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Columbus, OH – If you’re a Republican thinking about running for Senate in Ohio, watch your back, because the knives are officially out. After Republican Bernie Moreno wrote a whole op-ed for the Columbus Dispatch attacking Matt Dolan, he took to the airwaves this weekend to go after Dolan and Frank LaRose, saying the GOP primary was going to be full of “career politicians” and members of the “political class.” Meanwhile, Dolan’s chief strategist went after LaRose on Twitter during his CPAC speech, accusing him of “paling (sic) around with election deniers and conspiracy theorists.”

“It looks like the third installment of Knives Out is already playing in Ohio, and not even Benoit Blanc could untangle the mess that is the GOP Senate primary. It’s a mystery why these Republicans continue to talk about anything other than the issues working Ohioans care about, but there’s no surprise ending here: the Republican nominee will be badly bruised coming out of this nasty primary,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 

• Read Moreno’s op-ed attacking Dolan: HERE

• Listen to Moreno’s remarks on Dolan and LaRose: HERE

• Find Dolan’s chief strategist’s tweet: HERE

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Columbus, OH – In case you missed it, Gannett’s Ohio Politics Explained Podcast, a weekly news and politics podcast hosted by reporter Anna Staver, featured Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters this week. Chair Walters discussed a number of topics, including the Larry Householder trail, the education power grab by statehouse Republicans, making Ohio’s tax system more fair and the one month anniversary of the East Palestine train derailment. 

“Our hearts go out to the residents of East Palestine and all of Columbiana County. No one should have to wonder if their drinking water is safe, if their farms are gonna be sustainable, if their schools are safe to go back to, and I think one of the things we’re seeing in this moment is just how much Ohioans care about their neighbors and how much we’ve really tried to rally around the folks in that community no matter what our party identification is. 

“Just yesterday, Senator Brown introduced a bipartisan bill that included Senator Vance that would help to make sure that tragedies like this don’t happen again. And more importantly that Norfolk Southern is held accountable,” said Chair Walters on the podcast. 

Listen to the full podcast here and read more below: 

On the Larry Householder trial: 

• “I know the investigation to this point has really focused in on Larry Householder and Matt Borges. But as the trial played out, the other thing that was really illuminating for me was just how many big name Republicans across the state entered into the mix through this trial, whether it was, you know, Frank LaRose or Dave Yost. Everyone somehow intersected with this investigation, and I think, in addition to what I hope will be justice for the perpetrators of this essentially a huge act of theft against Ohio utility ratepayers, also a really illuminating point for voters to consider is most of these elected officials are gonna be asking for new jobs from them in 2024.”

On a fairer tax system for working Ohioans: 

• “The bigger issue here is that the state legislature has continued to gut support for cities and state government fund support of local cities. And these are funds that support critical services like police officers, like firefighters, like road repair and our libraries. And ultimately those cuts went to provide further tax breaks and refunds to millionaires and billionaires, not to working folks and not to support those services we all rely on.”

On the education power grab by statehouse Republicans: 

• I think that ultimately, at the end of the day, if we want parents to be involved in in school decisions, as they should be – which is what we think – that these decisions about schools and about school boards belong to parents, teachers, and local leaders, then we have to respect parents’ decisions, and they made their choices clear in the voting booth when they selected these members of the state school board. They are not involved in selecting the bureaucrat that they’re trying to move this decision making to. And so I think if we’re gonna be true to the, to the will of parents, we have to respect the choices they make in the voting booth to elect state school board members. And this flies in the face of that.” 

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Columbus, OH – In case you missed it, Matt Dolan isn’t getting away with trying to “no comment” his way away from Donald Trump. After repeatedly refusing to answer questions about the former president, Dolan continues to take flack from within his own party. After slamming Dolan on a WTVN radio interview last week, fellow Republican Bernie Moreno today penned an op-ed for the Columbus Dispatch clearly going after Dolan for refusing to back the former president. 

“There are some Republican candidates running for office, who dislike Trump and will not commit to supporting him if he wins the GOP nomination. Failing to unambiguously commit to the GOP nominee, should be disqualifying for any Republican candidate,” writes Moreno. 

Moreno goes on to to take a pot shot at Dolan for trying to deceive Ohio voters: “Some people wish Trump’s words were more polished, but the difference between every other politician and Trump is that he gives us full and honest access to all his thoughts — which is preferable to the deception most politicians engage in publicly.

Moreno’s op-ed follows his remarks to WTVN’s Mark Blazor show saying Dolan is “running in the wrong primary.”

“Matt Dolan’s campaign is only a month old, and he’s already facing blistering attacks from his own party for being phony and dishonest with Ohio voters. If Ohioans can’t trust Dolan to answer basic questions on the campaign trail, how can they trust him to stand up and deliver for our state when things get tough?” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 

Dolan continues to come under fire by Republicans after he repeatedly was asked about the former president and his campaign during an interview with CBS News. Dolan refused to answer the question, letting his campaign signs do the talking for him instead. 

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Columbus, OH – In case you missed it, Cincinnati.com’s Scott Wartman late yesterday published a deep dive on newly-appointed Ohio Supreme Court Justice Joe Deters that highlighted his lack of experience and the politics behind the decision. One constitutional law expert in the story even remarked: “Of course, there’s politics going on here.”

“Ohioans deserve Supreme Court Justices who are fair, impartial and unswayed by political pressure. It’s the latest example of Republican backscratching that puts political relationships over the needs of working families,” said Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters for the Cincinnati.com story.

The politics behind Deters’ appointment will have real consequences for working families, on issues ranging from abortion to redistricting. That same law expert remarked: “I always expected Gov. DeWine would appoint someone who was less likely than Chief Justice O’Connor to be skeptical of the Republican maps.”

Read more from Cincinnati.com here and below: 

• Joe Deters didn’t take the usual route to the Ohio Supreme Court.

• When Deters took the oath Jan. 7, he was the first Ohio Supreme Court justice in 30 years to join the court without prior experience as a judge.

• Deters’ path to the Supreme Court has raised questions about how he got there and what it will mean for the direction of the state’s highest court.

• “This is the point where there’s the old line in Casablanca, ‘I’m shocked, shocked that gambling is going on,” said Jonathan Entin, a constitutional law expert at Case Western Reserve University. “Of course, there’s politics going on here. That’s inevitable.

• Top Democrats, however, have raised concerns about DeWine choosing “his buddy Joe Deters” for a pivotal court seat, even though he had no judicial experience.

• “Ohioans deserve Supreme Court Justices who are fair, impartial and unswayed by political pressure,” said Elizabeth Walters, Ohio Democratic Party chair. “It’s the latest example of Republican backscratching that puts political relationships over the needs of working families.” 

• Deters has politically supported Gov. DeWine and his son, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Pat DeWine. Deters’ campaign committee since 2012 has contributed $8,763.55 to Mike DeWine’s campaigns and $4,500 to Pat DeWine’s justice campaign since 2012.

• Then, in January 2019, Deters hired Justice DeWine’s senior staff attorney, Mary Stier, as an assistant prosecutor in the appellate division.

• Stier and Justice DeWine are currently in a relationship, the justice confirmed via a statement in an email to The Enquirer.

• “I want you to interview her immediately,” Deters wrote in a one-line email Oct. 2, 2018, to one of the chief assistant prosecutors, Ronald Springman. Deters forwarded Stier’s cover letter.

• While it’s not known how Deters will vote, experts said they expected whoever DeWine would appoint would be more likely to side with Republicans.

• “I always expected Gov. DeWine would appoint someone who was less likely than Chief Justice O’Connor to be skeptical of the Republican maps.”

• When asked his position on specific issues, he often responded that he would enforce the law.

• For instance, on abortion, Deters told The Enquirer shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade that he would prosecute any violations of an abortion ban.

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Columbus, OH – Matt Dolan, who tried to create an entire personality around opposing Donald Trump in his last failed bid for Senate, is once again in the hot seat with his fellow Republicans as he waffles on his support of Donald Trump. Dolan has repeatedly refused to say whether or not he’ll support the former president since announcing his Senate bid earlier this year. And yesterday, when speaking on WTVN’s Mark Blazor show, Ohio Republican Bernie Moreno took Dolan to task for it, saying pointedly, “he’s running in the wrong primary.”

“The gloves are off in the GOP Senate primary cagematch, and Matt Dolan is already taking blows. As Dolan dodges questions on the former president, his fellow Republicans are already questioning his conservative credentials. These attacks are only a small preview of the nasty primary that Ohioans will have to endure for the next year and change. While Republicans run their race to the bottom, Sherrod Brown will be busy delivering results for Ohio’s working families,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes. 

Read more of what Moreno’s comments below: 

• HOST: “So Matt Dolan isn’t that conservative? 

• MORENO: “No, No, he’s running in the wrong primary.”  

• HOST: “Sorry I had to get that one in there Bernie because I know you feel, keep going I apologize.” 

• MORENO: “Well it’s just very, very frustrating because you see statements already being made. ‘Hey listen, if President Trump is the nominee, will you support him?’ That, that’s not a question. That’s an unequivocal ‘anybody would be better than President Trump.’ Your daughter, I’ve met her. Dramatically better. Dramatically better than Biden, right? If she won the nomination, I would campaign for her, OK? So that’s not a tough question.”

• HOST: “What do you make of that, I mean how does someone claim to be a Republican take that position regarding the party’s POTUS nominee. I mean, he essentially said ‘I would have to take a look at it. If he focuses on the past, I’d have to take a hard look at that.’ Is that what you heard him say?”

• MORENO: “It’s a result of listening to the media, corporate media mob idea that ‘Trump bad, Trump bad.’ And you think that all of the sudden you can be one of the cool kids if you join that bashing and you say Republicans are backwards-looking and conspiracy theorists and extremists. Those lines are all attack ads for the left and when we as Republicans and conservatives adopt the left-wing talking points we’ve lost the war, we’ve lost the battle, we should just give up. And it’s just so stupid.”

Dolan has come under fire by Republicans after he repeatedly was asked about the former president and his campaign during an interview with CBS News. Dolan refused to answer the question, letting his campaign signs do the talking for him instead. 

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