KA$ICH’s World Revolves Around ALEC

A mark, a yen, a buck, or a pound,

A buck or a pound, a buck or a pound

Is all that makes the world go around,

Can make the world go ’round.

Money makes the world go around,

The world go around, the world go around

Money makes the world go around.

It makes the world go ’round.

~Cabaret, 1966 

Ohio media outlets regularly publicize the enormous amount of campaign dollars John Ka$ich has compared to his challenger Ed FitzGerald. News stories are being written as if the gubernatorial race is already over, since FitzGerald probably cannot come up with the funds needed to compete with the magnitude of money being funneled into the governor’s re-election campaign.

Does having more money than his opponent really make John Ka$ich a better candidate for governor?

FitzGerald campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt said it’s not realistic to expect him to have raised the same amount of money as Ka$ich. “There’s no doubt that Ed is different from any candidate who has run for governor in the last couple of cycles. He certainly does not have the connections that John Ka$ich has, but that is also what makes him an appealing candidate, as someone who is going to be able to work for the middle class and make Ohio work for everybody, not just the wealthy and well-connected,” Hitt said.

The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling opened the floodgates for corporations to directly spend unlimited money in politics, which allowed “Super PACs” to spend millions on campaign ads benefiting Republican candidates like Governor Ka$ich. The Ohio governor is an American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) alumnus who has solicited campaign money from all over the country, including the Republican Governors Association (RGA.)

In 2010, the RGA spent more than $11 million on TV ads and mailers to help elect Ka$ich, and judging by its political attack ads launched against FitzGerald, it appears that the RGA is actively protecting its investment in 2014. The RGA’s primary mission, according to its website, “is to help elect Republicans to governorships throughout the nation, but we are also dedicated to providing our governors with the resources to help them govern effectively.”  

Might “providing governors with resources” come in the form of a corporate-friendly ALEC agenda accompanied by its model legislation?

According to Common Cause, Ka$ich received multiple campaign contributions from corporations belonging to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in 2010- not counting all of the contributions from the RGA. ALEC supporters also donated to the RGA, such as the $1 million chunk of change that came directly from David Koch. It would appear that Gov. Ka$ich’s re-election is heavily supported by the Koch brothers, since Koch money is the RGA’s top source for contributions. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Republican_Governors_Association

Money definitely makes John Ka$ich’s world go ‘round, but can Ohioans really afford to spend another four years with a governor whose world revolves around ALEC?

Vote for Ed FitzGerald, the candidate whose world revolves around making Ohio work for everybody, not just the wealthy and well-connected.

Remember in November.

Think.

ALEC Governor Speaks for the Rich

John Kasich?  He’s sort of a man.
Describe him?  That’s hard… I don’t know if I can.
He’s shortish.  And oldish.
And brownish.  And mossy.
And he speaks with a voice
that is sharpish and bossy.
“People!” he said to Ohioans with a twitch,
“I am the governor.  I speak for the rich.
I speak for the rich, for the rich fund campaigns.
You people would get that, if you just used your brains.”
~Parody of Dr. Seuss’s “The Lorax”

One of the most important problems facing our nation today is income inequality, and it appears to be on the rise in Ohio due to tax policies from the American Legislative Exchange Council.  http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/Taxes_and_Budgets  It came as no surprise when Ohio Governor John Kasich followed the ALEC agenda by moving the state from a progressive tax policy to a regressive consumption tax.  The changes resulted in tax savings for the wealthy, who he calls “job-creators,” and tax increases for lower-income Ohioans. 

Unfortunately, the “job-creators” kept the money for themselves. Ohio now ranks 40^th in job creation, according to the non-partisan W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State.  http://legacy.wpcarey.asu.edu/bluechip/jobgrowth/jgu_states.cfm  Kasich originally campaigned for governor on the promise that Ohio would lead the country in creating new jobs, yet the state still has over 149,300 jobs to regain to return to its pre-recession levels. 

Guess what, John.  NO job = NO income.

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit research group in Washington, D.C., was commissioned by Policy Matters Ohio to conduct an analysis of Ohio’s tax policy changes, and the major changes in Ohio tax laws over the past nine years have favored the richest Ohioans while costing the state $3 billion a year. The wealthy have seen significant tax cuts, averaging $20,000 a year, while the bottom three-fifths of Ohio earners as a group are paying more. In effect, lower-income Ohioans are helping to pay for tax cuts for others in the state who earn much more.  http://www.policymattersohio.org/tax-shift aug2014?utm_source=Tax_Shift_Aug_18_2014&utm_campaign=Senate+Tax+5-27-2014&utm_medium=email

Ohio Gov. John Kasich does not represent the average Ohioan, because the average Ohioan cannot possibly give him what he wants and needs- large political donations to help ensure his rise to the top.

Can the average Ohioan survive another four years with ALEC’s pay-to-play governor?  

He speaks for the rich, for the rich fund campaigns. We people would get that, if we just used our brains.

Remember in November.

Think.

Ohio’s ALEC Governor Tries Stirring Up Hornets

This time of year, hornet nests are becoming large enough in Ohio to be formidable. Hornets (Dolichovespula maculata) practice an unusually devastating stinging behavior. Rather than landing and stinging, the hornets fly full speed at the source of their irritation, and just before they reach their targets, they tuck their abdomens under their bodies so their stingers are pointing forward. They literally drive their stingers into their hapless victims. 

~Buckeye Yard & Garden onLine, OSU Extension Office

Ouch. Throughout history, hornets have become well- known for the pain they inflict; thus the insect is remembered with such idioms as “mad as a hornet” or “stirring up a hornets’ nest.” When people use the phrase, “stirring up a hornet’s nest,” they’re talking about creating controversy. If one stirs up a real hornet’s nest, the unfortunate person will meet a swarm of angry insects. Figuratively stirring up a hornet’s nest is supposed to cause a lot of opposition from a lot of angry people.

“Stirring up a hornet’s nest” is a strategic tool used by the American Legislative Exchange Council via the GOP. ALEC members spew well-rehearsed talking points about abortion, religion, immigration, voter fraud, guns, welfare, you name it, because they’ve been taught that emotional issues will attract people with strong beliefs. Republicans don’t talk much about what our country actually needs, like good jobs with good benefits, but they do pontificate about issues that are sure to stir up their base of voters- people who vote with their hearts more than their minds. 

One needs to look no further than ALEC puppet John Kasich to see this strategy played out. The governor faces a viable opponent, Ed FitzGerald, whose top priority is to help make Ohio a place where hard work and responsibility pay off for everyone- not just the privileged few. It’s quite obvious that Kasich’s top priority has been to pass laws that benefit the privileged few who can donate large sums of money to his campaign.

Rather than articulate thoughtful and logical plans for making sure Ohio works for everyone, he allows members of his re-election campaign to vilify his opponent with lies, innuendo, and other smear tactics. Unfortunately for them, the most serious offense they could trump up pales in comparison to what John Kasich has done to Ohioans in his quest to fulfill the ALEC agenda: https://thinkuniteblue.wordpress.com/2014/05/11/remember-the-fourth-of-november/

Frank Luntz, Republican Party strategist, preaches, “80 percent of our life is emotion, and only 20 percent is intellect. I can change how you think, but how you feel is something deeper and stronger, and it’s something that’s inside you. We know emotion has changed history; we know it has changed behavior; we know that it can start a war or stop it. We know that words and emotion together are the most powerful force known to mankind.”

Ohio’s ALEC-controlled GOP and Gov. John Kasich continue to use that powerful combination of words and emotion, rather than ethical thought and logic, to try to convince voters not to support Ed FitzGerald. The problem for them is that damaging rhetoric might get people “stirred up,” but in this very important off-year election, the majority of Ohioans will remember John Kasich’s failed policies and vote with their minds more than their hearts. 

Remember in November.

Vote for Ed FitzGerald for Ohio governor.

Think.

ALEC Drives Ohio Governor in Wrong Direction

We’re going to move at the speed of business, not the speed of bureaucracy. I have 1 speed. I have 1 gear. Go! I dare you to keep up with me. 

~Twitter Parody @ https://twitter.com/GovernorKasich 

Although that particular tweet is from a fake account, John Kasich often uses the phrase about “moving at the speed of business.” What is it with Kasich and his folksy transportation lines? Whenever he gets the opportunity, the ALEC alumnus belittles the auto industry’s place in Ohio’s recovering economy, and he’s done his best to wreck the public’s opinion of the Ohio Turnpike. For some reason, the governor’s ego continues to be fueled by vehicular analogies.

Along with his recurring line about “moving at the speed of business,” he foolishly angered many constituents in 2010, when he said that people needed to accept his initiatives by getting aboard a hypothetical bus.  “If you’re not on the bus, we’ll run over you with the bus,” Kasich said.

“And I’m not kidding,” he said.

He tried to put the brakes on that negative perception in 2011 when he said, “We are not going to run over people.  It is just not in our nature.” In 2012 Johnny piously stated, “You can never run over people who a lot of people run over. You know why? It might be an angel you’re running over.”

I’m not making these gems up- Kasich’s speeches are the gifts that keep on giving! Notice that the closer he gets to his November 4th destination, the more he puts that analogy in reverse.

Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols recently accelerated his efforts to back up his boss amid reports of yet another illegal appointment to take the wheel of a state cabinet. Governor Kasich named Richard Hodges to be the director of the Ohio Department of Health, although Hodges isn’t a doctor and his lack of public health experience violates Ohio law.

Everybody knows about the governor’s fondness for 4-wheeled transportation, so it was no surprise to learn that Richard Hodges is currently the director of the Ohio Turnpike Commission. Maybe Johnny thinks that Hodges can steer the Department of Health in a direction that will drive the algae blooms out of Ohio’s lakes and streams and propel the toxins out of the drinking water.

If only we could travel back to that time before John Kasich became governor when he said, “If you think that I’m going in the wrong direction, stop me.  I don’t want to drive over a cliff.  I just want to be a good governor.”

Most Ohioans do think that John Kasich has been going in the wrong direction with a virtual traffic jam of ALEC legislation, but since his party now controls the Ohio House and Senate, he’s not driven to care what we think anymore.

In November, voters must remember to move at the speed of business to drive home a way to stop Ohio’s ALEC-controlled governor and route his exit from politics once and for all.

Think.