Ohio Politics Simplified

This is the Statehouse that GREED bought.

This is John Kasich
Who reigns in the Statehouse that GREED bought.

This is ALEC
That empowers John Kasich
Who reigns in the Statehouse that GREED bought.

These are the lobbyists
Who represent ALEC
With corporate money
That pays for the Statehouse that GREED bought.

These are the bureaucrats,
United in ALEC,
Close friends with the lobbyists
With corporate money
That pays for the Statehouse that GREED bought.

This is the gerrymander:
Safe districts for bureaucrats,
United in ALEC,
Close friends with the lobbyists
With corporate money
That pays for the Statehouse that GREED bought.

These are the people
Without representation
Who are governed by bureaucrats,
United in ALEC,
Close friends with the lobbyists
With corporate money
That pays for the Statehouse that GREED bought.

These are the activists
Who speak for the people
Without representation
Who are governed by bureaucrats,
United in ALEC,
Close friends with the lobbyists
With corporate money
That pays for the Statehouse that GREED bought.

These are elections
That really are crucial
For ALL of the people
Without representation
Who are governed by bureaucrats
United in ALEC,
Close friends with the lobbyists
With corporate money
That pays for the Statehouse that GREED bought.

Every election:
Extremely important,
So vote to give people
More representation.
Remember John Kasich
And all of the bureaucrats,
United in ALEC,
Close friends with the lobbyists
With corporate money.
Let’s take back the Statehouse that GREED bought!

Think.

The Day the Music Died

A long, long time ago
I can still remember how that music used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And maybe they’d be happy for a while

~American Pie by Don McLean

Dr. Yohuru Williams, an education activist and professor of history at Fairfield University, recently composed a powerful essay, entitled The Day the Music Died. He addressed the Ohio State Board of Education’s quest to eliminate the 5 of 8 minimum school staffing standards, which required that public school districts employ a minimum of 5 educational specialists for every 1,000 students.

Dr. Williams wrote about how Ohio’s governor, in league with his party’s majority in the General Assembly, has been targeting education budgets with deep cuts, precipitating a crisis similar to other states where cuts have forced districts to make impossible choices between hiring nurses, librarians or instructors in the music and the arts.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yohuru-williams/the-day-the-music-died_3_b_6142628.html

Former state school board chair, Debe Terhar, admitted as much when she told the board that better state funding of schools would prevent the furor over the 5 of 8 rule. http://s.cleveland.com/4SBjSTG

Why are our public schools being starved to the point of having to make choices about vital services that students need and deserve? That can be answered with a four letter word: ALEC.  http://www.commondreams.org/views/2011/07/14/alec-exposed-starving-public-schools

ALEC is the acronym for the American Legislative Exchange Council, a clandestine organization of corporate members and lawmakers who believe in privatization of public entities, such as our nation’s public school systems. ALEC has a very powerful legislative impact in states like Ohio, where its members control the Statehouse.  http://www.jointhefuture.org/1326-alec-owns-the-ohio-legislature

ALEC’s education bills can be seen in current Ohio policies that mandate more vouchers, charter school expansion, extensive teacher evaluations, TFA teachers and BRIGHT principals, extra online classrooms, Common Core, additional high stakes testing, and obsessive amounts of data collection. http://www.publicschoolshakedown.org/how-alecs-duplicity-undermines-american-public-education-project

Everyone, especially educators, should take the time to learn about ALEC’s education agenda and how it affects public education in the United States. http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/Privatizing_Public_Education,_Higher_Ed_Policy,_and_Teachers

ALEC uses questionable research and pretentious rhetoric from its think-tanks to impact public perception. To drive its education agenda, it misleads people with nice-sounding words like reform, school choice, accountability, and local control.

The Buckeye Institute is a “think-tank” tied to ALEC and placed in Ohio to influence public opinion. The Buckeye Institute’s research mimics ALEC’s agenda. An analysis of reports by the Buckeye Institute and legislation promoted by ALEC showed a correlation between the two organizations’ agendas on union issues, healthcare reform, public pensions, crime, and education issues.

Another study claimed that ALEC’s policies, such as lowered income taxes, the elimination of estate taxes, and the existence of anti-union right-to-work laws, have no statistically significant impact on growth in jobs, gross domestic product or on per capita or median income.  http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/sites/default/files/docs/pdf/snakeoiltothestates.pdf

In response to that report, the Buckeye Institute’s policy analyst defended ALEC’s influence in Ohio, when he said, “Quite frankly, Ohio only started making the changes ALEC recommended in recent years. It’s a little premature to be making some of these judgments until the policies are fully implemented. We’re only now beginning to see the impact.” http://mediamatters.org/research/2013/12/17/ohio-newspapers-fail-the-alec-disclosure-test/197305

This same Buckeye Institute policy analyst, whose job is to defend and promote ALEC, wrote an op-ed that was published in a major Ohio newspaper the day before the state school board was scheduled to vote about the controversial elimination of the minimum staffing requirements. Not surprisingly, he agreed with sacking the 5 of 8 school staffing standard. http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/contributors/2015/04/12/rule-assumes-columbus-knows-best/25671453/]

He called the 5 of 8:
*a worn-out rule
*a rigid staffing requirement
*a top-down mandate that favors and protects certain classes of employees at the expense of others
*an autocratic and outdated relic of Columbus-knows-best thinking
*the mindset of an education bureaucracy that has forced local officials to spend taxpayer dollars in ways that they would not otherwise choose and for programs and teachers

He concluded his opinion piece by saying, “Revoking the rigid staffing requirements artificially created by the 5 of 8 rule takes a good first step toward reclaiming local control and accountability in the education of our children.”

Unfortunately, the majority of the state BOE members did just that and voted to revoke the 5 of 8 rule in mid-April. No matter what false rhetoric was marketed by ALEC stakeholders, this course of action was not about reclaiming local control and accountability. Those were disingenuous words used to manipulate Ohioans into agreeing with this unreasonable and unnecessary initiative.

Eliminating the 5 of 8 minimum standards will now enable school districts to balance their depleted budgets by cutting licensed educators and contracting with private companies to provide the lost services- a calculated move to encourage privatization.

The change in operating procedures will also compromise the “thorough and efficient education” standard in the Ohio Constitution, which was adopted to protect school children from substandard or non-existent educational programming.

More importantly to education profiteers, it will enable ALEC to expedite its education task force goals of further diminishing teachers’ unions and privatizing public education in our state.

In response to the 5 of 8 controversy, Yohuru Williams penned an appropriate parody of McLean’s original song:

In the three places where the music was first to go
Philadelphia, Detroit and Ohio
They drove the teachers out and left the students low
The day the music died.

On Monday, April 13th, the music died in Ohio public schools- so did art, physical education, library/media services, nursing, guidance, and other important support services.

How sad that our children’s education and health will be at risk- all because of a network of greedy people who continue to put profits before kids.

Think.

Top 10 Ways to Describe ALEC Legislators

To help justify Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s most recent budget, a reporter for the Columbus Dispatch wrote:
Kasich is following an economic philosophy promoted by economists such as Nobel Prize-winner Milton Friedman and Ohio native Arthur Laffer of the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Labels such as “Nobel Prize-winner” and “Ohio native” might fool some readers, but they tell us nothing about the radical mercenary views of Friedman, Laffer, and ALEC, the organization of corporate special interests that helps write laws in Ohio.

The truth is that the governor doesn’t have the intellect nor the motivation to follow an economic policy promoted by anyone who’s not connected to the American Legislative Exchange Council. Kasich follows whatever his ALEC handlers tell him to follow. So do the many ALEC legislators in the Ohio GOP.

ALEC legislators…

10. look for loopholes in state laws to justify ALEC initiatives.

9. use budget cuts to manufacture a problem and then introduce an ALEC bill to fix the problem.

8. give lobbyists and other special interests preferential treatment.

7. justify ideas with “reports” from fake think-tanks and “ALEC scholars.”

6. use double-talk to spin extreme ideologies.

5. demonize unions and those who belong to unions.

4. use the media to spread untruths about political opponents.

3. “copy & paste” ALEC legislation.

2. talk about less government while promoting laws requiring more government.

1. disregard the will of the majority by supporting the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Contact lawmakers who belong to ALEC, and ask them why they put their campaign donors before their constituents.  http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ohio_ALEC_Politicians

Think.

Danger, Will Robinson! ALEC Owns Ohio!

“Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!” is a catchphrase from a popular science fiction television series from the 1960s called “Lost in Space.” The Model B-9 Robot waved its arms wildly and said this to Will Robinson to warn the young boy of a perilous hazard. In today’s culture, one might use the phrase to warn people who seem to be ignoring a menacing threat.

Low voter turnout granted Governor John Kasich and GOP legislators four more years to promote the greedy agenda of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), so Ohio citizens must remain on guard concerning what’s happening at the Statehouse. A component of the Republican strategy has been to introduce so much ALEC legislation at one time that progressive activists are drained physically, emotionally, and financially.

Ohioans must never ignore the menacing threat of an ALEC-controlled legislature and its governor.

Kasich patted himself on the back for getting a drastic state budget passed during his first term at the same time as people were busy working to repeal another extreme initiative- Senate Bill 5.

“I just know the reforms in that budget were dramatic reforms that Ohioans hadn’t seen in probably 100 years. So probably people’s focus was somewhere else. I think there’s only so much energy to go around,” crowed Kasich.

Emboldened by November’s election results across the country, ALEC laid out this legislative blueprint for 2015: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/11/12666/alec-buoyed-election-results-lays-blueprint-2015

ALEC’s 2015 Dirty Dozen:

*Killing regulations of electronic cigarettes

*Protesting global tobacco taxes

*Promoting job-killing trade deals

*Opposing regulation of ride-sharing economy

*Lowering training standards for dental workers

*Rigging claims appeal process to benefit insurers

*Blocking local minimum wage increases

*Promoting local Right-to-Work laws

*Preventing paid sick time for hourly workers

*Depriving low-wage workers of health insurance

*Banning local union organizing

*Pushing more to privatize public schools

Since ALEC owns the Ohio Legislature, as well as Gov. Kasich, be on the lookout for any of these initiatives that are unpopular and unfair to both Democrats and Republicans. Write letters-to-editors voicing concerns, and send them to every newspaper in the state. Continue to contact legislators, even though it appears that they are no longer listening to their constituents. Spread the word about ALEC and its legislation to family, friends, and social media contacts.

Wave your arms wildly and shout to expose ALEC to others.

“Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!”

Think.

ALEC Pushes Privatization in Ohio

The name “John Q. Public” was first used in 1922 by an editorial cartoonist for the Chicago Daily News to represent the general public. Since John R. Kasich and his privatizing party have taken over the Statehouse, has the general public been well represented in the Ohio legislature? NO.

Republican legislators who continue to work alongside corporate lobbyists in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) are not representing the average Ohio constituent, John Q. Public, because they are too busy catering to BIG BUSINESS. Check out this list of Ohio legislators who work hand-in-hand with ALEC: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ohio_ALEC_Politicians

The number one initiative of corporate-backed ALEC is to push the privatization of public functions, such as schools, prisons, and local governments. The Center for Media and Democracy’s publication, ALEC EXPOSED, points out: “Through privatization schemes, taxpayer dollars are diverted from the building of public assets and institutions to create long-term revenue streams for corporations. Privatization has resulted in the loss of public sector jobs that have been crucial to the growth of the middle class and has created a system that favors lower wage jobs and new profit centers for CEOs and investors.”

Ohio’s ALEC “lawmakers” have been actively pushing legislation geared towards school privatization for quite awhile now, with policies concerning vouchers, charter schools, and so-called school choice. Gov. Kasich strategically took control of the Ohio state Board of Education and appointed many advocates of privatization in our public schools. The recent vote by the B.O.E. to eliminate the “5 of 8″ minimum standards for hiring educational specialists was orchestrated so that school districts would balance their budgets by cutting licensed educators and contracting with private companies to provide those lost services.

ALEC member Rep. Andrew Brenner created quite a stir last year when he said that public education in America is “socialism,” and he promoted privatization as a better alternative. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/14/andrew-brenner-education-socialism_n_4961201.html Many people thought this was simply the ranting of a far-right extremist, but public education activists have heard that he isn’t the only legislator who wants Ohio public schools to be controlled by the private sector.

ALEC’s goal for 2015 is to keep pushing to privatize public schools. ALEC’s “Public Charter School Act” is a revamp of a 2007 ALEC bill, and it goes far beyond the predecessor in its attempts to greatly expand school privatization in a state, preempt democratic oversight, and sneak in a parent trigger mechanism. Although ALEC’s agenda does not list the bill’s sponsor, the proposed model closely tracks one promoted by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. http://prwatch.org/news/2014/11/12666/alec-buoyed-election-results-lays-blueprint-2015

John R. Kasich has been tied to ALEC since it was first created in 1973, and he has thoroughly embraced this notion of school privatization in Ohio. According to a recent Youngstown Vindicator article, the state representative-elect from Youngstown said the governor told her he would like to shut down Youngstown City Schools and replace the district with a great charter school. Look for it in the state budget bill from the governor in February. http://dianeravitch.net/2014/11/24/ohio-will-governor-kasich-privatize-youngstown-public-schools/

“There are more privatizations to come,” said John R. Kasich. “We don’t want to leave any money on the table.”

When John Q. Private-ization is finally out of office, there will be no money left on the table for public education in Ohio.

Think.

The Grinch Named ALEC and the Ohio Department of Education

You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch. You really are a heel.
You’re as cuddly as a cactus. You’re as charming as an eel.
Mr. Grinch! You’re a bad banana with a greasy black peel!

You’re a monster, Mr. Grinch. Your heart’s an empty hole.
Your brain is full of spiders. You’ve got garlic in your soul.
Mr. Grinch! I wouldn’t touch you with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole!

The Grinch named ALEC has paid a visit to the Ohio Department of Education to help the state school board steal the guarantee of a quality education from public school children. Under the pretense of giving school districts more freedom to make their own hiring decisions, 14 (out of 19) board members have chosen to ignore over 70,000 citizens’ pleas and do away with minimum staffing requirements for elementary schools. This move will most likely lead cash-strapped districts to eliminate art, music and physical education teachers, as well as nurses, library media specialists, guidance counselors, and social workers.

The Grinch slides down the chimney, a rather tight pinch,
But if Santa can do it, then so can the Grinch.

The kids’ special stockings are hung in a row.
“These specials,” he shouts, “are the next things to go!”

“Art, music, and phys. ed. teachers, and nurses!
Librarians! Counselors! Social workers!” he curses. 

Public schools are replete with expensive “education reform” policies created by for-profit education corporations in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and presented to GOP legislators who belong to the secretive group. The list includes high-stakes testing, vouchers, unaccountable charter schools, and other initiatives that use taxpayer dollars to subsidize ALEC education companies. All of these state-controlled mandates compete for district resources that have already been slashed by drastic budget cuts thanks to ALEC alumnus Governor John Kasich.

The Buckeye state’s public schools have become laboratories for ALEC’s poorly developed educational legislation that time and again puts profits before children. Kids have never been under more developmentally inappropriate and highly stressful policies than what we see in public schools today. Every child deserves a thorough and efficient education that can only come from well-rounded programming that focuses on the whole child. With the elimination of “the 5 of 8 rule,” that ideal may no longer be a reality in a state where many students already suffer because of large opportunity gaps between its public school systems.

As the Grinch takes away equity and then starts to leave,
He feels a small tug at the end of his sleeve.
The child stares at the Grinch saying, “Santy Claus, why,
Why get rid of minimum standards? Why?”

“Why, my sweet little tot,” the fake Santa extols,
“I’m doing this to give districts more local control.
Either they want to have local control or they don’t.
I can’t let them have it both ways. No, I won’t.”

No matter what the Grinch says, this course of action is truly not about giving school districts “more local control.” Those are mindless buzz words meant to manipulate Ohioans into agreeing with an unreasonable and unnecessary initiative. Discontinuing the “5 of 8” minimum standards will entice school districts into balancing their depleted budgets by cutting licensed educators and contracting with private companies to provide those lost services.

The change in operating procedures will compromise the “thorough and efficient education” standard in the Ohio Constitution, which was adopted to protect school children from substandard or non-existent educational programming. More importantly to corporate profiteers, it will also enable the Grinch named ALEC to expedite its education task force goals of diminishing teachers’ unions and privatizing public education.

You’re a foul one, Mr. Grinch. You’re a nasty-wasty skunk.
Your heart is full of unwashed socks. Your soul is full of gunk.
Mr. Grinch! The three words that best describe you are as follows, and I quote, “Stink, stank, stunk!”

Many thanks to State Board of Education members, A.J. Wagner, Mary Rose Oakar, Ann Jacobs, Stephanie Dodd, and Deborah Cain, who calmly confronted the Grinch and voted against the proposed changes in state standards. May they forever be known as true friends of public education.

You too can confront the Grinch at the Ohio Department of Education in April as the state school board takes its final vote to eliminate these school staffing standards. http://education.ohio.gov/Contact

Testimony will be heard on Monday, April 13th, before the BOE votes whether to lessen the roles of art, music and physical education teachers, nurses, media specialists, guidance counselors, and social workers in our public schools.

Our voices matter- see you at the State Board of Education meeting in Columbus, Ohio, on April 13th!

Think.

Ohio Cookie-Cutters

Holiday cookies and happy hearts,
This is how the holiday starts!
~Unknown

It’s the holiday season- that most wonderful time of year when people are busy exchanging recipes and baking lots of festive holiday cookies. Some may find it hard to get into the spirit of the holidays after November’s dismal election results, but it’s time to stir things up. Wouldn’t the season would brighter if Ohioans could convince the state’s Republican legislators to learn how to cook up their own laws without the help of corporate-funded ALEC and its cookie-cutter bills?

The adjective “cookie-cutter” means that something has the same configuration or look as many others of a given kind, and the American Legislative Exchange Council uses the same old recipes for the cookie-cutter laws it rolls out in Republican controlled states all over the USA. According to the Center for Media & Democracy, ALEC is a tax-exempt organization, whose primary function is to produce and disseminate model legislation for introduction in state legislatures, including Ohio. ALEC drafts cookie-cutter bills on conservative issues, but its number one priority is to privatize our public entities for the financial benefit of BIG business.

ALEC favors turning public school administration over to for-profit private companies and encouraging privately-run charter schools that compete with public schools for tax dollars.

ALEC wants to help corporations profit from crime and punishment through privately-run tax-supported prisons.

ALEC seeks to force the privatization of municipal services by starving local governments through budget cuts.

The effects of ALEC-sponsored privatization legislation are clear – we stand to lose control over public services and assets and we risk a weakened democracy. If we continue to allow corporations to take control of and dismantle our public structures, we could see corporate takeovers of our public roads, a significant increase in our prison population, more low-income families that cannot access the health care they need to keep them healthy, corporate-designed school curriculum, and more. (In the Public Interest- Profiting from Public Dollars)

Before this lame-duck session comes out of the oven, the ALEC-controlled Ohio Senate will finish mixing it up to decorate and pass Am. Sub. H.B. 5 as “municipal tax reform,” which will further deplete local government revenue. Read the Oio Legislative Service Commission’s analysis of this law that originally came from ALEC’s State Budget Reform Toolkit:  http://www.lsc.state.oh.us/analyses130/h0005-ph-130.pdf

If Ohioans allow ALEC inspired cookie-cutter bills like H.B. 5 to go unchallenged at the Statehouse, it will imply that they approve of the half-baked agenda of John Kasich and the ALEC/GOP legislature, and that is a recipe for disaster.

Turn up the heat on ALEC “lawmakers.” Tell Ohio senators to stop baking with ALEC cookie-cutters or get out of the kitchen!  http://www.ohiosenate.gov/senate/index

Think.

I’m Not a Crook

On November 17, 1973, President Richard Nixon told 400 Associated Press managing editors that he had not profited from public service. “I have earned every cent. And in all of my years in public life, I have never obstructed justice. People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook.
Well, I’m not a crook,” he declared.
~Library of Congress

Forty-one years ago, President Nixon first uttered that infamous phrase, “I am not a crook.” That was a lie, and Nixon was eventually forced to resign because of his involvement in the Watergate scandal. Unfortunately, the Republican president wasn’t held accountable for his illegal actions, and he was legally excused by his successor, Gerald Ford. This politician with a definite lack of ethics was rewarded with an official pardon, and Richard Nixon was rebranded and respected as an “elder statesman” for the rest of his life.

The study of ethics involves the concepts of right and wrong in human endeavors. As stated on its website, “The Ohio Ethics Commission promotes ethics in public service to strengthen the public’s confidence that government business is conducted with integrity.” This commission that focuses on political ethics was established in 1973, the same year that tricky Dick announced, “I’m not a crook.”

Fast forward to 2014, and Ohioans continue to see the unethical behavior of prominent Republicans. Treasurer Josh Mandel and Congressman Jim Renacci took campaign donations coerced from employees of an Ohio marketing company run by Benjamin Suarez. The donations were part of a pay-to-play scheme to buy favor from the governor- Suarez needed Kasich to send a request to California’s governor to end a lawsuit over false marketing of weight-loss products. Despite Gov. Kasich’s insistence that he was not involved in the Suarez scandal, federal prosecutors revealed last summer that an internal memo proposed that Kasich contact the California Attorney General on Suarez’s behalf, and he followed through on the request.

Kasich’s administration has been touched by many unethical and often illegal deals. From the illegal appointment of the Department of Health director, to the JobsOhio scandal, to the fracking in state parks scandal, to the “freeze” on renewable energy achieved after burying a report that was damaging to his agenda – the governor’s actions keep his administration very busy fielding public records requests.

Low voter turnout assured that the Republican governor won’t be held accountable for his illegal actions, and his re-election rewarded the crook with an unofficial pardon in the form of another four year term.

Why isn’t the Ohio Ethics Commission dealing with this issue to strengthen the public’s confidence that government business is conducted with integrity?

Think.

Understanding John Kasich

Looking back over some recent pre-election posts, I think that I may have been a bit hard on the governor.  While I do not agree with many of the decisions John Kasich made during his first term as Ohio governor, I’m sure he means well. Right?

Mr. Kasich probably means well- even though he used the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and its website to promote the benefits of fracking in our state parks. Kasich once said, “Stewardship of the environment is nothing less than a moral obligation — because God made it and gave it to us to properly manage,” so he must not understand the environmental dangers of hydraulic fracturing.

Mr. Kasich probably means well- even though he supports the idea of stripping away workers’ rights to unionize and collectively bargain.  He’s self-described as “just another kid from an ethnic blue collar, hard-working town,” so he must not realize what anti-worker legislation would do to “his people.”

Mr. Kasich probably means well- even though he constantly uses the hardship that follows his budget cuts as a tool to help people understand the urgency for his extreme initiatives. Kasich often speaks about providing different groups with “tools,” so he must think it makes perfect sense to give himself a powerful tool as well.

Mr. Kasich probably means well- even though he has orchestrated many ALEC initiatives in the last 3+ years, such as voter suppression laws, stand-your-ground, concealed-carry, prison privatization, right-to-work, anti-environmental protection, women’s healthcare choices, drastic local government and public school budget cuts, charter school expansion, and so much more.

Mr. Kasich probably means well- since 27% of Ohio’s eligible voters elected him to another four year term. They must know something about the governor that I don’t know. Right?

So, it could be that I need to rethink what I write from now on and try harder to understand John Kasich. Perhaps I am being too hard on the fellow. Maybe he really means well…

NAH!

Think.

Vote in OHIO

Q:  What’s black and white and red all over?
A:  A newspaper

At the 2012 White House Correspondent’s Dinner, Jimmy Kimmel posed the question in this elementary school riddle and then answered, “Nothing anymore,” in reference to the demise of newspapers. Kimmel’s joke was a sad reminder of bygone days, when everyone looked forward to “reading all about it” and catching up on the news each day in the morning paper.  Not so any more, especially in central Ohio.

The Columbus Dispatch prides itself on being an “unbiased” award-winning newspaper, but its Republican-leaning partisan reports on Ohio politics have contributed to an exodus of readers for several years. Stories that might flatter Democrats are either unreported or under-reported. Stories that favor Republicans are given added significance, especially those involving Governor John Kasich.

The newspaper is headed by John F. Wolfe, whose family has owned the Dispatch since 1905. Wolfe and his wife have contributed well over a hundred thousand dollars since 1997 to Republican political campaigns and candidates, while at the same time their newspaper editorialized and reported on those same public officials, according to a Media Matters search of the “Center for Responsive Politics and National Institute on Money in State Politics” databases.

The main recipient of those donations is Ohio’s Republican governor, John Kasich, who won the governor’s race in 2010 and now faces re-election. By mid-2013, the Wolfe family had donated at least $33,750 to support Kasich’s campaigns and political action committee.  For more information on the Wolfe media monopoly acting as the right arm of the Ohio GOP, check out this investigative report by Media Matters: http://mediamatters.org/mobile/blog/2013/07/08/major-gop-donor-gaining-monopoly-control-over-c/194753

The point is this: DO NOT BELIEVE COLUMBUS DISPATCH STORIES THAT TELL READERS THAT THE GUBERNATORIAL RACE IS ALREADY OVER BEFORE ELECTION DAY. That propaganda has been printed over and over as a tactic to discourage the turnout of progressive voters, in hopes of increasing the GOP candidates’ chances of winning.

DO NOT BELIEVE COLUMBUS DISPATCH STORIES THAT TELL READERS THAT VOTER TURNOUT IS LOW. The Early Voting Center at the Franklin County Board of Elections @ 1700 Morse Road in Columbus, Ohio, had a steady flow of early voters that increased daily as it headed into the final three days of early voting.

Here’s the schedule for Ohio Early Voting on Saturday- Monday:

*Saturday, November 1, from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
*Sunday, November 2, from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
*Monday, November 3, from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

If you don’t vote early, make sure you vote on Election Day, Tuesday November 4th, between the hours of 6:30 am and 7:30 pm. Check out this site that has everything else you need to know: http://ohiodems.org/vote-on-election-day/

If you accept a sample ballot at your voting location, check to make sure it’s the party you support. Last weekend, a Republican judicial candidate hired some people to pass out sample GOP ballots in the parking lot of the Franklin County Early Vote Center. Unfortunately, the paid workers tried to trick voters by telling them the sample ballots listed Democratic candidates.

VOTE- you’ll be glad you did.

#VotingMatters

#VoteBlue2014

#RememberInNovember

Think.