in the federal health care reform.

These will all be Yes/No on the ballot, but we don't know yet how they'll be worded. What we do know is that the language will be confusing on the last two of these three. Ohio Ballot Board will be meeting next week to decide on the language.

The meeting will be open to the publics:

The gathering is set for 10 a.m. in the Finan Finance Hearing Room of the Senate Building, the annex connected to the east side of the Statehouse. The meeting is open to the public and will also be streamed live online at www.ohiochannel.org.

The whole article can be found here: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/07/28/sb-5-referendum-will-be-issue-2-on-november-ballot.html?sid=101