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Columbus, OH – Today, the Cleveland.com editorial board pulled no punches, saying Joe Deters was a ‘mistaken choice’ for the Ohio Supreme Court. The editorial board pointed out that Deters has ‘zero judicial experience,’ that Deters enjoys a close, personal relationship with the Republican who appointed him and that there are ‘many conflicts and questions about Deters’ qualifications and past service.’ 

“In light of the many conflicts and questions about Deters’ qualifications and past service, the answer is clear: DeWine should not have named Joe Deters to the Ohio Supreme Court,” writes the Cleveland.com editorial board. 

“The political gamesmanship surrounding Joe Deters appointment to the Ohio Supreme Court is disgusting. Voters deserve answers from Deters, and better yet, deserve a Justice that is focused on fairness and the rule of law, not political backscratching,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes.

The Cleveland.com editorial follows a story from Cincinnati.com last week 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.”

Read more from Cleveland.com HERE and below: 

• In late December, DeWine named someone to the job with zero judicial experience — longtime Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters.
• Equally troubling are the apparent “you-scratch-my-back, I’ll-scratch-yours” ties between Deters and Pat DeWine.
• The Cincinnati Enquirer recently highlighted two key ones: In 2017, Justice DeWine asked Deters to give the justice’s son a paid six-week internship. Deters did. And in 2018, Justice DeWine asked Deters to give his senior staff attorney, Mary Stier, a job as an assistant prosecuting attorney handling appellate work. Deters did so in 2019, shortly before Justice DeWine’s wife filed for divorce, alleging adultery. Stier and Justice DeWine are now in an acknowledged relationship, the Enquirer reports.
• The 2004 scandals that caused Deters to step down from the state treasurer’s office also raise red flags. The scandals, which also featured pay-to-play influence-peddling allegations, also involved Matt Borges, now on trial in Cincinnati on House Bill 6 influence-peddling and corruption charges.
• So why did Gov. DeWine name Joe Deters to the Ohio Supreme Court? Maybe the question should be: Should DeWine have done so?
• In light of the many conflicts and questions about Deters’ qualifications and past service, the answer is clear: DeWine should not have named Joe Deters to the Ohio Supreme Court.

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Columbus, OH – In case you missed it, editorial boards around Ohio this weekend praised Sherrod Brown’s bipartisan Railway Safety Act and the work that Brown is doing to reach across the aisle and get results on rail safety.

“U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has been especially strong on this matter. He hosted a conference call on Wednesday to discuss new railroad safety legislation that he has introduced, along with his junior senator, Republican JD Vance.  The landmark bill is being hailed by labor as one of the biggest changes to the industry in a generation,” writes the Ironton Tribune editorial board. 

Read more from Ohio editorial boards below: 

Toledo Blade: Bipartisan Rail Act wise

• “The catastrophic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, has produced one piece of good news. A bipartisan team of U.S. Senators led by Ohio’s J.D. Vance, a Republican, and Democrat Sherrod Brown have introduced the Railway Safety Act of 2023 as protection against future incidents like the East Palestine accident.”

Ironton Tribune: Working together in crisis 

• “U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has been especially strong on this matter. He hosted a conference call on Wednesday to discuss new railroad safety legislation that he has introduced, along with his junior senator, Republican JD Vance. The landmark bill is being hailed by labor as one of the biggest changes to the industry in a generation.”

Cleveland.com: Brown, Vance Rail Act: Darcy cartoon

• Applaud Senators Sherrod Brown and J.D. Vance of Ohio for engineering the new bipartisan Railway Safety Act, and all those who get on board with it, as President Biden already has…In response to derailments, it’s good to see bipartisan railment. That’s what the founding fathers, mothers and today’s voters deserve.”

Vindicator: Proposed new rail regulations common sense

• “The Railway Safety Act of 2023 may have been inspired by a disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, but the changes could help keep people across the country safer.”

Marietta Times: Railway Act could keep country safer

• “U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and JD Vance, R-Ohio, are cosponsors of an important piece of legislation that would impose both new regulations for the railroad industry and financial consequences for breaking them.” 

Wheeling News Register: Making Nation’s Rail Lines Safer

• “Among the necessary changes included in the act are requirements that all rail carriers with trains carrying hazardous materials — even those that do not fall under existing regulations for high-hazard flammable shipments — must create emergency response plans and provide information and advance notification to the emergency response commissions of each state through which a train will pass…It sounds like a lot of ‘why weren’t we already doing this?’ doesn’t it?”

Vindicator: Orchids and onions

• “ORCHID: To Sen. J.D. Vance, Portman’s Republican successor, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, Ohio’s senior Democrat senator, for vowing to work together cohesively and constructively on legislation to toughen safety standards on all rail cars traversing the U.S. Let’s hope this is just the start of cooperative politics that typifies the civility and bipartisanship Portman’s new center advocates.”

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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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