Ohio Democrats

Donate

Uncategorized

ICYMI: Ohio Capital Journal: Ohio Bar Condemns Ad Attacking Democratic State Supreme Court Nominees

Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, a number of outlets, including the Ohio Capital Journal, are reporting on the Ohio Bar Association asking the Republican State Leadership Committee to take down a misleading ad pointed at the three Democrats running for the Ohio Supreme Court. In its letter, the Ohio Bar Association asserts that the ad: “grossly oversimplif(ies) their (Democrats’) opinions just to score political points” and “serves to erode public trust and confidence in the judiciary.”

The Ohio Democratic Party is calling on the Republican Justices running for Supreme Court to tell the Republican State Leadership Committee to take the ads down immediately. 

“Republican politicians running for Supreme Court are desperate to distract from their terrible records of playing politics with the Court and betraying the people of Ohio. So now their political cronies have taken to running ads that are so misleading, the Ohio Bar Association is weighing in and asking that they be taken down. Republican Justices should condemn these ads immediately and call on their political allies to take these disgusting ads down,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.  

Read more from the Ohio Capital Journal here and below: 

  • The Ohio Bar Association is urging the Republican State Leadership Committee to take down a campaign ad criticizing the three Democratic state supreme court nominees. In a letter signed by campaign advertising committee chair Paul Hervey, they argued the ad “serves to erode public trust and confidence in the judiciary.”
  • “Ads like these perpetuate what we believe to be widespread misperceptions about the role of judges in our system of government,” Hervey said in the Bar’ Association’s letter to the RSLC
  • “While we are all free to disagree with a law or find fault in a judge’s legal reasoning,” he added, “it is misleading and a disservice to voters to grossly oversimplify their opinions just to score political points.”
  • Hervey concluded the letter by calling on them discontinue or revise the ad. While he voiced support for the organization to advocate for its chosen candidates, he urged them “to do so without using misleading terms or rhetoric that further damage public trust in the independence, integrity and impartiality of our judicial system.”
  • In early September, the Bar sent out a press release regarding its clean campaign pledge. The agreement commits candidates to take “personal responsibility” for the content of their ads and statements they or their backers make during the campaign.
  • Brunner, Zayas and Jamison all signed it. Their Republican opponents did not.

###

ICYMI: Cleveland.com & The Plain Dealer Endorse Rep. Emilia Sykes For Congress

Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer Editorial Board just endorsed Rep. Emilia Sykes for Ohio’s 13th Congressional District, saying “Voters in Ohio’s 13th Congressional District should send Emilia Sykes to Congress.” 

Sykes handily earned the endorsement of one of Ohio’s largest newspapers over extremist Madison Gesiotto Gilbert, who wants to ban abortion, refuses to say whether Joe Biden won the election and who bought three different houses just to run for Congress. Gilbert refused to participate in the endorsement interview process after routinely attempting to distort Sykes’ record with racist television ads and after failing to promptly file required financial disclosures in the congressional race. 

  • Listen to the full endorsement interview here 

“Voters in Ohio’s 13th Congressional District should send Emilia Sykes to Congress. Early voting in the Nov. 8 election has begun,” writes the editorial board. 

Read more from the Cleveland.com/Plain Dealer editorial board here and below: 

  • No one can doubt that state Rep. Emilia Sykes is unafraid to roll the political dice. As a minority within a minority within a minority within a minority — an urban Black female Democrat in an Ohio House that is mostly rural, white, male and Republican — Sykes has made the majority sit up and pay attention. In 2018, the Akron native demanded Statehouse security bias training after she and other Black women lawmakers and staff were followed and questioned despite their security badges.

  • Sykes, 36, the former Ohio House minority leader, is term-limited after serving eight years, and has set her sights on Congress in a closely contested U.S. House district that tilts slightly Democratic. Ohio’s revamped 13th District, as redrawn for this election, includes Summit County, northern Stark County and a slice of Portage County.

  • Both candidates are lawyers who grew up in the region. But the race offers voters a stark contrast on a seminal electoral issue: Was the 2020 election stolen? Sykes says no and vowed in the endorsement interview to oppose “election deniers and folks who, quite frankly, don’t want America to continue on as we have enjoyed it for the last couple of hundred years.” Gesiotto Gilbert, when Eaton asked whether the 2020 election was above board, failed to answer the question, diverting to a critique of President Joe Biden.

  • Voters in Ohio’s 13th Congressional District should send Emilia Sykes to Congress. Early voting in the Nov. 8 election has begun.

###

Shannon Watts, Founder of Moms Demand Action, Stands with Chair Walters, Ohio Democrats to Lay Out Stakes of November Election

Cincinnati, OH — Today, Shannon Watts, Founder of Moms Demand Action, stood with Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters, Mayor Aftab Pureval, Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey and Councilmember Greg Landsman, candidate for Ohio’s 1st Congressional District, to lay out the stakes of November’s election. 

“For four years, when given a choice between doing what’s right and doing what’s politically expedient, DeWine caved every time. Ohioans deserve better. They deserve a leader like Nan Whaley and leaders like those joining us here today who will put the interests of Ohioans over their own personal, political interests and never back down from a fight,” said Watts. 

Ohio Republicans have pushed a number of measures that make Ohioans less safe, including:

  • A bill that would put more guns in our classrooms, signed into law by Mike DeWine over objections of Ohio law enforcement, teachers and students.
  • A bill that waives requirements for background checks, licenses or training to carry a gun, which makes Ohio law enforcement officers less safe. 

“Ohio can do better. We can elect Nan Whaley, Greg Landsman and Ohio Democrats up and down the ballot who will look out for us and our loved ones. Who will keep their promises to ‘do something’ to combat gun violence. And who will finally stand up to the gun lobby once and for all,” said Chair Walters. 

“DeWine and his Republican friends in the state legislature are only making our jobs harder. By caving to their gun lobby donors, radical Republicans are making our state less safe,” said Mayor Pureval. 

Ohio Democrats are offering a better way forward: keeping Ohio families safe from gun violence instead of caving to the gun lobby and putting more guns in our schools and on our streets. 

“We deserve leadership that will make our streets safer for all of us – law enforcement officers and the communities we serve. That’s why I’m supporting Nan Whaley, Greg Landsman and Democrats up and down the ticket to put our state back on the right path and make our communities safer,” said Sheriff McGuffey. 

“I couldn’t be more excited to get to work putting Ohio families first next year in Congress, and I know our rest of our candidates feel the same,” said Councilmember Landsman.

###

ICYMI: Frank LaRose and Keith Faber Are Scaring Voters for Their Own Political Gain

Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, Morgan Trau with WEWS-TV in Cleveland investigated the realities of voter fraud amid the bluster and tough-guy acts we’ve seen from Ohio Republicans recently. As Trau reported, “Voter fraud is incredibly rare in Ohio.” Meanwhile, LaRose, Faber and GOP politicians up and down the ballot are using the threat of voter fraud to scare voters and beef up their credentials with MAGA Republicans to pursue their own political ambitions. 

“Voter fraud is incredibly rare in Ohio. Secretary of State Frank LaRose sent 75 allegations of fraud during the 2020 election to law enforcement, which is just .001%. However, when News 5 asked his team how many of these claims have been substantiated, they said they did not know,” reports WEWS-TV’s Morgan Trau. 

Earlier this month, LaRose created a taxpayer-funded solution to a problem that doesn’t exist in Ohio by creating a “Public Integrity Unit” to investigate voter fraud, even though he sent less than 100 alleged cases of voter fraud to law enforcement during the 2020 election. LaRose knows better, but he wants to run for Senate in two years, is scared of the other election denier he’s running against and needs the support of MAGA Republicans. So he’s pulling this political stunt at taxpayer expense. 

Then there’s Keith Faber who recently floated a bizarre conspiracy that boards of election will use “special paper” to print fake ballots and rig elections. Cleveland.com’s Today in Ohio podcast called Faber’s remarks “one of the most shameful things an Ohio politician has done this year.”  

Read more from WEWS-TV here and below: 

  • Despite no evidence of widespread voter fraud, election security has become one of the main talking points for some Ohio Republicans.
  • Voter fraud is incredibly rare in Ohio. Secretary of State Frank LaRose sent 75 allegations of fraud during the 2020 election to law enforcement, which is just .001%. However, when News 5 asked his team how many of these claims have been substantiated, they said they did not know.
  • But creating a Public Integrity Division just reiterates the ‘Big Lie,’ which is the baseless claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, according to Northeast Ohio voter Courtney Flynn. She is a Democrat and helps register people to vote with the Ohio Voter Coalition.
  • “They’re creating these organizations and committees to look into this type of stuff, but the things that they’re seeing are just like made up or just completely exacerbated to make it seem like it’s worse than it,” she added.
  • Flynn trusts Ohio’s election process, and it’s frustrating to hear politicians put forward unsubstantiated claims of widespread voting fraud, she said. “I go into every single election voting knowing that my vote counts,” she said.
  • However, the rhetoric around voter fraud isn’t really meant to benefit security, Flynn said, but rather for candidates who lose their races.
  • “Unfortunately, I feel like this is one tactic that’s used very often to show that if an election turnout doesn’t go the way that [some] want to be, people can fall back on this excuse,” she said.
  • Going into this election with people already having concerns with voter security is defeating, she added. She doesn’t want to have to deal with people contesting elections when they clearly lost, thus ignoring reality.

###

Nearly 200 DeWine-Husted Campaign Donors Rewarded with State Appointments 

Donors Appointed to State Positions Have Given Nearly One Million Dollars to DeWine-Husted Since 2018 Gubernatorial Campaign

Columbus, OH — Mike DeWine, who has long been plagued by questions of pay-to-play misdeeds, has appointed nearly 200 of his campaign donors to various state boards and commissions since his term as governor began in 2019. In total, those donors have given nearly a million dollars to the DeWine-Husted campaign since 2017. It’s the latest example of DeWine looking out for his own political interests and the interests of the wealthy and well-connected instead of doing his job and looking out for the interests of working Ohioans.

  • At least 190 DeWine Husted donors were appointed to various government boards and commissions:
    • DeWine appointees gave a combined total of at least $927,400.42 to Mike DeWine, Jon Husted, and Pat DeWine.
    • The 188 donors gave a collective $825,642.63 to DeWine’s gubernatorial campaign and transition fund.
    • The DeWine family, (Mike & Pat) received a combined $863,013.46 from DeWine appointees.
  • Find a full list of DeWine donors who have been appointed to state boards and commissions HERE. 

Ohioans deserve to know whether these appointments were politically-motivated and if any promises were made by the governor and/or his staff in exchange for political contributions. 

“After dodging questions about rewarding those in his inner circles for years with backroom deals at all levels of government, it appears DeWine has rewarded his campaign donors with cushy state appointments. DeWine has tried to hide the truth for too long, and Ohioans deserve answers about how these appointments came about and whether they were politically motivated,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 

###